Actors who squandered goodwill with their project decisions

Pratt was the lovable doofus on “Parks and Recreation,” and proved so winning he was kept around as opposed to being written off. In 2014, he had the double whammy of “The Lego Movie” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Then, though, he became the face of the utterly generic “Jurassic World” movies. From there, it became movies like “The Tomorrow War” and shows like “The Terminal List.” Even voice work as Mario and Garfield (in different projects, though we’d love to see that team up) lead to exasperation when it comes to Pratt.

There’s a reason why whenever Sandler does something like “Uncut Gems” or “Jay Kelly” there is buzz, and that’s because people are happy to see him making an effort, and also not making one of his comedy vehicles. Sandler’s comedies have largely been bad for a while, but then things went beyond that. Movies like “Grown Ups” or “The Ridiculous 6” just seemed like excuses for Sandler to hang out with his friends. Also, the less said about the woeful “Happy Gilmore 2” the better.

To Johnson’s credit, he seems to have recognized that he had lost some goodwill, and that also his career had gone awry. He talked about this while promoting “The Smashing Machine,” the first film to tap into his dramatic acting skills in a while. Though Johnson is making another “Jumanji” sequel, that franchise hasn’t burnt out yet. It’s more stuff like “Red One” and especially “Black Adam,” the film that seemingly ended that version of the DC universe.

Maybe Alba wasn’t really built for movie stardom to begin with. She rose to prominence in the TV show “Dark Angel” and people thought she was attractive, so why not see if film worked? Maybe nobody could have made those woeful “Fantastic Four” movies or a Dane Cook romantic comedy work, but she opted for those projects, just like she opted for “The Love Guru” and “Valentine’s Day” and all that. It became quite clear that, never mind, she wasn’t a movie star.

Kitsch was the guy at the center of “Friday Night Lights,” at least among the high school characters, but it’s Jesse Plemons and Michael B. Jordan who have emerged from that cast as successful film actors. Maybe it isn’t Kitsch’s fault that “John Carter” is maybe the biggest flop in movie history, but that same year he was also in “Battleship.” “Friday Night Lights” fans may have figured that, well, if that’s what he’s going to do in movies, we’re good. Kitsch now, fittingly enough, co-stars with Pratt in the “Terminal List” universe.

From 2009 through 2012, Gordon-Levitt had a great run. He had emerged from child acting to be a proper film actor in adulthood. Then, he spent all that goodwill in starring in a movie he wrote and directed, “Don Jon.” JGL essentially put himself in permanent director jail with that one film, and he’s kind of failed to rebound as an actor as well. The furthest he’s emerged from the wake of “Don Jon” is the “Beverly Hills Cop” reboot in 2024.

After “Clueless,” Silverstone could have done whatever she wanted. Reasonably so. She won an MTV Movie Award for her turn as Cher, but honestly she should have won a Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination would not have been unreasonable. Silverstone is that good in “Clueless.” However, in 1997 she was in the half-baked, woeful “Batman & Robin” as a fully-miscast Batgirl, but she was also in the terrible dark comedy “Excess Baggage.” Both dark comedies and Batman as a franchise went on life support around that time, and Silverstone had a sizable role in two films that played a major part in that.

In truth, not many people really cared about “Monster’s Ball,” and Berry’s other 2001 film, “Swordfish,” had a bigger impact on her career than winning an Oscar. Still, she was Storm in the “X-Men” franchise and she was an Oscar winner. Berry followed that up with a role in the worst James Bond movie (“Die Another Day”) and the woeful Catwoman movie. Even though many liked Berry showing up to accept her Razzie for “Catwoman,” what was somebody who wanted to support her career to do? Watch “Cloud Atlas?” Or “Movie 43?” Or “Moonfall?” Yeah, wasn’t going to happen.

On television, Elba has gotten acclaim in America (“The Wire”) and Britain (“Luther”). On the film front, though, things have been questionable. Sure, we could get away with just saying “Cats,” but he was also in “The Dark Tower” and was the villain in “Hobbs & Shaw.” All told, Elba’s film resume is almost uniformly questionable.

