Where are they now? Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the most prominent celebrities who stepped away from the spotlight after facing life-altering events beyond their control.
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00:00I had some injuries."
00:01Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:02And today we're looking at the most prominent celebrities
00:05who stepped away from the spotlight after facing life-altering events
00:08beyond their control.
00:09"-Why quit acting?
00:11It was important for my recovery at the time.
00:13It represented my mom living vicariously through me."
00:16Mina Suvari.
00:18Mina Suvari rose to fame in the late 90s and early aughts
00:20with standout performances in American Beauty
00:23and the American Pie franchise.
00:24"-Not bad, Chris.
00:25Really?
00:30Thanks, Heather, right?"
00:33But while it seemed like she was on the verge of superstardom,
00:36Suvari quietly faded from the spotlight by the end of the decade.
00:40The reason for this became clear in 2021
00:43when Suvari published her memoir, The Great Peace.
00:45"-You described in your memoir as living a double life.
00:48It was just, like, uh, catapulted.
00:52Into fame.
00:53I didn't even really know what fame was.
00:56It wasn't something that I had ever wanted for myself."
01:01In it, she disclosed that she had been dealing
01:03with the effects of sexual assault and substance use disorder.
01:06At the height of her Hollywood fame,
01:08she was trapped in an emotionally toxic relationship
01:11and turned to drugs to cope.
01:13These challenges deeply affected her career
01:15and sadly held her back from reaching her full potential in Hollywood.
01:20"-I had to learn to trust in myself, trust in the process.
01:25I had to do the work to listen, to open myself up."
01:30Sly Stone.
01:31As the genius behind Sly and the Family Stone,
01:34Sly Stone helped trailblaze funk music.
01:36-♪ All I wanna do, yeah, I wanna make it higher, higher. ♪
01:44Throughout the 60s, the group earned a string of top 10 hits,
01:47which brought Stone fame,
01:48and soon, he was living the high life in Beverly Hills.
01:52But as the 70s rolled around,
01:54Stone and his bandmates grappled with substance use issues,
01:57which hindered their ability to record and perform.
02:00By the 80s, the band had basically disintegrated,
02:03and Sly Stone himself was occasionally seen offstage,
02:06as in this 1983 court appearance on a cocaine possession charge.
02:11As a result, the band dissolved and Stone was forced into retirement.
02:16Unfortunately, things only worsened.
02:18By 2009, he had gone from living in a mansion to crashing in cheap hotels,
02:23and eventually ending up in his van.
02:25Nevertheless, in 2011, he made a comeback with his second solo album,
02:29I'm Back, Family and Friends.
02:32Jeanette McCurdy.
02:33At her peak, Jeanette McCurdy was one of the most recognizable child actors on television,
02:38thanks to her role as Sam Puckett on Nickelodeon's iCarly and Sam & Cat.
02:42"-You look like Sam from that web show iCarly.
02:45Nah, that chick's way hotter than me.
02:48She is Sam.
02:50Whoa! You're awesome!
02:53Yeah."
02:53But after the latter ended,
02:55McCurdy seemingly dropped from the face of the earth.
02:58In reality, she was dealing with the trauma inflicted by her mother,
03:01who pushed her into acting and controlled her life with an iron grip.
03:05"-In many ways, your mother tried to keep you a child.
03:07Yeah, I think my mom wanted to keep me as controllable as possible.
03:13I think she really wanted to have her influence on me,
03:16and me growing up was a threat to that."
03:18She allegedly subjected her daughter to sexual and emotional assault
03:23and contributed to her developing disordered eating.
03:25Following her mother's passing in 2013,
03:28McCurdy took a break from acting and ultimately walked away from the industry completely.
03:33She opened up about her experience in her best-selling 2022 memoir,
03:37I'm Glad My Mom Died.
03:39"-I think I've chosen a path of integrity.
03:50And it hasn't always been easy."
03:51Eliza Dushku.
03:53A quick scan through this actress's filmography will reveal
03:56that she hasn't starred in any films or TV shows since 2017.
04:00"-I transferred from Los Angeles.
04:02Your school has no gymnastics team.
04:03This is a last resort.
04:05Okay, so I've never cheered before, so what?"
04:11This is especially surprising given that Eliza Dushku had a promising career
04:15in the late 90s and 2000s, owing to her role as Faith in The Buffyverse.
04:19Dushku's disappearance stemmed from an incident
04:21on the set of the CBS legal drama Bull.
04:24"-I have no way of knowing that.
04:26And besides, that's not the issue."
04:28In 2017, she landed what was expected to be a regular role,
04:32only to be fired after just three episodes.
04:35This reportedly happened because she informed producers
04:38she was being sexually harassed by lead actor Michael Weatherly.
04:41Following these revelations,
04:43CBS paid Dushku a $9.5 million settlement,
04:46the estimated salary she would have earned had she stayed on the show.
04:49"-The network agreed this year to pay Dushku
04:51a confidential settlement of $9.5 million,
04:55roughly the amount she would have earned as a series regular.
04:58Eight months later, when CBS investigators approached her,
05:01she allegedly told them,
05:02my story is true and it's really affected me."
05:05Amanda Bynes
05:07For anyone who grew up watching Nickelodeon,
05:09Amanda Bynes is a name you know quite well.
05:12Bynes broke out with the sketch series All That,
05:15before landing her own spinoff, The Amanda Show.
05:17"-My name's Amanda and I contain 18 essential vitamins and minerals!"
05:23At one point, it seemed she had successfully sidestepped the child star curse,
05:27transitioning smoothly into mature roles with films like Hairspray and Easy A.
05:32However, in 2010,
05:34Bynes announced she was taking an indefinite hiatus from acting.
