20 actors who were given chances to be A-list movie stars, but failed

After rising to prominence on “Friday Night Lights,” the year 2012 may not have been the Mayan apocalypse, but it was the end of Kitsch’s chance at movie stardom. We can even eschew the banal “Battleship” film. This is all about “John Carter.” No movie has ever lost more money than “John Carter” by most assessments. Kitsch was John Carter. When that movie tanked, so did his movie career.

We already mentioned both Aniston and Kudrow, so let’s round out the distaff cast of “Friends” with Cox. Yes, there are the “Scream” movies, but not once has Cox been the foremost face of those movies. She’s a piece of a puzzle in an ensemble horror series. Beyond that, she’s been in movies like “The Runner” and “3000 Miles to Graceland.” “Friends” ended in 2004, and by 2009 Cox was starring in “Cougar Town.” She retreated to the world of sitcoms within half a decade.

Hedlund was good in his small role in “Inside Llewyn Davis.” That was also true of Adam Driver, but the key difference is Driver was on his way up, while Hedlund had already had his moment. He was the lead in “Tron: Legacy.” Did you remember that? Did you even remember “Tron: Legacy?” A third “Tron” movie is coming out in 2025, and it is telling that Hedlund is not in the cast. Even Jeff Bridges is returning again!

Credit where it is due: The fact Biel was able to grab attention from starring in “7th Heaven,” truly one of the worst shows in the history of the medium, is impressive. They even eased her into the movie space by having her star in a remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” When they tried to rev it up, though, we got stuff like “Stealth” and “Next.” She fell into the Garry Marshall holiday ensemble movie space by the 2010s, and by 2017 she was starring in “The Sinner,” a USA drama.

We remember Hunnam from the Judd Apatow sitcom “Undeclared,” but he rose to fame in “Sons of Anarchy.” That’s what got Hollywood thinking “movie star.” He starred in “Pacific Rim,” which was successful enough to have a sequel, but Hunnam did not pop, and that movie was entirely a showcase for the CGI robots and boogens. In “The Lost City of Z” he was overshadowed by Tom Holland. By the time Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie starring Hunnam tanked, that was that. These days, if a movie isn’t a small film, Hunnam is buried into the ensemble.

This one is a bit different, because Silverstone did indeed star in a successful film. “Clueless” is a ‘90s touchstone, and Silverstone will always be remembered for playing Cher. However, she will only be remembered for playing Cher, at least in a positive light. “Batman & Robin” proved poisonous to almost every career involved, and then “Blast from the Past” didn’t pop, either. Silverstone has worked a ton since then, but can you name any of her films in the new millennium? No, that Instagram video of her eating a possibly poisonous fruit she found while wandering around doesn’t count.

You might argue, “Worthington is in the ‘Avatar’ movies!” We grant you that, but can you name his character? How many of you have seen the “Avatar” movies but could not have named the male lead? Besides, the humans in those movies don’t matter. It’s all about Pandora, the Na’vi, and James Cameron’s uncompromising vision. Outside of “Avatar,” here are the attempts at making Worthington a non-CGI alien movie star: “Terminator: Salvation” and “Clash of the Titans.” Look at his filmography outside of “Avatar” over the last 15 years and try to make the claim he panned out as a movie star.

All the eyebrows in the world can’t make you a movie star. “What if we let this model try acting?” usually doesn’t work out, and Delevingne is no different. She fell into the background of “Suicide Squad,” and then there was the disaster that was “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” Delevingne quickly ended up on TV, doing stuff like being one of the famous faces on “Only Murders in the Building” and one of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” seasons. She did play Sally Bowles in the West End in 2024, though, and that’s legit pretty cool.

David Corenswet, be forewarned. Playing Superman does not guarantee a successful film career. Routh was the first significant Superman since Christopher Reeve’s run ended. “Superman Returns” was received in lukewarm fashion, so much so that a sequel was canceled. The DC world has been good to Routh, but not in the way that was expected. He ended up popping up all over The CW’s so-called “Arrowverse,” which was not the vision when he was cast as Superman, one assumes.

Long is one of the most famous examples of a TV star who didn’t pan out as a movie star. She was nominated for playing Diane Chambers on “Cheers” four times before deciding to leave the show to focus on her movie career. While Long had been in a couple movies during her “Cheers” tenure, these are the four films she starred in after leaving the show: “Hello Again,” “Troop Beverly Hills,” “Don’t Tell Her It’s Me,” and “Frozen Assets.” Other than her turn as Carol Brady in the “Brady Bunch” movies, which are better than they have any right to be, Long didn’t achieve much success post-“Cheers.”

