10 Movies That Almost Killed Actors' Careers
3. Cutthroat Island - Geena Davis
The things we do for love. In 1995 Geena Davis was married to director Renny Harlin, who had decided that his wife should be rebranded as an action star.
In the past decade Davis had appeared in The Fly, Beetlejuice, Thelma And Louise, and The Accidental Tourist (winning an Oscar for the latter), but per Harlin, things needed freshening up.
Cutthroat Island sounds a fine idea on paper, an oldschool swashbuckler with the always charming Davis in the lead. On screen, though, it was a disaster, with a dull script and flat characters.
It was a colossal bomb, not only damaging the pirate genre for the next eight years but taking a serious chunk out of Davis’ credibility as a commercially viable leading lady. Harlin’s heart was in the right place, but he could not have failed much more spectacularly in his goal of reinvention.
Davis was ultimately fine, rebuilding her reputation with solid movies and headlining a couple of TV shows. Her marriage to Remy Harlin, however, didn’t last. It may be unfair to blame that on Cutthroat Island as well, but it certainly gets you thinking.