10 Exact Moments Actors Thought They Were Finished
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
00:04after a high-profile misfire, or simply feeling as though they'd been found out as actors
00:09after one rather disappointing showing, the following stars very much felt as though their
00:13time in the spotlight was over at these precise 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 Bourne series
00:48hadn't been released in cinemas, and the star had been at the centre of a number of
00:52big screen bombs.
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
01:01offered the 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, and
01:22the feature went on to earn some pretty decent reviews too.
01:249.
01:25Naomi La Paglia, The Wolf Of Wall Street Few will ever forget the mesmerising performance
01:31that introduced Margot Robbie to the majority of the movie-watching world, with her stellar
01:35work as Naomi La Paglia in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street quickly establishing
01:40her as one of the biggest stars on the planet, seemingly overnight.
01:44But 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,
02:00I don't think I want to do this after feeling as though her family could be in danger, due
02:04to the public's desperate need to catch a photo of her doing a grocery shopping for
02:08example.
02:09Instead of finishing her mainstream career before it properly got going though, the Australian
02:12sensation soon realised that the only way was forward, and went about forging one hell
02:17of a big screen CV in the years that would follow.
02:208.
02:22Natalie Portman In the case of the unquestionably brilliant
02:25Natalie Portman, her performance as the rather dull Padme Amidala in Star Wars Episodes 1
02:30to 3 didn't do her many favours by the time Revenge of the Sith finally closed out the
02:34trilogy in 2005.
02:36The eventual Oscar winner would explain to New York Magazine, many years on from her
02:40disappointing time in the galaxy far, far away, that despite appearing in the highest
02:44grossing movie of the 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
02:57an underwhelming showing in Star Wars, Portman had a friend in director Mike Nichols, who
03:02went out of his way to vouch for her to his peers and helped rebuild the star's reputation
03:06along the way.
03:07She did pretty alright for herself, didn't she?
03:107.
03:11Adam Sandler didn't know what to do after being fired from SNL
03:13There's no getting around it, getting fired utterly sucks, doesn't it?
03:18After 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.
03:28After 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 going to do.
03:40Simply 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
03:51successful comedy actors of all time.
03:54And when he did eventually return to host SNL in 2019, he unquestionably got the last
03:59laugh with his cheeky lyrics of, I was fired, I was fired, NBC said that I was done, then
04:04I made over $4 billion at 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
04:36character had printed in the script he'd been sent, the star was told not to worry
04:40about it because they'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
04:58Wig helped 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
05:11comedy prowess.
05:17Getting that all-important call from Kevin Feige or another Marvel creative has been
05:21known to be a life-changer for just about every actor who has ever wandered into the
05:25Marvel Cinematic Universe.
05:27But when it comes to eventual Vision star Paul Bettany, it genuinely seemed as though
05:31his days as part of the acting industry were well and truly over before his phone rang
05:35with Avengers Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon's number on it.
05:39As the voice of Jarvis would explain at Ace Comic Con a few years back, the Brits had
05:43just walked out of a particularly demoralising meeting with a producer a few moments before
05:47the director got in touch.
05:49Simply 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 effing 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
06:06Bettany didn't recognise popped up on his phone and Whedon soon delivered the news that
06:10he'd like him to play Viz in the MCU.
06:13And the rest was Marvel Cinematic History.
06:19Black Widow actor Scarlett Johansson also went through a period in her life when she
06:24felt as though her career was done.
06:26For an entirely different reason than her Avenger co-star Paul Bettany though.
06:29As 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
06:42sort of 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.
06:53With this then leading to her getting pigeonholed into this weird hypersexualised 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
07:06other than the roles she had up to that point.
07:08This obviously didn't turn out to be the case, thankfully, and the star would also
07:11add that she's thankful that the rising stars of today are allowed the freedom to be far
07:15more dynamic than Johansson was earlier in her career.
07:23On the back of reigniting his career with a game-changing performance as Tony Stark
07:27in 2008's Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr was arguably one of the most in-demand actors
07:32on 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.
07:48With 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, he quickly thought, I just
07:57buried myself.
07:58By playing the role of a white actor trying to portray a black character throughout the
08:01comedy, the 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 began, though, his work in Tropic
08:10Thunder as Kirk Lazarus actually led to a surprising Oscar nomination for RDJ, and Downey
08:16would eventually go on to become one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.
08:192.
08:20Ryan Reynolds Thought He Was Done After Injuring Denzel in Safehouse
08:24There was a pretty alarming moment there when Ryan Reynolds genuinely thought he'd headbutted
08:28away 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 Safehouse
08:36opposite Denzel Washington, one particular stunt involving the two wrestling in a moving
08:40vehicle 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
08:49that he thought he was about to be sent home via crematorium.
08:51And not only that, the actor also confessed a feeling that both his career and actual
08:56pulse were about to cease.
08:58Being the pro he is, though, Washington laughed off the accident and the pair attempted the
09:01sequence once more from the other side to disguise the swelling appearing around his
09:05injured eye.
09:06But, unfortunately for Reynolds, the same thing only went and happened again, this time
09:10to the other eye.
09:11And on top of Washington soon resembling a rather sore Christmas ornament, the eventual
09:15murk with the mouth quite rightly felt like he wanted to die there and then.
09:19Can't exactly blame him.
09:211.
09:22Colin 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
09:27career was in any serious trouble.
09:29But nearly two decades before his most recent outstanding year on the big screen, one which
09:33saw him utterly transform into the Penguin in The Batman and receive a golden glow for
09:37his work in the Banshees of Innisheeran and an Oscar nod as well, the Irish actor admitted
09:42to 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
09:49decade in Alexander, a 23-year-old Farrell was quickly informed that the reviews being
09:54sent the 2004 historical epic were not good.
09:57Farrell ultimately decided to escape the public eye for a while by taking a trip to a ski
10:02resort in Lake Tahoe, but couldn't escape the feeling of being a crap actor and questioned
10:06whether 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
10:18at the age of 17, Farrell was eventually able to produce the sort of work that has since
10:22established him as one of the finest performers of his generation.
10:25Keeping those fingers crossed for that Oscar, baby!
10:27And that's our list!
10:28Know 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
10:34to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:37Also if you like this kind of thing then go and head on over to WhatCulture.com and find
10:41some more fantastic articles just like the one this video you're watching right this
10:44second is based on.
10:45I've been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, thank you as always for watching this lovely video
10:49today.
10:50Hopefully I'll see your faces very, very soon, but in the meantime, be good to yourself.
10:53Bye!