14 Actors and Actresses That Once Had a Wild Success, and Haven’t Got Close to It Ever Since

On Kristin Kreuk’s Instagram page, you can often see posts where she communicates with her Smallville colleagues. These videos gain thousands of likes. Jennifer Carpenter, Selma Blair, and Catherine Zeta-Jones also get nostalgic. They had their breakthrough roles in the past, and for some reason, they can’t achieve the success they had again. And we think that these actors and actresses really need a good role because they are incredibly talented.

Kristin Kreuk

Kristin Kreuk started filming in series when she was still a school student, but she got really successful after the release of Smallville. The story about Superman was incredibly successful in terms of viewership, so Kristin became famous very fast.

But after the series ended, the actress has never got such a big role. She was in several movies, but almost all of them had negative reviews. And Kreuk focused on tv-series. One of her recent works is Burden of Truth. She didn’t only play the lead role but was also the producer of the show. And it had good ratings.

Jesse McCartney

A year before becoming a member of Dream Street, Jesse McCartney tried himself as an actor. He was invited to the soap opera All My Children. The young actor got several nominations for different awards for this part. And then he decided to focus on his music career. But of course, he still appeared in some movies and series, mostly voiceovers, for example, in Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Selma Blair

Here’s another actress that became worldwide famous and then tried herself in independent cinema. At the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, almost everyone knew Selma Blair. She was in Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, Hellboy, and even got the Young Hollywood Award in the “Exciting New Face — Female Category.”

But when at the peak of her popularity, Selma decided to take part in independent projects about important and difficult issues. So, in 2008, she was the lead in The Poker House, and 2 years later, she voiced Anne Frank’s diary in The Diary of a Young Girl.

Stacey Dash

1995 was the fateful year for Stacey Dash. The iconic film Clueless was released, and then a spin-off series. These projects made her popular. But she hasn’t had any good offers since. She was in projects with a smaller budget, and had small parts in series and music videos. Her recent works are Roe v. Wade and College Hill: Celebrity Edition.

Adrian Grenier

At the beginning of the 2000s, at least once a year, Adrian Grenier would appear in a film. He was a demanded and popular actor. But then, the star of The Devil Wears Prada and Entourage started to work behind the camera as a director and producer. Grenier specializes in documentaries about serious social issues. Besides that, he’s a musician and plays in several bands.

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones is one of the most versatile actresses in Hollywood: she has been equally successful in movies and musicals. She’s won Golden Globes and Oscars — the biggest cinema awards there are. But since 2016, she hasn’t had any roles. She was in Dad’s Army which was heavily criticized. Maybe this reception is the reason why the actress took a break from her career. Now, she appears only in series.

Calista Flockhart

For several years, Calista Flockhart hasn’t appeared in series or movies. She stopped doing movies in the middle of the 2000s, and since 2015, she hasn’t been in any series. The only exception was her role in Supergirl, where she was a special guest star.

Jennifer Carpenter

According to the press, after a huge success in Dexter, Jennifer Carpenter has had a series of bad projects. She was in projects that didn’t make her any more successful: the series she had lead roles in lasted only 1 season (The Enemy Within and Limitless). On the other hand, she voiced Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat Legends.

Geena Davis

“Film roles really did start to dry up when I got into my 40s. If you look at IMDB, up until that age, I made roughly one film a year,” — Geena Davis said in one of her interviews. But when she was no longer as popular in Hollywood as she used to be, she decided to do something different.

She founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media which deals with the problems of gender inequality in Hollywood. For her work in this field, she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College in May 2009 and an honorary Oscar. She still does movies from time to time. Ava is the most recent project she was in.

Jesse Bradford

Bring It On is called one of the best movies about cheerleaders. The movie was released in 2000 and made the lead actor, Jesse Bradford, really famous. In the following years, he continued to do different films that got positive reviews, but over time, there were fewer and fewer movies with him. So, in recent years, he’s only appeared in a couple of movies, including shorts.

Jesse says that he’d love to do a sequel for Bring It On, because it was a fateful role for him, “It’s crazy the degree to which [Bring It On] is far and away the movie that people know me from the most, hands down. I have two inches of beard coming off my face right now, and people still recognize me.”

Michelle Trachtenberg

Michelle Trachtenberg isn’t even 40 years old, but she’s already got an impressive filmography because she started working as a child. The actress took part in many successful films, such as EuroTrip, the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Gossip Girl, but at some point, she just stopped getting offers.

Maybe, it was because she turned down some roles herself: just imagine that she could have portrayed Bella in Twilight. Today, she’s a producer and a scriptwriter.

Nick Stahl

Nick Stahl started building his career when he was a child, and by 1993, he was universally loved after the release of The Man Without a Face with Mel Gibson.

The young actor got lots of offers, and his popularity was growing. But at some point, Nick Stahl made some bad choices. Bad habits started to mess with his work. Fortunately, the actor took the problem very seriously and tended to his health. And in 2018, Nick returned to the profession.

Raven-Symoné

When she was a child, Raven-Symoné already appeared in movies and series. That’s So Raven was at the peak of her career, and she got a lot of awards for this role. Then, she focused on music. And she’s really successful. She still takes part in movie projects, but mostly as a voiceover actress.

Ali Larter

After the release of the first Final Destination, Ali Larter got the title “scream queen” from the press. The actress was really popular, but in 2010, she decided to take a break to focus on her family. She did some exceptions for series from time to time, but didn’t appear in movies.

Only in 2014, Larter appeared in 2 movies — Lovesick and You’re Not You. Since then, there has been just 2 movies in 5 years.

What actor or actress do you think deserves a good role in a movie?