10 Exact Moments Actors Thought They Were Finished

Those times when some of the industry's biggest stars thought they were well and truly done.

margot robbie wolf of wall street
Paramount

Show business can be a pretty unpredictable place at the best of times.

As quickly as a star can become the hottest actor in town, they can suddenly crash back down to reality with a critically panned showing in another big or small screen offering.

And with the industry moving on at such a rapid pace, it's not uncommon for a performer to feel as though one wrong step could swiftly bring an end to their once successful or promising career.

Thankfully, when it comes to this particularly star-studded collection of thespians, each and every one of them were able to bounce back from the box office disasters, awkward moments on set, critically slammed performances, or even just the general way they were being treated in the business at one point or another. And most of them went on to even bigger and better things in the wake of once thinking they'd reached the end of their acting road.

However, whether it was down to the fact that it seemed as though nobody wanted to work with them after a high-profile misfire, or simply feeling as though they'd been found out as actors after one rather disappointing showing, the following stars still very much felt as though their time in the spotlight was over at these precise moments in time.

10. Matt Damon's Career Was Going Downhill Before Being Offered The Informant!

margot robbie wolf of wall street
Warner Bros.

As hard as it may be to believe, Matt Damon's career was actually in a little bit of trouble in the early 2000's.

According to the star himself during a Hot Ones interview, before being offered the lead role in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!, his career was very much heading in the wrong direction.

At the time of chatting with the talented director, Damon's eventual hit Bourne series hadn't been released in cinemas and the star had been at the centre of a number of "bombs". And the actor was actually so convinced that nobody would be willing to give him a job at the time of chatting with Soderbergh that he didn't even realise he was being offered the part by his eventual director.

So, after double-checking if he was merely being brought on board to write the script, and being told that Steven most definitely just wanted him to star in the comedy crime flick, Damon was all in.

And while it may have taken nearly a decade for the two to actually unleash The Informant! into the world, by the time it was, Damon was a rather bankable Hollywood star. And the feature went on to earn some pretty decent reviews, too.

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Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...