Movie

Wed Jul 31 13:21:00 EDT 2013

This week, a small-scale indie Australian surfing movie called “Drift, ” which details two surfing brothers struggling to overcome their debt-ridden backgrounds and avoid a descent into criminality, opens in limited release. It shares almost nothing in common with the Biggest-Movie-Of-All-Time “Avatar” except its star, Sam Worthington, who in fact plays third lead here behind two largely unknown Aussie actors as the brothers. If it seems like a far cry from Pandora for Worthington, well, that’s because it is. Nothing to do with the quality of the film, but just in terms of the whisper-quiet buzz it’s getting, which Worthington’s presence alone should have beefed up if his stock in Hollywood meant anything at all. Yet despite a concerted effort that happened back there, Worthington just hasn’t ever become a bankable studio lead, and so here we are.

It’s hardly the first time (and won't be the last) Hollywood has decided that a certain actor is gonna be huge and has done all it can to make that happen, and yet it hasn’t. It’s kind of strange and a little unfair that in a town where we’re regularly assured that every waiter is an actor waiting for his break, some never get a shot while others get more than one, even if audiences don’t embrace them the first time out. But it also shows how strange an echo-box tinseltown can be—sometimes all that needs to happen is that Studio X hears Studio Y loves This Guy for their next big star, and Studio X then has to cast him, and so on. Then a few years later This Guy has six movies coming out, and is on every magazine cover, and audiences, unless they fall in love with him instantly, feel a little aggrieved that they’re so forcefully being sold an unknown quantity.

The circumstances differ, but the phenomenon is the same, so we’ve taken a look at the careers of 10 actors who, despite repeated attempts, We The Audience in our fickle magnificence have simply not deemed worthy of the A-list.

Ryan Reynolds
Attempts At The Big Time: "Blade Trinity" (2004), "The Amityville Horror" (2005), "Just Friends" (2005), "Definitely Maybe" (2008), "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009), "The Proposal" (2009), "Buried" (2010), "Green Lantern" (2011), "The Change-Up" (2011), "Safe House" (2012), "R.I.P.D." (2013)