What actor or actress do you think has the worst case of wasted career potential?
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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Watch shot caller if you haven’t seen it yet op. Niko stars in a seemingly unknown film and I loved it
Kaya Scodelaria, she was suppose to be the next big thing after Skins and her career never fully took off.
Mira Sorvino. 🖕🏻Harvey Weinstein
He could be a 00…
Michael Biehn
Shot Caller is electric
You might think I’m crazy, but I think Rachel
McAdams could be the biggest movie star on the planet.
Not her fault but Amanda Bynes was a very good comedic actor at young age, adorably cute and could have been the next Sandra Bullock
Joseph Gordon Levitt, he had a really good run with phenomenal movies and performances. 500 days of summer, Don Jon, Inception, Looper, Snowden, 50/50 and The Dark Knight Rises. Then he just kinda goes cold and sort of disappears.
It’s pronounced Nikolaj.
Nathan Fillion. Not completely wasted, he has a successful TV Career, but as a film actor, very much wasted.
He could have been a leading action/comedy actor, there was so much potential for roles such as Nathan Drake, Green Lantern, Buck from ODST and of course, more Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly. But instead, he is relegated to cop procedurals and random cameos.
Jason Patric
Amanda Peet, charming, smart, funny, beautiful – thought she would go the “full Julia”
Michael Rooker.
Not that his career has been wasted but I think he has more potential than a type cast antagonist in almost everything he plays.
I’m surprised that almost everyone from The Wire didn’t really make a name for themselves. Not that they don’t get work.
Of course you have Idris & I don’t know if you can count Michal B Jordan (since he didn’t have that much screen time [comparatively]). But most of them are support cast, did other HBO projects or smaller productions.
Eva Mendes; she started off slow and was gaining popularity then just dropped off the face of the earth when she had children
In my opinion, he should have been cast as Joel in The Last Of Us.
Edward Furlong. He was great in AMERICAN HISTORY X and DETROIT ROCK CITY,but his insane behavior gave him a bad name in movies. He has about a decade before he can even attempt a comeback, if he lives that long.
Billy Zane.
What went wrong? It seems that he should have been a lot more of an impact, but never really took off.
He was always on the verge of catching on, with bit parts in Poetic Justice, Titanic, and a even few major movies.
I think he didn’t get on behind the scenes with the Hollywood *elite*.
Seems odd that Van Damme, and Seagal got careers, but Billy Zane didn’t.
Aaron Eckhart was in one of the biggest movies of all time. Proved he could be a leading man in Thank You For Smoking…. And nothing. (Except I, Frankenstein)
Jensen Ackles. Charismatic, handsome, funny and good with action. Has enough range to be viable in action, comedy and drama. Clearly loved doing Supernatural and is good in The Boys, but 15 seasons of the former, and on the smallest TV networks? Took him out of contention for things like the MCU. Heck, he’d have made a great Nathan Drake or Mutt Williams too.
Eric Bana had an amazing run with Troy, Black Hawk Down, Hulk and Munich, but he admittedly just acts to fund his first love of car racing
I get that he’s huge in Germany; but I walked out of Inglourious Basterds thinking Til Schweiger was going to be huge in Hollywood – great, emotive performance, leading man good looks.
This has Idris Elba written all over it. He’s a phenomenal actor and his TV work overall has been great between The Wire, Luther, and Hijack. However, his film work has been a massive disappointment given his level of talent. Sure every once in a while he’ll show up in a good movie and deliver a fantastic performance like he did in Beasts of No Nation and Molly’s Game. But most of his filmography is littered with utter crap films like Cats, Bastille Day, The Dark Tower, Beast, The Mountain Between Us, and Hobbs & Shaw. I keep waiting for someone to finally give him an incredible role or for him to work with better filmmakers but sadly I think he’s just content with collecting more paychecks.
Michael C Hall
Yvonne Strahovski. Her filmography doesn’t do justice to her talent.
Anna Torv.
Henry Cavil.
Yes, he’s had a good career but he could’ve been so much bigger. They ruined both Superman and Witcher, and he’s definitely got the chops.
Jon Hamm. Guy has the looks, charisma, and chops to be the biggest star on the planet, but has only done mid-to-bad films. Must have the worst agent in the business.
Titus Welliver
Michael Pitt and Jack Huston were so good in Boardwalk Empire, then not much, at least that I know about.
Taylor Schilling. I thought she was gonna really take off after Orange is The New Black.
Aaron Paul . Seems like he would be a bigger actor after Breaking Bad and winning Emmy awards. I know he has been in a few things since but he is such an amazing actor.
Emile Hirsch