Most Disappointing Post-Acting Oscar Career

[Cena's Little Helper]

When an actor/actress wins the most world's most prestigious acting award, most of us assume that their career following their win will be peaches and cream. While they're definitely given more leeway than their peers in terms of quality of their output, this doesn't always seem to be the case.

That being said, the idea of this thread is simple. Which actor/actress has had the most disappointing career after winning one of the following Academy Awards: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, or Best Supporting Actress? Consider both the films they made after their win and the expectations you subsequently had for their work.

My personal choice is Hilary Swank. Don't get wrong here; if you win two Best Actress Oscars, then you're a bona fide acting icon. However, you'd expect that Ms. Swank would have had at least one or two significant roles in her career besides the ones that netted her Oscars in Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby. Unfortunately, she has made nothing but small films that generate little to no buzz (11:14 and Red Dust) or studio films that are DOA as soon as their mediocre previews are dropped (The Core and P.S. I Love You). On a positive note, Swank is still relatively young, so there's plenty of time for her to state making smart choices.

 

[Emperor Clobbersaurus]

Without going back to remember all of the past winners, off the top of my head I would say either Halle Berry or Roberto Benigni.

Even though Roberto Benigni does mostly Italian films, but he was over huge in America with "Life Is Beautiful", especially with his eccentric behavior at the Oscars. A year later he is pretty much forgotten and hasn't had another hit in the US.

Halle Berry, wins a Best Actress Oscar, then does "Catwoman", "Gothika", and "Perfect Stranger". 'Nuff said.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

I would have to say Forest Whitaker. I'm a fan of Whitaker's and I love the Last King of Scotland, the movie for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor, but when looking at his resume, Whitaker has really done nothing impressive since that film. He appeared in the waste of time that was Vantage Point, had a guest stint on American Dad, parodying his character from the Shield. He appeared in both Repo Men and The Experiment, both of which were pretty bad and was even involved in the abomination that was Our Family Wedding. He also has a voice role in Where the Wild Things Were. Whitaker gave an outstanding performance in the Last King of Scotland, but he's failed to continue to extend his good career choices/films.

 

[jmt225]

Great thread and selection, Tdigs. My choice is Reese Witherspoon.

I've actually been a fan of Reese Witherspoon since I was a kid. I saw Freeway one random night on HBO and I fell in love with her right then and there. She was fucking INCREDIBLE in that movie. In fact, I don't think there's ever been a better comedic performance from an actress, ever. That's how highly I think of her in that film.

After that of course she would give yet another brilliant comedic performance in the absolutely superb, Election, which I thought she deserved an Oscar nomination for (shit, if it were up to me, she would have won one for Freeway). During this time she was also in other great movies such as Pleasantville, American Psycho, and Fear. However, not long after Election, she started doing those shitty Legally Blonde movies, and other typically generic romantic comedies.

Then, out of nowhere, when you think that's the route her career is going down, she portrays June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. Her performance in that movie was beyond incredible, especially when you take into account that she did all of the singing and instrument playing herself, and that before Walk the Line... she had ZERO experience in either area. Now that's dedication and just down right fucking impressive.

However, since Walk the Line, she's gone back down that romantic comedy route starring in pieces of shit like Four Christmases, Just Like Heaven, Penelope, and most recently How Do You Know. All terrible movies. And looking at her Wiki now... it looks like shit ain't changing any time soon, as all the movies listed for her future look terrible as well. Damn shame...

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I would have to go with Cuba Godding, Jr.

He did an outstanding job in Jerry Maguire. He executed his role to perfection, as he played this cocky wide receiver who wanted the big money contract. Who could forget the infamous "show me the money!" rant. Gooding, Jr. also did a good job of showing emotion in this film. Towards the end, he has a serious injury, but he quickly bounces back. He plays to the crowd, and moments later, he shares a touching embrace with Tom Cruise. Gooding, Jr. also had some memorable performances before Jerry Maguire. I loved him in Gladiator and Boyz In The Hood.

I enjoyed Cuba in Men Of Honor, but I can't stand every other film he did after Maguire. The bulk of them of them are either mediocre or terrible. I know he has As Good As It Gets under his belt, but Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear are the people who made that film worth watching. Cuba just seemed to be there.

Over the years, Gooding, Jr. has become another Nicholas Cage. He does one shit film after another, but there is a chance he could surprise you every now and then. But the list of garbage he has appeared in is pretty bad:

Snow Dogs
Norbit
Daddy Day Camp
Boat Trip
Shadowboxer
What Love Is
Pearl Harbor​

Those are just some of the films on his shit list. I know he's had a good amount of straight-to-DVD films, but I haven't bothered to watch them.

When I watch Jerry Maguire and Boyz In The Hood, I always feel so let down. Godding, Jr. has awesome range, and he can bring tons of emotion to his performance, but he's done sooooo many bad films over the years. It's a damn shame, because I do really like this guy.

 

[LitasRevenge79]

My pick would be Adrian Brody, he was in The Pianist. But since then, what have we really seen him in? Nothing as good as that. If anything it was few and far between. Let's follow after that..

He did Singing Detective, that wasn't too bad. The Village, an M Night Shymalan movie, that was pretty crap-tastic. King Kong (the Peter Jackson version) it didn't get that good reviews for what was spent on it, The Jacket..I never understood anything about that movie honestly. Then there was PREDATORS, which had to be the ump-teenth sequel to that franchise, and why it still needed to be resurrected is beyond me. I mean, he's a great actor, I like that he doesn't look like other macho guys, but some of the choices just leave me wondering "Why?"