You thought they would be major stars after watching them one role. You were wrong. (2024)

There are actors where the first time I saw them in roles of significance, I ran to IMDb to check their names. Some people are simply talented.

However.

There are many, many, more I thought would go on to get great roles but didn’t. Sure, many have enviable careers that 99% of actors would kill for. But I expected more. That they would have more buzz surrounding them. Maybe that they would be more be bigger stars, or work consistently with world class or be competing with A-Listers for the highest quality shows or movies. Certainly, that they would have good roles in stuff that I like.

Harry Lloyd from Great Expectations.

Jason Dohring from Veronica Mars.

Natalie Dormer from The Tudors.

Matthew Lillard in Serial Mom.

Michael Biehn in The Terminator

Mischa Barton in Lawn Dogs.

Romola Garai from I Capture The Castle.

Shailene Woodley in The Descendants

[quote] Harry Lloyd from Great Expectations.

I first saw him on a Doctor Who episode. I thought the same thing.

Mischa Barton is simply crazy.

Linda Fiorentino - The Last Seduction

Elizabeth Perkins - About Last Night

Josh Harnett - Pearl Harbor

I thought the same thing about Natalie Dormer, especially after how fine she was also in "Game of Thrones." So surprised she did not do better. She was beautiful and she's a good actress.

One of the weirdest things about the younger, more visible "Game of Thrones" stars was what a crapshoot it wound up being with them and stardom. Kit Harington disappeared for a few years, but is at least now doing better. Emilia Clarke and Sophie Turner pretty much disappeared. Richard Madden did great with "The Bodyguard" but then has flopped again. Maisie Williams has not done much (although she was always going to be a hard one to put over because of her odd looks).

The only ones who really made it big were Jason Momoa and Pedro Pascal.

Another for for Natalie Dormer - pretty, good actor. Is she "gay men pretty" and not straight guy hot? Like Linda Evangelista - gay men thought she was so gorgeous, but straight men didn't really seem to find her all that hot.

Dormer works just enough in a variety of roles to disabuse me of the idea that she's difficult which derailed her career.

Is it that she's seemly viewed as too old? She's 42 now, so would have been in her mid-30s during GoT.

[quote]Linda Fiorentino - The Last Seduction

That's the prime example. Like Kathleen Turner in "Body Heat."

I always thought it was too bad The Tudors was so trashy overall, because Dormer really gave a fine performance in it as Anne Boleyn, which I think many more discerning critics missed because by that time they had givnen up on the show. By the time she's sentenced to death, she's kind of purified by her previous fear to be no longer afraid of her situation, and I found that very moving.

That being said, Claire Foy was an even better Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall, but she had the better script (and though I think Natalie Dormer is quite fine, I do think Foy is even stronger).

Joanna Going

Alison Elliott

R4 Elizabeth Perkins didn't become an A-list movie star, but she's had a pretty decent career. She's been nominated for a few Emmys, and never stops working.

I knew her slightly way back in the mid-80s. I was interning at a small talent agency in NY that had just signed her as a client based on her stage work. The agent who signed her really believed in her, but the rest of the agents had no clue. She wasn't going out on many appointments.

Then this big studio movie gets greenlit and starts the casting process. It's called Sexual Perversity in Chicago. They quickly cast 3 of the 4 leads. They can't seem to make up their minds who they want as the female buddy. They see EVERYBODY. My agency submits just about every client they have, except one! I had become very friendly with her by this point as no one else paid much attention. I liked her very much I clearly understood why she had been signed to begin with. I asked they agents why she wasn't being submitted.

"Liz Perkins? She's not funny."

Very soon after, I took EP aside and strongly suggested she might want to look elsewhere.

She left the agency. Her new agent immediately set her up to meet the casting people of that movie, now titled About Last Night.

I never had the opportunity to speak with her again, but I SO LOVE telling that story!

Linda Fiorentino had a rep for being a major diva bitch based on reporting from the sets of JADE and especially DOGMA.

Dormer has done some good work, but she was not good in that PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS series. To be fair, the show wasn't good anyway, but she was part of the problem.