This is about career choices, and not Hathaway’s sweaty “theater kid” persona and her Oscar striving. After 2014 in “Interstellar,” things went awry. She returned for the Tim Burton-less “Alice in Wonderland” sequel, the woeful “Serenity,” and “The Witches,” perhaps the worst movie of 2020. No wonder she signed on for “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (and “The Odyssey” should help as well.

We will say this: Hudson is very good in “Song Sung Blue” and it seems like there is perhaps a path forward for her career making movies in that vein. After breaking through in “Almost Famous,” Hudson made pretty much only bad films. In 2009, she co-starred with Hathaway in “Bride Wars,” and she was also in the misfire “Nine” that year. Maybe Hudson needed to exit her ingénue stage to garner any goodwill from her projects.

Holland is going to become the first actor to star as Spider-Man four times, and there is a reason for that. One, money. Two, he’s basically made no good movie choices outside of the Marvel films. Even aside from “Cherry” and “Chaos Walking,” his voiceover work has been dicey. He’s made “Spies in Disguise,” “Dolittle,” and “Onward.”

At this point, we can acknowledge that Ferrell has had a Sandler-esque decline in terms of his filmography. Two “Daddy’s Home” movies and then “Holmes & Watson” would do that. He’s become a forgettable streaming movie star. He’s made movies for Netflix, Apple, and Amazon Prime, and if you can name more than one of those films we would be impressed.

Let’s go old school. Before there was Sandler or Ferrell, there was Murphy. “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” and “Norbit” stand as two of the worst comedy films of the new millennium. Though Murphy was good in “Dolemite Is My Name,” he’s since made fine, but unremarkable, legacy sequels to “Coming to America” and “Beverly Hills Cop.”

There are the lesser Carrey comedies, such as “Yes Man” and “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” His goodwill, though, was lost even more with his dramatic fare. Carrey made a couple good movies in this vein, such as “The Truman Show” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” However, he also made “The Majestic” and then, most egregiously, “The Number 23.” These days, he’s relegated to comedic foil in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies.

Wilson garnered some attention in a small role in “Bridesmaids,” and then gained her most prominence through the “Pitch Perfect” movies. It turned out, though, she worked best in a supporting role in somebody else’s project. Well, unless that project is “Cats.” “Isn’t It Romantic” and “The Hustle,” two unremarkable, unsuccessful comedies, were pretty much the start, and finish, of her headlining films.

Signing on for “Man of Steel” as Lois Lane probably made sense at the time, so we won’t hold the rest of that franchise against her. Since “Arrival,” though, Adams’ movies have been both critically and commercially mixed at best, and often frustrating. She followed up “Hillbilly Elegy,” which has aged like milk, with movies such as “Dear Evan Hansen.” Even “Disenchanted,” the sequel to “Enchanted,” went right to Disney+ and barely made a blip.

Basically, Travolta has done nothing but spoil any goodwill his career had generated post-“Pulp Fiction.” Yes, we could mention “Battlefield Earth,” but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Travolta has made so many generic action films and a few bad comedies. Who has been excited for a new Travolta movie in the last, say, two decades?

Clarke rose to prominence in “Game of Thrones,” but she never managed to get a movie career going. We speak in the past tense, because looking at her filmography (and her return to TV with the show “Ponies”) it is clear nobody is thinking of her as a viable leading actor in a movie. Clarke got to play Sarah Connor and was in a “Star Wars” film and both of those ended up having negative impact on her career. Then, the final nail in the coffin was 2019’s “Last Christmas.”

By the time the “Hunger Games” franchise wrapped up, Lawrence had an Oscar and a successful franchise to her name. Also, basically nothing since then has really worked. Attempts to get serious have yielded “Red Sparrow” and “mother!” among others. On the commercial front, there was “Passengers” (with Chris Pratt!) and “Don’t Look Up.” The next installment in the “Hunger Games” franchise is a prequel, but Lawrence is still appearing as Katniss. That’s where things are now.