I don’t think Jolie *fell into mediocrity, if by that you mean the quality of her films. She’s been in a number of movies that did well at the box office and is one of the few actresses in Hollywood who could be considered a bankable action star, but looking over her filmography there are only a few titles that I’d consider actually any good. And if anything you’re overestimating her success when it comes to major awards. Jolie has been in over 30 movies, only four of which landed her any big nominations: Girl, Interrupted, A Mighty Heart, Changeling, and The Tourist. She hasn’t won an Oscar, Golden Globe, or SAG Award since Girl, Interrupted, and that was more than 10 years ago.
*ETA: She also received an Emmy nomination, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award for the TV movie Gia in 1998.
If Johnny Depp was playing Tonto, he is, after all, PART American Indian.
I just read elsewhere The Lone Ranger is cancelled as it would have cost $250 million, yes, $250 million and the studio not unreasonably balked at the price. WTF? It’s The Lone Ranger, not Avatar Part II!
I know what you mean, for me, she’s not even good at that. Even in “Girl, Interrupted” where she’s meant to be the “sexy” one I thought she was very much not.
He turned his focus away from acting in film. He runs the Old Vic theatre in London, and is doing a lot of stage work. So it’s hard to say that he fell into mediocrity as much as just wandered away from the medium. However, if we’re going from his peak of American Beauty to The Life of David Gale well, maybe so. It’ll be interesting to see how the upcoming Margin Call shakes out. It could be a return to form for him, playing evil.
Did she fall into mediocrity, or was she always a marginally talented actress who had a crowning moment of awesome in LA Confidential and then went back to marginal talent?
There’s something of a curse on actresses right now, period. There are a paucity of powerful starring roles for younger actresses. When they get them, the films get limited support, horrible advertising, and a crapton of studio interference and we end up with Oscar winner Berry in Catwoman, Hilary Swank going from Oscar to Freedom Writers and Natalie Portman is next up, and I bet her next starring role will be ridiculous too (I’m not counting the execrable Your Highness because Black Swan wasn’t released when she did that.)
You’re actually right. She’s just always been mediocre.
It may be true for the past few years, but I’ve seen at least a dozen of the movies listed on imdb after Mrs. Doubtfire. Out of curiosity, are you not counting “Good Will Hunting” because he played a supporting role and not a main role in it?
There are a lot of actors who are much better in supporting roles but struggle to carry a decent movie in a starring role. Williams is one of them. Demi Moore is another.
precisely what happened in batman 1. the whole crew was afraid it would bomb that’s why keaton, basinger and the executives insisted on straight fees (million bucks or so.) nicholson, being made, agreed to a percentage of sales. he ended up with 60 million playing the joker.
See, that’s the thing. He made a number of movies after Mrs. Doubtfire where he played a lead role that I really enjoyed (like “What Dreams May Come”). Otherwise, I agree, just not that Mrs. Doubtfire was when he started the slide.
So, how about trying to name an actor with a career as long as the people mentioned in this thread that doesn’t qualify for it? I wouldn’t know, I haven’t seen a movie in the theater in years, and have only seen a very small number that have come out in the past 5 years anywhere.
Those ones seem hard to classify. Maybe ensemble? They were pretty large parts, even if he wasn’t strictly considered the “lead” in them. He was more clearly a lead in What Dreams May Come, but I enjoyed the movies you listed, too.
He (Robin Williams) was also excellent in “World’s Greatest Dad” (recommended by someone on the SDMB!) although that was never going to be a moneymaking movie.