20 Actors Whose Careers Unexpectedly Imploded Before Stardom

When Brendan Fraser broke onto the acting scene, he was expected to make it big, but surprisingly, he disappeared shortly after a brief burst of activity on Hollywood screens. In hindsight, that stepback makes sense now after sordid details related to his mistreatment by Hollywood big-wigs became public. 

#1 Ezra Miller

Image source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images, Apple TV

Even The Flash isn’t quick enough to escape the downfall of Ezra Miller’s career.

Just as their name was starting to get big, a number of controversies started popping up, including accusations of grooming, assault, burglary, and abuse. They were also arrested multiple times.

Miller’s solo The Flash movie was released but did not do as well as their team had hoped. As of now, they don’t appear to have any upcoming projects.

#2 Brendan Fraser

Image source: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images, Hulu

It was Brendan Fraser’s time to shine in the late 90s and early 2000s, with projects such as The Mummy and Blast from the Past.

But things derailed when he faced a combination of health issues, personal struggles and most noticeably — the trauma of being an alleged sexual assault victim.

NME reported that Fraser spoke about HFPA President Philip Berk allegedly sexually assaulting him in the summer of 2003 in an interview with Lee Cohen.

He said the incident had changed the trajectory of his career, saying, “Well, yes, because there’s a system in place that is about power. And I had played by the rules up until that point. And I felt like, OK, now, suddenly, I’ve been violated. And it has gone too far. And I will no longer abide this.”

He added, “It was causing me emotional distress, it was causing me personal distress.”

There is hope for Fraser, however, with upcoming movies such as The Mummy 4 and Rental Family, but it’s undeniable that his career took a hit.

#3 Jennifer Grey

Image source: Taylor Hill/Getty Images, Apple TV

Timing was just not on Jennifer Grey’s side.

The New York native got a nose job after not getting any more movie roles despite the success of Dirty Dancing. And while she was able to land a role in the movie Wind, halfway throughout filming, she noticed white cartilage poking through at her nose tip.

She went under the knife again but looked noticeably different.

“Overnight I lost my identity and my career,” she said.

#4 Percy Hynes White

Image source: Alberto Rodriguez/Getty Images, Netflix

Wednesday was a huge success on Netflix, and Percy Hynes White — who played Xavier Thorpe — was riding that high, especially as he played a significant role in the series.

However, in January 2023, the actor was accused of sexual assault by a woman in Toronto who claimed he’d throw parties and take advantage of minors by giving them illicit substances and alcohol to get them to have s*x with him.

“He would pursue, have s*x with, abuse and get my friend high who was 13/14 at the time. Last time I knew they had s*x she was 16 and he was 20,” the woman said in a now-deleted tweet.

“He assaulted me at one of those parties awhile [sic] I was too drunk, and he had cornered and pressured and assaulted multiple of my friends.”

While the actor strongly denied any allegations against him, it seemed he has been written out of Wednesday season 2, despite season 1’s final episode hinting of a possible romance between Percy’s character and Wednesday.

#5 Isaiah Washington

Image source: Omar Vega/Getty Images, Netflix

Grey’s Anatomy was — and still is — the talk of the town, and Isaiah Washington had all the tools under his belt to make it big… until he was fired from the show after using a homophobic slur on set.

The actor claimed it wasn’t a direct attack at anyone, though sources claim it may have been aimed at his co-star T.R. Knight, who is gay.

A verbal fight between Washington and male lead Patrick Dempsey is what allegedly led to the slur being uttered

#6 Matthew Fox

Image source: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images, Netflix

The late 2000s was Matthew Fox’s time to shine while he starred on Lost. After that show ended in 2010, he decided to take a break from television — and that’s where things went downhill.

A year later, Fox was accused of assaulting a bus driver, though the charges were dropped. In 2012, he was arrested for driving under the influence and his Lost co-star Dominic Monaghan said in a tweet, “He beats women. Not isolated incidents. Often.”

Fox’s denial to everything but the DUI was made with confidence: “It’s been a long, trying year of sitting on my hands on a lot of negative sh–t said about me, when they’re the furthest things from who I am.

“That I beat a woman in Cleveland when in fact I was assaulted by a man and did nothing but retaliate against him?”

He added, “The 46 years I’ve been breathing on this planet, I have never hit a woman before. Never have, never will.”

