10 Exact Movie Moments That Killed A Career

The example of Elizabeth Berkley goes to show that an actor needs to be extremely careful when trying to reinvent themselves.

Hot on the heels of her Saved by the Bell days coming to an end in 1993 – not counting 1994’s Wedding in Las Vegas movie – Elizabeth Berkley was desperate to shed the ever-chirpy, insta-smiling persona of Saved by the Bell’s Jessie Spano. And what better says “shunning the shackles of Bayside” than starring in an R-rated movie overflowing with nudity and attempted eroticism?!

Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 Showgirls is a movie that so nearly took down the careers of several people behind and in front of the camera. No matter what metric you look at, Showgirls was a total disaster - and at the centre of this mess, of course, was poor Elizabeth Berkley.

Any chance that Berkley had of legitimising herself as a serious actor away from the pigeonholed roles that would be offered post-Saved by the Bell were well and truly gone. The film made its star a laughing stock, with the most chuckle-inducing moment the scene were Berkley’s Nomi straddles Kyle MacLachlan in a swimming pool and seemingly loses all control of her bodily functions.