10 Breakout Movie Performances That Ultimately Went Nowhere

The Big Break:

A stage actor with only a couple of previous minor screen credits, Christian McKay was spotted by director Richard Linklater in the solo play Rosebud: The Lives Of Orson Welles at the Brits Off Broadway Festival. Linklater subsequently cast him in the title role in the 2008 film Me And Orson Welles against objections of the movie's producers who wanted a more familiar name.

While the critical response to the movie's nominal lead, Zac Efron immediately off the back of High School Musical 3, was muted, unsure of Efron's potential to transition from teen idol to serious actor, McKay as Welles was seen as a breakout star.

With McKay nominated for a stack of awards including a BAFTA and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor, it seemed like it would be him and not Efron that we would be seeing a lot more of in future.

But Then:

While Efron surprised a lot of people by eventually becoming a genuine movie star once he found his niche as a douchey dudebro in broad comedies, McKay has struggled to move beyond a knack for playing larger-than-life historical characters, a trend that has seen him mostly confined to a career as a minor supporting player.

Undoubtedly his role as Welles has helped land McKay parts like flamboyant racing car owner Alexander Hesketh in Rush or gossip columnist Earl Wilson in Florence Foster Jenkins. But these are little more than colourful cameos and nothing like the kind of major parts he looked likely to get after that film.

He can currently be seen playing the Mayor of San Francisco on Cinemax's "based on an idea by Bruce Lee" nineteenth-century martial arts show Warrior.