#7 Armie Hammer

 

Image source: MEGA/Getty Images, Netflix

Call Me By Your Name’s Armie Hammer saw great success coming his way — until sexual assault allegations and alleged messages where he called himself a cannibal made their way to social media.

It didn’t take long before all of his upcoming projects fired him while he was simultaneously dropped by his agency and publicist. He retreated from the public eye and was allegedly seen working as a salesperson in the Cayman Islands.

Hammer did speak up about the allegations, admitting his past behavior: “I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an asshole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on.”

#8 Shannen Doherty

Image source: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images, Amazon Prime Video

Shannon Doherty wasn’t the most pleasant to work with, according to past drama and stories from her co-stars.

She was first fired from hit series Beverly Hills, 90210 after reportedly acting “difficult” during filming and having issues with her co-workers, specifically Tori Spelling.

She was also said to have gotten into a physical fight with her co-star Jennie Garth and was requested to be fired from set by Spelling due to the rising tensions.

Her next big gig on Charmed led to her departure, as well — but it seemed as if it was Doherty’s own decision due to “too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work.”

Doherty was only able to appear in a few TV shows and a reality show, following the incidents.

#9 Emile Hirsch

Image source: Griffin Nagel/Getty Images, Netflix

Things were going great with Emile Hirsch when he starred in Into the Wild and its success was undeniable. His career didn’t exactly skyrocket after what should have been his breakout role, however. After being involved in a few other small projects, Hirsch assaulted a female Paramount executive at Sundance in 2015, as per BBC.

She told police Hirsch had, “choked me up, threw me across the table, and I felt the front of my throat hit the back of my throat,” calling the whole incident “insanely painful and absolutely terrifying.”

Hirsch pled guilty to charges of assault and spent 15 days in jail, later revealing that he didn’t remember what had happened as he was binge drinking. In the years that followed, he never quite landed a role that brought in the success as Into the Wild did.

#10 Jussie Smollett

Image source: Paras Griffin/Getty Images, Hulu

Starring in Empire, Jussie Smollett was on the way to make a name for himself. And in early 2019, the entire world seemed to be on his side after he experienced a hate crime in Chicago.

But his grave was of his own making.

Police investigators later found out Smollett had staged the entire attack and released the two men who had been accused of attacking the actor. He was subsequently fired from Empire.

Charges were filed against the now 42-year-old for making a false police report and wasting police resources. A 2021 trial found him guilty of five out of the six counts he’d been charged with, and he was sentenced to county jail for 150 days.

#11 T.j. Miller

Image source: Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images, Max

The 43-year-old comedian reached his peak being cast in projects such as Deadpool and the beloved How to Train Your Dragon franchise — but it ended there.

He was accused of sexual assault during the #MeToo movement, which he later denied and joked about onstage while doing a stand-up comedic performance. He also raised brows in 2018 when he called 911 to report a fake bomb on an Amtrak train.

As said by the US Attorney’s office in Connecticut, the officer who answered his call and his fellow passengers reported that he’d looked drunk, with a witness saying he had been “involved in hostile exchanges” with a woman.

Miller was later indicted for “intentionally conveying to law enforcement false information about an explosive device on a train,” but this charge was dropped. Since then, the HTTYD franchise has re-cast him and overdubbed all his lines.

#12 Cas Anvar

Image source: Paul Archuleta/Getty Images, Amazon Prime Video

Cas Anvar’s role in The Expanse helped him “skyrocket” to fame, as said on his website, which later led him to a recurring role on How to Get Away With Murder.

But that all screeched to a halt in 2020 when he was accused of harassment and sexual misconduct — both of which he denied. He was fired from The Expanse and has only appeared in two projects since then.

#13 Eliza Dushku

Image source: Kristina Bumphrey/Getty Images, Amazon Prime Video

Odds seemed to be stacked against Eliza Dushku when she worked on the set of CBS’ Bull. At first, she was only a recurring character in season 1 of the show — set to be a regular in the upcoming seasons — until she accused co-star Michael Weatherly of sexual harassment.

According to Variety, when Weatherly was made aware of the allegation, he texted the head of CBS Studios, and she was fired the next day.

“I was told that the role would be a six-year commitment to play a smart, strong leading lady, a confident high-powered lawyer meant to counterbalance the existing male lead, and that the role had been written specifically with me in mind,” Dushku said.

“However, in my first week on my new job I found myself the brunt of crude, sexualized and lewd verbal assaults. I suffered near constant sexual harassment from my co-star. This was beyond anything I had experienced in my 30-year career.”

