Where, oh Where Did My Career Go?
Submitted by jgandcag on Thu, 05/30/2002 - 01:27
Tags:
- 1.Peter Weller: I think Robocop did him in. He is now relegated to the late night Cinemax action channel. I loved him in Buckaroo Banzai. He has a likable weariness that many films could use. He should at least be getting Willem Dafoe’s rejects.
- 2. Jeff GoldBlum: Weller’s co-star in Buckaroo. He was on a role there for a while with The Fly, The Big Chill and many others. He was in a tabloid relationship with Laura Dern and his career has faded ever since. Hasn’t shown up in the dreaded direct to video market yet but it is lurking.
- 3.Greta Scacchi: A prime example of how actresses are ripe for this list. The ultra hot DA from Presumed Innocent and The Player fame got a little older and the sexpot roles started to dry up. Are we, as the movie going public, so shallow we need our actresses to be under 30? She was different than a lot of the so-called “Babes” in that she was a pretty good actress. She should have had as good as a career as say Michelle Phieffer
- 4.Bonnie Bedelia: The other female lead from Presumed Innocent. She should have had a better career than Scacchi in that her appeal was intelligence rather than sexuality. Intelligence should not fade. She is now 56 years old and is probably ready for a comeback in the grandmotherly tough broad roles that Judi Dench has perfected. It seems Hollywood only likes their females very young or very old. To me there is nothing more exciting than a woman in her thirties and forties.
- 5.Roy Scheider: From Jaws to Dracula 11: Ascension. How the mighty has fallen. This is the one I think I have the most trouble with; Scheider is a very good actor, just rent All That Jazz if you need proof. He should be having a Gene Hackman career instead he is relegated to overseas work, direct to video and bad cable channel choices.
Author Comments:
I got into a conversation recently with someone about Peter Weller and my fellow conversationalist tried in vain to tell me Peter Coyote starred in Robocop. It got me to thinking about how bad Weller's career has become. It eventually led to me starting this list; Actors and actresses who once had a very healthy career but... I know many of these people have chosen to shoot movies outside the Hollywood mainstream and in Europe but is that by choice or necessity?
I have tried to keep it to people I actually thought could act.
As always suggestions are welcome
I recently read that Scorsese wooed Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement for Gangs of New York. Apparently he called it quits after The Boxer and has been working as a cobbler in Florence ever since.
I was going to suggest Louis Gossett Jr., as I recalled Iron Eagle being the beginning of the end for him, but after looking at his filmography it doesn't look like it was really a big shift from his prior work.
Ellen Burstyn has undergone a resurrection, but she was in the sticks for awhile there. Susan Sarandon's resurrection is overdue. Which reminds me of Bull Durham and Tim Robbins, who is in recession teetering on full-blown depression.
That's all that leaps to mind at the moment, although taryn's actors who need better agents list is a sibling of this one, it seems.
I knew the idea sounded familiar. I even commented on that list.
Ellen Burstyn is a prime example of my comments about actresses. She was good and popular as a young actress. She disappeared during her middle ages and now that she is older there are far more juicier roles for her.
Does no one write good roles forwomen in their thirties and forties? And why is that?
Because the writers of film are not women in their 30'-40's...or if they are and the work is be submitted the moguls making the decisions are in the make money (big box office) mode and just will not invest money into movies that the youth market want to see. Of course the youth market doesn't even know what they could like cuz the are feed the same crap season after season...bunch of sheep...really.
On another note...I believe it was Ellen Burstyn that was hit by a car years ago and her recovery was long and involved. I could be wrong....who ever it was the injured actor was hit after co-starring in Private Banjamin with Goldie Hawn.
Good roles for women in their 30s and 40s are definitely few and far between. I suspect studios think we men in the audience like pretty young things and mothers, and I imagine in general they are correct. I don't know which is more pathetic - their assumption, or it's degree of accuracy.
Occassionally one slips through . . . Susan Sarandon was 42 when she made Bull Durham.
Peter Weller has recently been starring in a very watchable sci-fi series on Television called
'Odyssey 5', about the crew of the space shuttle who witness the destruction of the Earth from space.