10 Actors Who Made It Big and Then Struggled To Find Work

Only an estimated 2% of actors are able to make a living by acting, according to Backstage. Some actors come out of the gate hot and make it big before struggling to maintain their career momentum.

Not every actor can reach the level of stardom that Tom Cruise and Margot Robbie achieved, but some successful actors struggle to find decent work after a promising start. Whether they were a child actor having difficulties adjusting to adult roles or an Oscar winner who made a series of unwise choices, some actors’ careers just stall.

All of the following actors found early success in their careers before the plum parts went to someone else. America loves a comeback story, however, so any of them could enjoy a career resurrection à la Brendan Fraser or Winona Ryder.

Fairuza Balk

Fairuza Balk made her feature-film debut as Dorothy in Return to Oz, the 1985 unofficial sequel to The Wizard of Oz. She won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for 1992’s Gas Food Lodging before gaining a cult following for her performance as the teen goth witch Nancy Downs in 1995’s The Craft. This led to memorable supporting roles in movies such as American History X, The Waterboy, and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

Since about 2010, Balk has struggled to parlay her success playing an outsider in The Craft into substantial roles. She made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo appearance as Nancy Downs in 2020’s The Craft: Legacy, which bombed at the box office. The 50-year-old actress also played a grandmother (!) for one season on the Prime Video musical drama Paradise City in 2021.

Edward Furlong

The Terminator 2: Judgment Day casting director discovered 13-year-old Edward Furlong in 1990 at the Pasadena Boys Club. Furlong played the pivotal part of John Connor in James Cameron’s 1991 sci-fi sequel, making Furlong a breakout star. This led to parts in Pet Sematary Two, A Home of Our Own, American History X, and John Waters’ P*cker.

Furlong told Independent that drugs and alcohol derailed his career because he became famous too young. Furlong showed up for one day of work to digitally capture his likeness for 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate, in which a teen John Connor is killed off in an early flashback scene. Furlong reportedly said that the death of the character that made him famous “kinda bums me out.”

Tara Reid

Tara Reid found success in the 1990s by playing Bunny Lebowski in the cult classic The Big Lebowski, Vicky in the American Pie franchise, and Sasha the radio host in the horror film Urban Legend.

At about the same time in the aughts when Reid became a tabloid fixture for her party-girl lifestyle, the actress admitted to dealing with botched plastic surgery and liposuction that left her disfigured. Although she later found regular work playing April Wexler in the sci-fi comedy franchise Sharknado, it was a huge step down after starting her career in a Coen brothers movie.

Cuba Gooding Jr.

After his breakout role in Boyz n the Hood, Cuba Gooding Jr. won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing a football star who shouts “show me the money” a lot in Jerry Maguire opposite Tom Cruise. Although Gooding’s Oscar win led to his casting in movies such as Pearl Harbor, As Good as It Gets, and Selma, he also took cringeworthy parts in movies such as the unapologetically homophobic Boat Trip and the fat-shaming Norbit.

Aside from his acclaimed performance as O.J. Simpson in the 2016 miniseries American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson, Gooding has struggled to find new roles worthy of an Oscar winner. Also, it didn’t help his career when 30 women came forward in 2020 and accused Gooding of “unwanted groping.”

Taylor Kitsch

Canadian actor-model Taylor Kitsch became famous for playing Tim Riggins on the TV series Friday Night Lights. A year after that show ended, Kitsch starred in three high-profile 2012 films that all underwhelmed at the box office: the inspired-by-a-board game Battleship, the megabudget Disney sci-fi adventure John Carter, and Oliver Stone’s Savages.

Starring in three box office duds in the same year can throw a wet towel on any actor’s career, and Kitsch is no exception. His best role since then was as Paul Woodrugh on the second season of True Detective. Kitsch hasn’t starred in a big-screen movie since 2019. He currently plays former Navy SEAL Ben Edwards on the Prime Video action-thriller series The Terminal List.

Sean Young

Sean Young’s breakout role came in the form of playing Rachael, the Replicant who doesn’t know she is an artificial being, in the sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner. She then played Chani in David Lynch’s Dune and had memorable roles in No Way Out, Wall Street, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

The real 21st century — not the one depicted in Blade Runner — proved less friendly to Young and her career. In 2012, she got arrested for trying to crash an Oscars after-party. In 2018, New York police wanted Young for questioning for the removal of $12,000 worth of computers from a production office. Although Young occasionally pops up in a supporting part on a compelling TV show such as The Alienist, her career has taken a backseat to her offscreen antics.

Taylor Lautner

Taylor Lautner became famous for flashing his abs as the hunky werewolf Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga films. He later starred in the action film Abduction and the second season of the horror-comedy series Scream Queens.

Making lists for “Sexiest Men” and “Top Summer Bodies” sounds like a compliment, but it soon became clear that people were interested in Lautner for his body and not his acting. Lautner hasn’t had a big-screen leading role since 2016’s Run the Tide, which critics trashed and few people saw.

Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay Culkin became one of the biggest child stars of the 1990s for his role as Kevin McCallister in the first two Home Alone films. He also starred in movies such as My Girl, The Good Soon, Getting Even With Dad, and Richie Rich as a child actor.

Culkin, now 43, has struggled to transition to adult roles. His role as a notorious club kid in 2003’s Party Monster was a nice try, but the unsavory movie lacked mainstream appeal. His most interesting role since then was as Mickey the male prostitute on American Horror Story: Double Feature — a part about as far removed from Home Alone‘s Kevin as you can get.

Alicia Silverstone

After starting out appearing in Aerosmith videos, Alicia Silverstone became a household name for her performance as Cher in Clueless. Now a teen idol, she went on to star in movies such as Batman & Robin, Excess Baggage, and The Babysitter.

Like Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder, and other teen idols associated with a specific era, Silverstone has struggled to find choice parts now that she’s no longer a teen. Although Silverstone occasionally pops up in a welcome supporting role in movies such as King Cobra and Valley Girl, you’d be hard-pressed to find a recent credit on her IMDb page that you will recognize. “As if!”

Hayden Christensen

Hayden Christensen became an international star for playing Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. This led to lead roles in movies such as Awake and Jumper.

Despite the financial success of the Star Wars prequels, Christensen received a lot of undeserved backlash for his performance, especially in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. He retreated from lead roles in the 2010s before seeking redemption by reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker on the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka.