Am I the only one who thinks Vicki Lewis is seriously hot? Something about that nose. . .
Even when the hype was at its loudest, I don’t think anyone ever thought Linda Fiorentino was going to be the next Meryl Streep. They’re completely different types of actresses who play completely different types of roles.
Fiorentino’s case is interesting in that she was given at least two opportunites to “stick to the wall.” The first came in the mid 80s when she was new on the scene and the second time was ten years later following the praise she got for her performance in The Last Seduction. In both instances she didn’t “stick” for that long. However, I think a lot of that had to do (as I mentioned in my previous post) with her reputation for being “difficult.”
As for why other actresses don’t “stick,” a lot of it has to do with the nature of the American film industry itself. There are considerably fewer substantial female roles when compared with substantial male roles and even fewer “good” substantial female roles (i.e., those where you’re not just eye candy and/or a distressed damsel). While there is a degree of sexism behind his discrepency, a lot of it has to do with money. The bulk of the film-going audience is made up of young males so it makes sense economically that most movies would be aimed at that demographic group. This group has no interest in going to movies that are mainly about women over the age of 25 (unless, of course, they’re on a date and are seeing the so-called “chick flick” as a concession to their SO). Unfortunately, the vast majority of “good” substantial female roles are in these types of movies.
This not to say that women don’t watch movies. It’s just that they’re far less likely than young males to pay to see it in a theater (preferably on opening weekend). They’re more likely to wait and catch it on disc or pay cable which is well after the movie’s earning capacity has peaked.
This is bullshit plain and simple. We’ve discussed it before in previous threads. If the search doesn’t crap out on me I’ll try to find them.
Sure, you could put any other actress in there and it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but it is a pivotal role. The whole story is being told to her character and she appears throughtout the film. I was commenting on the idea that Julia Ormond had disappeared since Smilla’s Sense of Snow. She hasn’t. She has more screentime than Taraji P. Henson, who’s nominated for an Oscar for the movie.
How about that woman from Very Bad Things?
That was my post. I didn’t mean that she hadn’t worked since Smilla’s Sense of Smell, just that I hadn’t seen her. Given the hype that surrounded her then, one would have expected to see much more of her, perhaps with her name above the title.
As to Benjamin Button (a/k/a Forrest Gump Redux), I did see that. I’d completely forgotten that Ormond was in it, which perhaps goes to prove the point that her performance was hardly crucial to the film (unlike Henson’s performance, or Kate Blanchett’s, or even Tilda Swinton’s).
No, you’re not.
Nope, nope, nope.
The Bourne movies.
Carrie Fisher. After that hyped up space opera series (what was it called again?), she had a couple supporting roles in other films, then very little.
She turned to writing, and was successful there.
I came here to say **Leelee Sobieski **but I looked her up and apparently she’s working a lot. I remember she was talked up quite a bit after her small part in Eyes Wide Shut and the next time I saw her was in a crappy Psycho Trucker movie and thought she had failed to stick to the wall.
I was wrong.
And from a little further back, Karen Allen. She held her own in both Animal House and Raiders of the Lost Ark and then… and then?
She starred in Starman in 1984 and Scrooged in 1988. However, as a Spy magazine article during that time pointed out, Allen’s problem was she looked too much like at least two other actresses who were competing for the same roles: Brooke Adams and Margot Kidder. Audiences got the three of them confused.
And isn’t this the best book cover you’ve ever seen?
Does Didn’t stick generally = nudity if they didn’t before?
Okay, since I truly love my wife and daughters I pretend to pay attention to their fiber arts, and that’s some nice stuff. However, I still prefer watching the satin of Ms Allen’s nightgown as it clung to her pubic hair on the deck of the submarine in “Raiders.” Just don’t tell them. :eek:
So is this thread about actresses who did seem like they were being hyped as the “next big thing” but never had a real breakthrough role, actresses who got a lot of attention for a few movies but their careers never went any higher, actresses from popular TV shows that never became movie stars, actresses who are now not such big stars as they once were, or simply actresses who haven’t won multiple Oscars? All have been mentioned in this thread. Even looking at just the OP, I’m really not seeing a great similarity between the careers of Geena Davis, Gretchen Mol, and Shannon Sossamyn.
In the case of Geena Davis I’d say she’s not in as many big movies as she once was largely because 1) she’s now over 50, 2) she was in two flops in a row back in the mid '90s, Speechless and the mega-flop Cutthroat Island, 3) she wants to spend time with her three young children. That said, she’s had a much better career than many actresses, or actors for that matter. She certainly “stuck to the wall” a lot better than say Stuart Townsend. Jared Leto never really made the A-list. And it seems to me that, with the final Pirates of the Carribean movie over with, no one really cares about Orlando Bloom anymore either.
It’s a tough business. Most people are not going to stay at the pinnacle of their success for long. There are some extra problems actresses may have to face (fewer lead roles for older women, complications to working while pregnant, outright sexism, etc.), but plenty of actors have also had some success then faded away. And it’s not always immediately clear who’s “stuck” and who hasn’t. Kate Winslet followed up Titanic with a couple of movies that hardly anybody saw.
I don’t know what SMG has been up to (I guess being married to Freddie Prinze Jr is such a dream she never wants to leave the house), but Eliza Dushku has been in several films, she had a series run for two seasons (Tru Calling) and she’s starring in Whedon’s new show Dollhouse, premiering in Februrary. And fuck, I would love to “fail” like Aly Hannigan. She’s in a critically acclaimed, highly successful sitcom, and she’s married to one of the hottest guys on the planet (Alexis Denisof, Wesley on BtVS/AtS), has a beautiful home, with a baby on the way.
I don’t really understand the point of this thread, either. Several of the actresses mentioned are working regularly, doing just fine in a very difficult industry. For example, Gretchen Mol is in Life on Mars right now. Marisa Tormei has had several projects in the past decade.
No point, really - mostly started after I posted in the prior thread linked in the OP. I do think there are womeb like Julia Ormond who were totally hyped, hooked into some decent roles (and still does) but never remotely lived up to her initial buzz. The challenge with any list thread is that it can go in many directions. I would not have thought to put many women listed here on the list and can see why some folks question some of my contrib’s…