It’s gotta be tough to be an actor or an actress and make those tough decisions that can either catapult your career to new heights or make you fade into oblivion…
And it goes both ways for Hollywood folks all the time!
Let’s hear from AskReddit users about performers who left TV shows and movies and were never popular again.
Get started now!
Bond, James Bond.
“George Lazenby has to be the top answer.
Dude with zero acting experience lands the role of James Bond after Sean Connery, and was offered a multi-film deal to be Bond for the foreseeable future.
Then, his agent just totally misguides him, telling him both that “it’s the summer of love and nobody is going to keep wanting to see spy movies about k**ling people,” but also that since he’d already appeared in a film, he could ask for whatever he wanted and they couldn’t turn him down.
They brought Connery back for a film instead and Lazenby’s acting career basically ended on the spot.”
Ouch.
“Chuck Woolery left WHEEL OF FORTUNE only to see PAT SAJAK host it for over 40 years.
And Pat Sajak only works like 4 days every 2 months.
What a dream job.”
Done with this.
“Crystal Reed from Teen Wolf.
She was so certain she was done she had them k**l off her character only for her career to flop outside of Teen Wolf and ~10 years later would come back and have them revive her character for the movie.”
Blew it.
“My ex girlfriend was on a soap but as a regular extra. They were starting to give her speaking roles, got her SAG card, etc.
Once she got her SAG, she demanded more speaking roles or she was leaving. She never got another role after that.”
Quittin’ time.
“Brian Dunkelman was co-host of Season 1 of American Idol with Seacrest, and then quit.
Over the years it has toggled back and forth between whether or not he would have been fired anyway, but in at least one interview he admitted to quitting and then almost becoming s**cidal over it.”
Wore out his welcome.
“Marcus Chong was “Tank” in The Matrix. Main character in a HUGE franchise.
He had all of these big ideas about how the movie should be done and how his character should progress. That’s fine, but he wouldn’t stop pushing them on the directors and producers. When it came time to make Matrix 2 he was not invited back.
Dude could have literally just shut up, been cool and thankful, and made huge bank and a bigger career.”
Oops.
“Katie Holmes took a pass on The Dark Knight to go be in a movie called Mad Money… and like you, I haven’t seen it either.”
A step down.
“Jessica Brown Findlay was one of the first people I thought of.
She’s done a few things since she left, but none of them seem bigger to me than Downton Abbey did.”
Huh…
“Ed Skrein left Game of Thrones as Daario Naharis thinking that if he starred in the reboot of The Transporter it would spawn sequels.”
Big time.
“David Caruso leaving NYPD Blue.
And Shelley Long leaving Cheers are good examples.”
A mistake.
“Late to the party but Stuart Townsend was the original casting for Aragorn in the LOTR movies, but during preproduction and rehearsals he refused to practice things like swordplay, horse riding, action choreography etc, always responding “You’ll get it on the day”
Peter Jackson decided he couldn’t work with him, Viggo is brought in literally on the first day of shooting and the rest is history.”
Not a good look.
“Remember when Kathrine Heigl was nominated for an Emmy, and she withdrew herself from the nominees because she felt the writing hadn’t been good enough?
I feel like her career never recovered from that. She also went on to say she didn’t like the film Knocked Up which she starred in. I think talking s**t about projects your involved in is a really good way to burn your bridges.”
Now we want to hear from you.
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