- 30/05/2025
Those times when some of the industry's biggest stars thought they were well and truly done.
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00:00Whether it was down to the fact that it seemed as though nobody wanted to work with them
00:03after a high-profile misfire, or simply feeling as though they'd been found out as actors
00:08after one rather disappointing showing.
00:11The following stars very much felt as though their time in the spotlight was over at these
00:15precise moments in time.
00:17Gareth here from WhatCulture.com and here are 10 exact moments actors thought they were
00:22finished.
00:2310.
00:24Matt Damon's career was going downhill before being offered the informant.
00:28As hard as it may be to believe, Matt Damon's career was actually in a little bit of trouble
00:32in the early 2000s.
00:34According to the star himself during a Hot Ones interview, before being offered the lead
00:38role in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant, his career was very much heading in the wrong
00:43direction.
00:44At the time of chatting with the talented director, Damon's eventual hit-born series hadn't
00:48been released in cinemas, and the star had been at the centre of a number of big-screen
00:52bombs.
00:53And the actor was actually so convinced that nobody would be willing to give him a job
00:57at the time of chatting with Soderbergh that he didn't even realise he was being offered
01:01the part by his eventual director.
01:03So after double-checking if he was merely being brought on board to write the script,
01:07and being told that Steven most definitely just wanted him to star in the comedy crime
01:11flick, Damon was all in.
01:13And while it may have taken nearly a decade for the two to actually unleash the informant
01:17into the world, by the time it was, Damon was a rather bankable Hollywood star.
01:21And the feature went on to earn some pretty decent reviews too.
01:249.
01:25Margot Robbie questioned if she wanted to continue after Wolf of Wall Street
01:29Few will ever forget the mesmerising performance that introduced Margot Robbie to the majority
01:33of the movie-watching world.
01:35With her stellar work as Naomi LaPaglia in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, quickly
01:39establishing her as one of the biggest stars on the planet, seemingly overnight.
01:43But with such a sudden injection of fame came the realisation, very quickly, that things
01:48may never be the same for the actor if she decided to fully commit to the life of a Hollywood
01:53superstar.
01:54In fact, in the wake of the Wolf of Wall Street's release, the star eventually admitted to Variety
01:58that she told her own mother, I don't think I want to do this after feeling as though
02:02her family could be in danger, due to the public's desperate need to catch a photo of her doing
02:06a grocery shopping for example.
02:08Instead of finishing her mainstream career before it properly got going though, the Australian sensation
02:13soon realised that the only way was forward, and went about forging one hell of a big screen
02:18CV in the years that would follow.
02:208.
02:21Nobody Wanted To Work With Natalie Portman After Star Wars
02:23In the case of the unquestionably brilliant Natalie Portman, her performance as the rather
02:27dull Padme Amidala in Star Wars episodes 1-3 didn't do her many favours by the time Revenge
02:33of the Sith finally closed out the trilogy in 2005.
02:36The eventual Oscar winner would explain to New York Magazine many years on from her disappointing
02:40time in the galaxy far far away, that despite appearing in the highest grossing movie of
02:45the decade, no director wanted to work with the star of the wars.
02:49Portman would even confess that she felt as though everyone thought I was a horrible actress.
02:53Instead of her hopes of going on to enjoy a varied and long career being crushed by an
02:57underwhelming showing in Star Wars though, Portman had a friend in director Mike Nichols,
03:01who went out of his way to vouch for her to his peers and helped rebuild the stars reputation
03:06along the way.
03:117.
03:12Adam Sandler Didn't Know What To Do After Being Fired From SNL
03:14There's no getting around it, getting fired utterly sucks, doesn't it?
03:17And after spending five solid years providing many a laugh as part of the Saturday Night
03:21Live cast, Adam Sandler soon found himself feeling the sudden sting of unemployment in
03:261995.
03:27After being dealt such a heartbreaking blow at a rather early stage in his career as an
03:31on-screen comedy actor, Sandler, who was 28 at the time of his exit, ultimately admitted
03:36to feeling hurt because I didn't know what else I was gonna do.
