Cinema
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Here’s a question for Sean Penn, Kate Winslet and Penelope Cruz: Does receiving an Oscar impair your judgment?
Apparently not, because numerous Oscar winners have followed their wins with other deserving films, often winning another Oscar or even two -- or another three, if you’re Katharine Hepburn or John Ford.
By: By: The Staff Of Premiere.Com
Nonetheless, in recent years a surprising number of Oscar winners have turned their big victories into ... not much. The next few movies that an Academy Award winner makes are crucial in determining whether he or she becomes a historical footnote, as F. Murray Abraham did, or an Oscar-night perennial along the lines of Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep.
Here are 10 Oscar winners who probably wish they could hit the rewind button on their subsequent career choices. Some cashed in, and quickly lost their artistic credibility in exchange for a few big paychecks. Others took the kind of risks that critics are always saying actors should take -- and belly-flopped off the high board, usually to the critics’ disdain.
In all 10 cases, though, their big night at the Academy Awards looks like their career high point, with little likelihood of a repeat engagement. This year’s winners can afford to bear that in mind.
Roberto Benigni
Oscar: Best Actor for “Life Is Beautiful” (1997).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “Pinocchio” (2002).
What Went Wrong: According to Benigni, “Pinocchio” was made at the suggestion of Italian auteur Federico Fellini, but the Italian star’s hopes of crossing over to American shores went down with the whale.
Halle Berry
Oscar: Best Actress for “Monster’s Ball” (2001).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “Gothika” (2003) and “Catwoman” (2004).
What Went Wrong: Only three years after collecting her Oscar, Berry won another award: A Razzie as Worst Actress of the Year for “Catwoman.” Things haven’t really improved much since.
Jamie Foxx
Oscar: Best Actor for “Ray” (2004).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “Stealth” (2005) and “Miami Vice” (2006).
What Went Wrong: It’s never a good thing when a robot plane not only kills you but also upstages you, which is what happened to Foxx in “Stealth.” The actor still has some clout left from his uncanny performance as Ray Charles, however, and he was excellent in “Dreamgirls” (2006). His fans are hoping that the upcoming “The Soloist” will get him off this list once and for all.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Oscar: Best Supporting Actor for “Jerry Maquire” (1996).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “Chill Factor” (1999), “Boat Trip” (2002), “Snow Dogs” (2002), “Radio” (2003) and “Daddy Day Camp” (2007).
What Went Wrong: “I thought people wanted me to make them laugh,” Gooding told The New York Times in 2006. “But I was wrong on so many levels. I try to take all my energy and bravado and take it into comedy, and that’s when I’m terrible.” No kidding.
Louis Gossett Jr.
Oscar: Best Supporting Actor for “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “Firewalker” (1986) and “The Principal” (1987).
What Went Wrong: Following his win, Gossett partnered with now-irrelevant 1980s heavy hitters such as Chuck Norris in “Firewalker” and Jim Belushi in “The Principal,” neither much of a resume builder. He’s amassed 94 credits since winning his Academy Award, including 27 features, and most people would be hard pressed to name one.
Helen Hunt
Oscar: Best Actress for “As Good as It Gets” (1997).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choices: “Pay It Forward” (2000) and “Dr. T and the Women” (2000).
What Went Wrong: After taking home the Oscar, she made four films that hit theaters simultaneously: “Pay It Forward,” Robert Altman’s “Dr. T and the Women,” “Cast Away” (2000) and “What Women Want” (2000). Her role in “Cast Away” was decent but small, and the other three films were ultimately forgettable ... or plain awful.
Susan Sarandon
Oscar: Best Actress for “Dead Man Walking” (1995).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “Stepmom” (1998) and “Anywhere But Here” (1999).
What Went Wrong: Hollywood has never been kind to older women, but Sarandon has been left behind by her contemporaries, Annette Bening and Meryl Streep, in finding choice roles.
Mira Sorvino
Oscar: Best Supporting Actress for “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “The Replacement Killers” (1998) and “At First Sight” (1999).
What Went Wrong: Without Woody Allen’s magic touch, Sorvino was miscast and lost in her subsequent roles -- a fate that hopefully won’t befall Penelope Cruz, whose Oscar came for her work in Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Other than the charmingly ditzy “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” (1997), Sorvino has hardly been heard from since.
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Kevin Spacey
Oscar: Best Actor for “American Beauty” (1999).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “K-Pax” (2001) and “The Shipping News” (2001).
What Went Wrong: “K-Pax” says it all, but throw in a terrible Lex Luthor impression in “Superman Returns” (2006) and things definitely went south fast for Spacey, who now spends most of his time doing theater in London.
Robin Williams
Oscar: Best Supporting Actor for “Good Will Hunting” (1997).
Terrible Post-Oscar Career Choice: “Patch Adams” (1998) and “Jakob the Liar” (1999).
What Went Wrong: He’s usually bombed in sentimental melodramas such as “What Dreams May Come” (1998) and “Bicentennial Man” (1999), but owns the screen when he plays a psycho, as in “One Hour Photo” (2002) and “Insomnia” (2002). Unfortunately his Oscar win for “Good Will Hunting” seems to have convinced Williams that sentimental melodrama is what people want from him, with the maudlin “Patch Adams” and the tasteless Holocaust drama “Jakob the Liar” as the prime examples.
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