10 Movies That Almost Killed Actors' Careers

In a way, it was the Oscar that did for Gooding Jr. After scooping the Best Supporting Actor prize for his brilliant turn in Jerry Maguire, he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. For a while he angled for more acclaimed projects like Men Of Honor and Pearl Harbour (a bad film with a great Gooding Jr performance), but when these didn’t take off like Maguire, he went broad.

Rat Race was pretty poor, but the nadir came in 2002’s Boat Trip.

A grubby, unpleasant film steeped in homophobia, this wasn’t befitting of an actor with Gooding Jr’s talents. It was a disaster, critically and commercially, and undid much of his good work starting with Boyz N The Hood.

Gooding Jr found it hard to course correct. First came more comedy duds like Norbit and Daddy Day Care. What followed was even worse: a good six years of obscurity. Everything was going straight to video; the guy couldn’t catch a break.

Things have turned around with strong work in The Butler and Selma, and prominent TV roles, but “Cuba Gooding Jr: Oscar winner” still sounds a little strange.