We mention Selleck in part because his name has long been attached to one of the great “What ifs?” of Hollywood lore. Selleck was in the mix to be cast as Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but he had signed a deal to shoot the pilot of “Magnum P.I.” and CBS would not let him out of that deal. Now, the idea that the role was etched in stone to be Selleck’s is an overstatement, but there is a strong chance he could have been Indy. While Selleck was in “Three Men and a Baby,” somehow the biggest hit of 1987, that was an ensemble comedy of which Selleck was the least-memorable part of the ensemble. Movies like “Quigley Down Under” and “Mr. Baseball” speak more to Selleck’s film career. We can also point to him being available for a recurring role on “Friends” in the ‘90s.

Rousey’s acting career got KO’ed before it even really got to take off. The MMA fighter tried her hand at acting, getting cast in tertiary roles in the likes of “The Expendables 3” and “Furious 7.” There was a true effort to make Rousey not just an actor, but a movie star. Rousey was attached to star in a remake of “Road House,” but it became pretty clear that, well, Rousey wasn’t much of an actor. Her version of “Road House” got axed, and eventually Jake Gyllenhaal would end up starring in the remake. Rousey hasn’t acted since 2019.

It’s interesting that Ritter, best known for his scenery-chewing work on the goofy sitcom “Three’s Company” did his best film work in the drama “Sling Blade.” Of course, that was in a supporting role, and that was not a big movie. On the film front, the best he did was playing second fiddle to a kid in the “Problem Child” movies. Otherwise, we’re talking movies like “Real Men” and “Skin Deep,” utterly forgotten ‘80s comedies.

For all the success of “Game of Thrones,” it did not make a single movie star. Clarke was one of the standouts among the unknowns in the cast of the HBO show, and she got the biggest bites at the apple on the film front. However, she ended up in the worst “Terminator” movie and the “Star Wars” movie that nixed the idea of standalone films (that would be “Solo”) in that world. After the woeful rom-com “Last Christmas,” Clarke seems to have had her shot, to no avail.

Caruso is often pointed to as the example for actor hubris when it comes to career goals. He had made a splash on the first season of “NYPD Blue,” and after he didn’t get the raise he was looking for he decided to leave the show to try his hand in movies. This was in 1994. In 1995, “Kiss of Death” and “Jade” came out. By 1997, he was back to starring in network television. While that show, “Michael Hayes,” was also a flop, Caruso did eventually land on his feet with “CSI: Miami.”

Schumer was able to make the move from standup to sketch comedy, so it made sense to see if she could work in film as well. “Trainwreck” got a lot of attention, but in the end didn’t prove to be the jumping-off point many anticipated. And yet, that remains the pinnacle of her movie career. “Snatched” and “I Feel Pretty” have been utterly forgotten. Schumer got another chance in 2025 with “Kinda Pregnant,” but did you even know the Netflix movie even exists? If you did, based on the reception you probably didn’t like it.

Lautner technically got his chance at movie stardom before he was done with the series that made him a known name. That would be “Twilight,” of course. Robert Pattinson has become a movie star, and Kristin Stewart is doing interesting work, but Lautner’s career has been different. He got to have his own film in 2011’s “Abduction.” It absolutely tanked. Since then, Lautner has mostly appeared in Adam Sandler-produced movies and a couple small films you’ve probably never heard of.

Alba, who had been acting since she was a kid, first garnered attention as the star of the TV show “Dark Angel.” In 2005 she got the chance to play a role in “Sin City” and, significantly, to play a role in “Fantastic Four.” While “Fantastic Four” got a sequel, those two films have been relegated to the ash heap of history and weren’t really liked at the time. After the 2008 double dose of “The Love Guru” and “The Eye,” Alba’s run as a movie star was over. Other than Robert Rodriguez’s affinity for casting her, she’s done essentially no film work of note.

A young Michael B. Jordan played a key role in “Chronicle,” the found-footage superhero film that proved a surprise hit in 2012, but it was DeHaan who played the ostensible lead. Jordan’s movie career took off with gusto, but DeHaan’s flatlined. He was cast in the significant role of Harry Osborn in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” but that ended up being the last film of that version of Spidey. Then, he was the Valerian in the aforementioned “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Also, we can tie a few things together here. “Chronicle” was directed by Josh Trank, who used that as a jumping-off point to get to direct that second crack at “Fantastic Four” which was even less successful than the first. That effectively ended Trank’s major-motion-picture career.

People are, by and large, too quick to cry “nepotism” just because an actor has famous parents. Jack Quaid, for example, is quite talented. On the other hand, there are the Dakota Johnsons of the world. The daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith is, well, a bad actor. Yes, the “Fifty Shades” movies were successful, but the book series it was being adapted from was the selling point and Johnson could essentially be a living mannequin and have been sufficient for those movies (and she has the acting skills of a living mannequin, so maybe the casting was apt). It does feel like the disaster that was “Madame Web” has slammed on the brakes for Johnson’s career. And if not, well, maybe nepotism is more powerful than we think.