03:39Simply put, the star didn't feel like he was ready to leave behind the SNL team, and
03:43the idea of now having to do something else with his time was likely a little terrifying
03:47at the time.
03:48It all worked out in the end of course, with Sandler going on to become one of the most successful
03:52comedy actors of all time.
03:54And when he did eventually return to host SNL in 2019, he unquestionably got the last laugh
03:59with his cheeky lyrics of,
04:01I was fired, I was fired, NBC said that I was done, then I made over 4 billion dollars
04:06at the box office, so I guess you could say I won.
04:096.
04:10Chris Hemsworth Thought His Improv Skills Would End His Career In Ghostbusters
04:13For those who don't feel all that confident about the concept of riffing on the spot during
04:17a scene, the reality of walking onto a set without any scripted dialogue to fall back
04:22on can be fairly daunting.
04:24And that was the terrifying situation Chris Hemsworth found himself in during the shooting
04:28of the eventual comedy reboot flop that was 2016's Ghostbusters.
04:32And after having a chat with director Paul Feig about the alarming lack of lines his character
04:36had printed in the script he'd been sent, the star was told not to worry about it because
04:40they'd simply figure it out on the day.
04:42But when said day actually arrived, the horrifying realisation that he'd have to now attempt
04:47to improvise his way through a sequence with his co-stars left him thinking, this is not
04:51only the end of my career but I'm going to ruin this film.
04:54In the end though, the support he felt from the likes of Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig
04:58helped him feel comfortable enough to have fun with the scenes he was involved in.
05:02And while this particular Ghostbusters adventure may not have set the world on fire, Hemsworth's
05:06career showed absolutely no signs of slowing down after yet another fine example of his comedy
05:11prowess.
05:125.
05:13Paul Bettany Was Told His Career Was Over Before Getting A Vision Phone Call
05:16Getting that all-important call from Kevin Feige or another Marvel creative has been known
05:21to be a life changer for just about every actor who has ever wandered into the Marvel Cinematic
05:26Universe.
05:27But when it comes to eventual Vision star Paul Bettany, it genuinely seemed as though his
05:31days as part of the acting industry were well and truly over before his phone rang with
05:35Avengers Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon's number on it.
05:38As the voice of Jarvis would explain at Ace Comic Con a few years back, the Brit had just
05:43walked out of a particularly demoralizing meeting with a producer a few moments before the director
05:47got in touch.
05:48Simply put, said producer claimed that his career was over, that it was done and that
05:53he should pack his bags and go home.
05:55Defiantly though, the actor told that person to mind your effin' manners before his legs
05:59eventually gave way as he reached the sidewalk on Sunset.
06:02And just as the thought of, wow, maybe my career's over, washed over him, a number Bettany didn't
06:07recognize popped up on his phone and Whedon soon delivered the news that he'd like him
06:10to play Viz in the MCU.
06:13And the rest was Marvel Cinematic History.
06:154.
06:16Scarlett Johansson Thought Her Career Was Over After Being Hyper-Sexualized
06:19Black Widow actor Scarlett Johansson also went through a period in her life when she felt
06:24as though her career was done.
06:26For an entirely different reason than her Avenger co-star Paul Bettany though.
06:30As the actor would explain on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, after first making
06:34a name for herself at a rather young age, it soon became clear to Johansson that she'd
06:38become objectified and pigeonholed to the point where she wasn't being offered the sort
06:43of parts that she really wanted to dive into.
06:45Things got to the point where the actor felt as though everybody just assumed she was older,
06:49and had been acting in the industry for far longer than she actually had, with this then
06:53leading to her getting pigeonholed into this weird hyper-sexualized thing.
06:57And as that frustrating reality sank in, the eventual Academy Award nominee admitted to
07:01thinking that her career was over, feeling that she'd never get the chance to play anything
07:05other than the role she had up to that point.
07:08This obviously didn't turn out to be the case, thankfully.
07:10And the star would also add that she's thankful that the rising stars of today
07:14are allowed the freedom to be far more dynamic than Johansson was earlier in her career.
