10 Actors Who Had A Massive Resurgence
From Keanu Reeves to Marlon Brando, here are some of the greatest acting comebacks ever.
An actor's career in Hollywood is often the equivalent of a rollercoaster. One moment you soar to super-stardom and the next you find yourself scraping the bottom of the barrel both critically and commercially. Sometimes this comes down to the types of films they previously appeared in.
Typecasting is all too common in the movie business; once an actor establishes themselves into a specific genre or performance, they can often struggle to break out into other efforts. The critics can paint them with a single brush and audiences can be mostly indifferent to their wider efforts.
Yet when an actor does get the opportunity to show off their skills in a big way, it can quickly silence all who doubted them before. It can take time for actors to spark a new resurgence, but when they do, their reputation can often skyrocket across the industry.
These ten actors started off slow or hit a slump, then shot themselves to super-stardom in the years following. They either casted off the unwanted baggage of previous efforts or landed a brilliant role that really showed off what they could do.
Let's take a look...
10. Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola, daughter of the renowned director Francis Ford, got her start in 1990's The Godfather Part III. It was a contentious casting choice at the time and when Mary Corleone showed up in the film, critics and audiences were not pleased.
The daughter of the infamous Michael Corleone was a major part of the story and this put Coppola's lacklustre performance on full display. She was widely regarded as the weakest element in an already disappointing third chapter. The actress was panned so badly that she landed two dubious honours at the Golden Razzie Awards.
From here, things didn't get much better for Coppola in the acting scene. While she appeared in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in a very minor role, it became clear that directly performing was not her strong suit. However, seemingly taking after her father, she proved to have a great talent for directing instead.
Starting with 1999's The Virgin Suicides, she found massive success making feature films rather than starring in them. Over the last two decades, Coppola has consistently put out great work while also filling in directing, writing and producing duties simultaneously. Thanks to this shift, she is now highly regarded as a filmmaker.