1. Ben Affleck
The reason Affleck is number 1 in this list is simple; to a certain extent hes managed, from the late noughties onwards to wrestle back what was most certainly a failing career, and bring it full circle to the point that hes actually getting himself respected again. He has my respect, but, to the general mainstream audience, I reckon theres still a black mark sullying his name for many, thanks to the round of flops he was attached to throughout the first half of the last decade. Rising to prominence proper in 1993 with Dazed and Confused, Affleck went on to be notably featured in Mallrats (which wasnt
that bad but it was kinda bad), and Chasing Amy, before earning massive acclaim writing and starring in Good Will Hunting, which netted him a screenwriting Oscar way early on in his career. Then JLo came along, and maybe out of sympathy for her, Affleck seemed to dumb himself down, so much so in fact that he actually appeared alongside her in possible one of the worst films ever put in front of a mainstream cinema audience. Gigli was a terrible, terrible mistake for everyone involved. Then there was 2003s Daredevil, then Paycheck, also in 2003, and in 2004 oh dear Surviving Christmas. The list goes on and it remains pretty shitty until very recently; for a minute there though, it really looked as though Afflecks career was all but dead and buried. In 2007 however, Affleck wrote and directed Gone Baby Gone and cemented himself back onto the scene as a serious player, albeit behind the camera. And its been exciting times since; his performance in The Town was made even more impressive by the fact that he also wrote and directed it and hes been in a slew of well received, all together classier movies (ala his turn as the original Superman in Hollywoodland) ever since. Although hes actually now a pretty smart director and a Hollywood hot-topic again, Im certain hell still spend the next 5 or so years scrubbing that black mark off his name, thats left over from his decidedly lame filmography throughout the better part of the noughties. A few performers may have slipped my net. Do you have any to add? Let us know won't you.