I got the impression that Loren Dean wasn't interested in stardom.

R26 they were both absolutely beautiful in the 90s.

Possibly still are, but we’ll never know because of their movies.

[quote]Craig Bierko in Long Kiss Goodnight - he was sexy, and played evil really well - although he has aged horribly since.

Craig Bierko had the very bad luck of being slightly older than Brendan Frasier and hitting at about the same time.

Everyone viewed him as the poor man's Brendan Frasier. By the time all of Frasier's injuries and issues caught up with him, Bierko's window for those types of roles had closed.

I thought Paul Le Mat as John Milner was the true standout of American Graffiti.

Just about every actor in that movie - Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford... Hell, even Suzanne Somers! - went on to bigger and better things. But not Le Mat.

Oh, well.

Two women who were super-popular for a blazing minute, if that:

Ileana Douglas

Jeanine Garafalo

Speaking of Twin Peaks: I also thought Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer/Maddie Ferguson) would do better than she did.

It surprised me that, of the beautiful women from that show, Lara Flynn Boyle had the best career. Though of course her problems with mental illness scotched that when she and Jack Nicholson started dating. Madchen Amick had a decent acting career after the show, but hardly set the world ablaze.

None of the young men on that show did very well, although few of them were that talented other than Kyle MacLachlan (who did have a career after the show). I did think James Hurley would do better than he did because he was so stunning, though.

[quote]Jason Dohring from Veronica Mars.

I used to have a thing for him but then I just saw that he's a $cientologist. Ugh.

[quote] The gorgeous Freddie Prinze Jr. should have had Ryan Reynolds' career.

Prinze has zero charisma.

[quote] Another for for Natalie Dormer - pretty, good actor. Is she "gay men pretty" and not straight guy hot? Like Linda Evangelista - gay men thought she was so gorgeous, but straight men didn't really seem to find her all that hot.

Bingo. I don't think straight men find her as attractive. Linda Evangelista is a good comparison.

I watched The Tudors a long, long time ago. IIRC, she was good in that. The production values were high. Henry Cavill began his wooden-block acting career.

Not everyone wants to be a “major star,” some people have the career they want.

[quote]Natalie Dormer from The Tudors.

[quote]Mischa Barton in Lawn Dogs.

[quote]Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) may be headed in this direction.

[quote]Amanda Peterson

Drugs and other off-screen behavior

[quote]Josh Harnett - Pearl Harbor

[quote]Jeanine Garafalo

Both have shunned stardom

[quote]Linda Fiorentino - The Last Seduction

Retired. She didn’t get along with Tommy Lee Jones, but her reputation wasn’t great before Men In Black.

[quote]Sarah Michelle Gellar when she was on All My Children. She obviously went on to be big with Buffy but hasn’t done much of note since.

Semi-retired when she had kids.

[quote]Haley Joel Osment

He isn’t a cute kid anymore, he looks like JD Vance.

[quote][R72], there are may successful actresses that straight men dont find hot…

Not r72, but I made the comparison to Linda Evangelista earlier in the thread to which he was responding.

The point I was making was that most people citing Dormer mention that she's attractive, but gay men have a different notion of that than straight men. If she is actually straight guy average looking, then competition for roles is a lot tougher - all else being equal. She's not "quirky" enough looking for character roles so would be in competition with the likes of a ScarJo and other who straight men find exceptionally hot for some reason which eludes my homo sensibilities.

[quote] Jason Dohring from Veronica Mars.

[quote] I used to have a thing for him but then I just saw that he's a $cientologist. Ugh.

Dohring's parents are Scienos and raised their kids in the cult. To a small extent, I do see the second gen Scienos as victims of the cult because they have been brainwashed since childhood.

Elizabeth Perkins from Ordinary People ( is she daughter of that old fart rocker whose name escapes me).

Agree about Ileana Douglas — as ex wife of Michael Douglas — maybe that hurt her, didn’t help her career

[quote]Agree about Ileana Douglas — as ex wife of Michael Douglas — maybe that hurt her, didn’t help her career

Ileana Douglas was never married to Michael Douglas, and is not related to him by blood or by marriage.

