10 Exact Movie Moments That Killed A Career

3. The Trip That Sunk A Career - Cuba Gooding Jr.

You know that things aren’t going well when you go from the highs of the Academy Awards to the lows of the anti-Oscars known as the Razzies. After nabbing himself a Best Supporting Actor gong for 1996’s Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s career took a nosedive with 2002’s Boat Trip.

A movie universally slammed as being one of the most homophobic mainstream pictures in modern cinema history, Boat Trip was panned at every turn by critics and fans alike. Outright offensive, this was one trip that ultimately sank the career of Gooding Jr.

The key moment that it all went wrong for Cuba? This clip of Gooding Jr.’s horned-up Jerry and pal Nick (Horatio Sanz) realising that they’ve signed up for a gay cruise is a good place to start when looking for the beginning of the end.

In the years since Boat Trip, Cuba Gooding Jr. – somebody once seen as one of the finest actors of his generation – has been reduced to headlining bargain basement trash. The only flicker of life in Gooding Jr.’s career in recent years has been his strong turns in The People v. O.J. Simpson and FX’s American Horror Story: Roanoke.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.