10 Actors Who Made A Terrible Movie Right After Winning An Oscar

6. Helen Mirren - National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007)

Won An Oscar For: The Queen (2006) It's hard to imagine anyone other than Helen Mirren playing Queen Elizabeth II; she's without question the best thing about Stephen Frears' film, which is okay but only made watchable due to Mirren's magic. She was overdue for an Oscar, of course, and The Queen worked not only as a portrait of royalty, but as an ode to Mirren's talents. How do you follow a film like The Queen, then? Mirren's answer to that question, apparently, was: "You don't". Still, that doesn't quite explain why this recent Academy Award-winner found herself involved with sequel National Treasure: Book Of Secrets, which had her starring opposite Nicolas Cage (also an Oscar winner - go figure). Helen Mirren didn't appear in the first film, by the way. She wasn't contractually obliged to come back for a sequel or anything like that. She just signed up. Playing the awkwardly named Dr. Emily Appleton-Gates, she proved serviceable in a conventional role, but this just wasn't the movie for her; she felt wasted, whilst the film itself - centered on a plot about the Lincoln assassination being faked - made little sense. A sad follow-up, this.