She is the granddaughter of classic Hollywood actor Melvyn Douglas. Michael is the son of classic Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas.

[quote] Sarah Michelle Gellar - Semi-retired when she had kids.

It’s not like she has been in anything watchable since Buffy.

[quote] Romola Garai said Harvey creeped on her when she was still a teen, I think she said it put her off wanting to work in Hollywood

She doesn’t make top quality British TV of movies either.

R96

I think you mean Elizabeth McGovern, who was in Downton Abbey. Elizabeth Perkins was in Big and About Last Night.

I saw Ashley Judd in Double Jeopardy, the movie. Horrible. No acting talent.

Very good-looking, though.

I thought Hunter Parrish from Weeds had the potential to become very famous.

Mira Sorvino is in this class as well. Huge success early on and then she dropped off the face of the Earth.

Sorvino was a nepo baby. I don't know what her father was like to work with, but he had a quite a career, although he was best taken in small doses (annoying in "Law & Order", just about perfect in "Goodfellas").

Breckin Meyer worked pretty continuously until he reached the age for Dad parts

Tatiana Maslany

Orphan Black was mind blowing and proved she could act with a capital A. Ok yes the last season or two the writing went off the rails, it always does, but she was still excellent and she got an Emmy.

Definitely these 2:

Jason Dohring from Veronica Mars.

Natalie Dormer from The Tudors.

I thought they would both be mega stars given how well they performed. Sad neither ever really broke out.

I remember reading years ago Ambrose was going to be in the revival of funny girl, then again at one point so was Taylor Dayne.

Sorvino was great at comedy and character parts something she didn’t lean into too much after winning the Oscar other than Romy and Michelle. She took leading lady roles that she wasn’t cut out for.

Prinze like most of the early aughts actors had a short shelf life. I think he likes being with his kids and doing small projects. Plus he’s got a popular podcast on professional wrestling.

I remember when Julia Ormond was pushed on us really forcefully 30+ years ago.

I've never had any sympathy for older actresses who complain about not getting the same roles. They weren't complaining when they were young and beautiful, were they?

It's like they can't make the connection that their youth and beauty opened the doors for them - they think it was their overwhelming talent - even though there were tens of thousands of more competent actresses they could have chosen.

It's a tough business.

Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. He played the role he was born for and never did much else. Dumbo Drop didn’t help.

Bridget Fonda. I loved her in Scandal (I really like that movie period) and Jackie Brown.

The twins from Spandau Ballet in The Krays. Seems like one or the other could keep acting.

Also the Fine Young Cannibals singer in Scandal.

R124

Have you watched “The Hour”? It’s excellent!

Two that that comes to mind were on the HBO show IN TREATMENT starring Gabriel Byrne. Each played troubled teens who were patients of Dr. Weston (Byrne) on each of the two seasons:

Mia Wasikowska and Dane DeHaan

After their appearances, they appeared in several films, then absolutely nothing, which is a shame because they were excellent on that show.

Dr. Harry Weston?

(fans self dramatically)

Tatiana Maslany has stirred up a hornet's nest by claiming all sorts of crap about DL fav Ryan Reynolds being a misogynist after being cut from Deadpool III.

There is some talk that she's suing Marvel because they've canned future She Hulk projects.

It couldn't be that the character is uninteresting and unappealing? Nah - has to be misogyny.

Too bad because she is good in Orphan Black type roles which would translate well into genre movies like the superhero or other franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, and the like.

[quote]Dormer has done some good work, but she was not good in that PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS series. To be fair, the show wasn't good anyway, but she was part of the problem.

R31, I loved Dormer in that show. In fact she was the only thing I liked about it.

Ron Eldard and Jason Patric were both excellent in Sleepers. They were also hot back then.

It seems like they both disappeared.

[quote]r113 Claire Forlani was probably meant for a bigger career after starring opposite Brad Pitt.

She really is great looking in that. She looks like a beautiful piece of sculpture.