#14 Hayden Christensen

Image source: Jesse Grant/Getty Images, Disney+

The Chosen One is the perfect example of ‘right person, wrong time.’

Hayden Christensen landed the huge role of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise but his performance in the prequels in the early 2000s was widely disliked by critics to the point where it greatly impacted his career.

For a while, he even felt unworthy of his fame, as seen in an interview he did with the LA Times.

“I guess I felt like I had this great thing in ‘Star Wars’ that provided all these opportunities and gave me a career, but it kind of felt a little too handed to me,” he said. “I didn’t want to go through life feeling like I was just riding a wave.”

Now, Christensen is gaining a lot more attention and love for his role as Anakin/Darth Vader, especially with his appearance in 2022’s Obi Wan Kenobi, where he reprised his beloved character.

#15 Elizabeth Berkley

Image source: Jeremy Chan/Getty Images, Apple TV

Elizabeth Berkley’s downfall was based on nothing but bad luck.

Her breakout role as the brainy beauty Jessie Spano on Saved by the Bell led to several other parts, including a big movie role in Showgirls, according to ET.

This, however, flopped hard at the box office and on Rotten Tomatoes, taking Berkley down with it. For the next decade or so, the actress continued to work in the industry but her career never quite made a comeback.

#16 Gina Carano

Image source: Mathew Tsang/Getty Images, Disney+

Bright things seemed to be on the way for this pro wrestler turned actress as she starred in The Mandalorian as the widely-loved Cara Dune. But in early 2021, Carano posted a photo on social media, saying how being a Republican at the time felt like being a Jew during the World War II.

The backlash was immediate, and encouraged fans to dig up more problematic behavior, such as the time she vocalized her annoyance at wearing face masks and claiming voter fraud in 2020.

Lucasfilm then fired her and wrote her off the show.

“Her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable,” said a representative of the film production company.

#17 Justin Baldoni

Image source: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images, Netflix

The legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively/Ryan Reynolds has dominated headlines as of late, and while his career hasn’t exactly been ‘ruined,’ it’s definitely going to have an impact on the projects he works on afterwards.

Lively first sued Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment on December 21, citing incidents during the shooting of It Ends With Us. The actor was then dropped by management two days later.

Almost a month later on January 17, Baldoni launched a counter lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds, saying the Hollywood couple was “deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio.”

A trial date has been set for March 9, 2026.

#18 Mischa Barton

Image source: Kristina Bumphrey/Getty Images, Hulu

“Mischa Barton’s career died with her character Marissa Cooper, change my mind,” was the topic of discussion in a Reddit thread that has reached many fans of Hollywood. And while ‘died’ may be a bit of a strong word, the actress herself admits that things definitely changed for her after starring in The O.C.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Barton opened up about what it was like being so famous at just the age of 17, describing the experience as “very Hunger Games.”

“I was stalked. I did go a little bit nuts at [one] point. I just felt really helpless.”

She added, “You can go to therapy every day for the rest of your life. But there’s just a certain amount of trauma [from] all that I went through, particularly in my early 20s, that just doesn’t go away overnight.”

#19 Taylor Kitsch

Image source: Theo Wargo/Getty Images, Amazon Prime Video

Friday Night Lights helped launch Taylor Kitsch into stardom and secured his huge role in both John Carter and Battleship.

These, however, flopped in the box office, and his trajectory was led askew.

“I’m very proud of John Carter,” Kitsch stated. “Box office doesn’t validate me as a person, or as an actor.”

His presence in future smaller projects, however, may be the key to making it big again.

#20 Katherine Heigl

Image source: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images, Netflix

This Grey’s Anatomy star may have gotten too comfortable in her role and made a series of questionable remarks that led to her downfall.

She first subtly shaded the writers of Grey’s by withdrawing herself of her Emmy nomination in 2008, saying, “I did not feel I was given the material this season to warrant a nomination.” She has since apologized for the comment, saying she felt as if there wasn’t enough “juicy, dramatic, emotional material” to rival her win from the year prior.

After starring in her first major movie role in Knocked Up, Heigl called her character “a little sexist” and mentioned it was hard to love the project.

The backlash eventually reached her and she clarified, “I liked the movie a lot. I just didn’t like me.”

She was then backlisted from Hollywood and has gained what she deems to be an “unfair reputation.”