07:183.
07:19Robert Downey Jr. Thought He Was Going To Bury Himself With Tropic Thunder
07:23On the back of reigniting his career with a game-changing performance as Tony Stark in 2008's
07:28Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was arguably one of the most in-demand actors on planet Earth.
07:33So how did the revived star choose to follow up that early MCU entry?
07:37With a character and movie that he felt held the potential to undo all of the goodwill
07:41that he'd just generated with his much-loved Marvel outing.
07:45Or at least that's how RDJ himself saw it.
07:47With the actor eventually noting to LA Times that after agreeing to appear in Tropic Thunder,
07:52before Iron Man ultimately went on to be a massive success,
07:55he quickly thought, I just buried myself.
07:57By playing the role of a white actor trying to portray a black character throughout the comedy,
08:02the star understandably worried that he was going to squander any goodwill I have.
08:06Far from derailing his career revival in the same year it begun though,
08:09his work in Tropic Thunder as Kirk Lazarus actually led to a surprising Oscar nomination for RDJ,
08:15and Downey would eventually go on to become one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.
08:192. Ryan Reynolds Thought He Was Done After Injuring Denzel In Safe House
08:24There was a pretty alarming moment there when Ryan Reynolds genuinely thought
08:27he'd headbutted away his chances of ever having a successful career in the business.
08:32Jumping back to that time when Reynolds was filming the 2012 action-thriller
08:35Safe House opposite Denzel Washington, one particular stunt involving the two
08:39wrestling in a moving vehicle soon led to Ryan's head colliding with the legendary thespians.
08:44In that moment after connecting with Washington's eye, the star admitted to David Letterman that he
08:49thought he was about to be sent home via crematorium. And not only that,
08:53the actor also confessed a feeling that both his career and actual pulse were about to cease.
08:57Being the pro he is though, Washington laughed off the accident and the pair attempted the sequence
09:02once more from the other side to disguise the swelling appearing around his injured eye.
09:06But unfortunately for Reynolds, the same thing only went and happened again, this time to the other eye.
09:11And on top of Washington soon resembling a rather sore Christmas ornament,
09:15the eventual merc with a mouth quite rightly felt like he wanted to die there and then.
09:19Can't exactly blame him.
09:201. Colin Farrell Thought He'd Been Found Out After Alexander
09:24It's hard to believe there was ever a time when it looked as though Colin Farrell's career was in
09:27any serious trouble. But nearly two decades before his most recent outstanding year on the big screen,
09:33one which saw him utterly transform into the penguin in the Batman and receive a golden
09:37glow for his work in the Banshees of Inner Sheeran and an Oscar nod as well,
09:41the Irish actor admitted to genuinely questioning if he was actually any good at this acting thing.
09:46After appearing in what would ultimately go on to become one of the biggest flops of the decade in
09:50Alexander, a 23-year-old Farrell was quickly informed that the reviews being sent the 2004
09:55historical epic were not good. Farrell ultimately decided to escape the public eye for a while by
10:00taking a trip to a ski resort in Lake Tahoe, but couldn't escape the feeling of being a crap actor
10:06and questioned whether he'd just been found out after his initial success in the business.
10:10This high profile disaster couldn't fully derail the star's rise in the end though.
10:14And after reconnecting with the version of himself who first walked into an acting class at the age
10:18of 17, Farrell was eventually able to produce the sort of work that has since established him as
10:23one of the finest performers of his generation. Keeping those fingers crossed for that Oscar baby.
10:27And that's our list, know of any other exact moments actors thought they were finished?
10:31Then let us know all about them in the comments section right down below and do not forget to like,
10:35share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it. Also, if you like this kind of thing,
10:38then go and head on over to whatculture.com and find some more fantastic articles just like the one
10:42this video you're watching right this second is based on. I've been Gareth from whatculture.com,
10:47thank you as always for watching this lovely video today. Hopefully I'll see your faces very,
10:51very soon, but in the meantime, be good to yourself. Bye-bye!
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