05:37"-This is sort of her wanting to tell her story,
05:40kind of close a chapter that was difficult,
05:43move on and start the next phase of her life and career."
05:47What followed was a whirlwind of legal troubles,
05:50mostly related to substance use.
05:52By 2013, she had been placed in a conservatorship overseen by her parents.
05:57Although she later stopped taking drugs and announced an expected return to acting,
06:01that comeback never materialized.
06:04Thora Birch
06:05Thora Birch was once the epitome of the antisocial teenager,
06:08with her performances in the critically acclaimed films American Beauty and Ghost World.
06:12"-Where are you gonna go to college?
06:14We're not.
06:16Really?
06:18Both of you?
06:19Why not?
06:20Just because.
06:22Yeah, we made other plans."
06:24These roles earned her rave reviews
06:26and set her on a path to becoming a top-tier character actor.
06:30But as the years went by,
06:31Birch slipped further and further away from the spotlight,
06:34to a great extent due to her father and then-manager.
06:37His poor behavior with the cast and crew of her projects cost her work opportunities,
06:42including an off-Broadway production of Dracula,
06:44from which she was fired just days before opening.
06:47Following a self-imposed hiatus during which she earned a degree in legal studies,
06:52Birch returned to acting and is slowly reclaiming her lost status.
06:56Jet Li
06:57It's hard to picture modern Chinese and Hong Kong cinema without Jet Li.
07:06The martial arts legend revitalized wuxia films in the industry
07:09and pulled off a successful crossover into Hollywood in the late 90s.
07:13Although Li dominated action films for years,
07:16his on-screen appearances sharply declined after the early 2010s.
07:20Rumors even began swirling that he had died.
07:34In truth, Li was impeded by hyperthyroidism,
07:38a condition causing weight loss and fatigue,
07:40which made his work as an action star even harder.
07:43This, in addition to his focus on philanthropy,
07:46kept Li out of the spotlight for most of the decade.
07:48However, he returned to Hollywood in 2020,
07:51starring as the Emperor of China in Disney's Mulan.
07:55The people owe you a debt of thanks.
07:58I owe you my life.
08:01In gratitude for your service and dedication,
08:05I invite you to take your place with our greatest decorated warriors.
08:10Brendan Fraser
08:12In 2023, Brendan Fraser won his first ever Oscar for his performance in The Whale.
08:17Does her mom know about this?
08:19I just wanted to see her.
08:20Mary has kept her for me all this time.
08:22Why do you suddenly need to see her so bad?
08:24Why now?
08:25Liz.
08:26This was the culmination of a much-publicized comeback for the actor
08:29after years of relative inactivity.
08:32Back in the late 90s and early 2000s,
08:34Fraser was practically Hollywood's go-to guy for adventure blockbusters.
08:38But by the end of that era,
08:39his face had become scarce for a number of reasons.
08:43I did step out of the spotlight for a spell there
08:46to sort some things out in my life,
08:48to take stock of who I am,
08:54where I'm going,
08:55and what my aspirations are.
08:57Fraser not only went through a bitter divorce,
09:00but he lost his mother and suffered various health problems
09:03stemming from his earlier stunt work.
09:05To make things worse,
09:06he was allegedly blacklisted after accusing the former president
09:09of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of sexual assault.
09:12Despite the odds, he pulled off an epic comeback,
09:16fondly dubbed the Brennisauce.
09:18I'd like to take advantage of all of that sauce at the moment
09:23to pursue projects that make me feel like I really care,
09:29like I really care about the whale.
09:30Rick Moranis
09:32Canadian actor Rick Moranis was a comedic powerhouse throughout the 80s,
09:36starring in classics like Ghostbusters and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
09:39I don't believe this.
09:43What a day.
09:44In 1986, Moranis married makeup designer Ann Belsky,
09:48but she tragically passed away from cancer five years later,
09:51leaving him to raise their two children alone.
09:54Although Moranis still appeared in a few more films afterwards,
09:57he had a hard time juggling single parenthood
09:59with the hectic demands of Hollywood.
10:01As a result, in 1997, he took a hiatus from acting
10:05and stopped appearing in live-action projects.
10:08In 2020, it was reported that Moranis would return to the big screen
10:12in a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequel,
10:13but the project was put on hold indefinitely.
10:16I still believe that there's an audience for an actual sequel
10:20to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
10:21I happen to think that Rick Moranis is one of the greatest actors
10:25and comedians of all time.
10:26I am desperate to bring him out of retirement, so never say never.
10:42Go into your settings and switch on notifications.
10:46Bridget Fonda
10:47Growing up in the legendary Fonda acting dynasty,
10:50Bridget Fonda certainly had some hefty expectations to meet.
10:53Ma'am, look, this isn't some kind of fact-finding expedition.
10:57Yes, I know that.
10:58It's not a science trip.
10:59Could you be a little more condescending?
11:01Because I'm not real great with subtlety.
11:03And for a while, she seemed to rise to the challenge.
11:05Throughout the late 80s and 90s,
11:07Fonda snapped up acting roles left and right,
11:10including in notable films like The Godfather Part III and Jackie Brown.
11:14Really?
11:17All right, later.
11:19I'm impressed.
11:20In 2003, she was set to join the cast of the legal series The Practice
11:24for a recurring role,
11:25but a serious car accident just weeks before filming
11:28left her with a fractured back.
11:29Although she made a full recovery,
11:31that incident seemed to close the curtains on Fonda's acting career.
11:35Shortly after, she married film composer Danny Elfman
11:38and has kept a low profile ever since.
11:40Any chance that you make a move back?
11:43I don't think so.
11:44It's too nice being a civilian.
11:46What other tragic situations have kept celebrities away from the spotlight?
11:49Let us know in the comments below.