10 Dying Acting Careers Saved By One Amazing Movie

10. Hugh Grant - Paddington 2

For most of the 1990s and the early 2000s, Hugh Grant was Britain's biggest export. The rom-com lead captured the hearts of moviegoers around the world, making them laugh, swoon, and talk in a dodgy English accent after starring in one hit after another, from Four Weddings and A Funeral to Love Actually.

Eventually, of course, audiences became fed up with seeing Grant in similar roles, and Grant himself became sick of the movies he was making, confessing to having a "bad attitude" after the release of Music and Lyrics, the final rom-com of his golden period.

After this, Grant essentially dropped off the face of the Earth, and his decline was confirmed by a box-office bomb in 2009. With this, the actor himself admitted "the days of being a very well-paid leading man were suddenly gone overnight.”

It wasn't until 2017's Paddington 2 that Grant properly encountered a career resurgence. Here he revelled in playing a villain - a proper, theatrical, pantomime bad guy - who stole the show and reminded audiences why they were so infatuated by his talent decades prior.

His role in the sequel received huge acclaim, and since then Grant has well and truly shrugged off his rom-com persona, taking on roles in multiple Guy Ritchie films and starring in well-received HBO dramas.