5 Movies That Nearly Ended An Actor's Career

Life has a sense of humor. Actors toil for roles throughout their careers, competing with countless other talented performers. Then, when they receive something ... Wham! The movie flops, and they face the fallout. Hey, no one said that life has a good sense of humor.

Almost every single actor has had to deal with a job that didn't go the way they might have imagined it — it's part and parcel of the gig, really. However, there are extreme cases in which a role ends, or nearly ends, a career. Is it fair? Of course not, but Hollywood operates in its own world of imaginary rules and bogus perceptions. Instead of taking into account that a film is made by cast and crew, where everyone shares responsibility in the success or failure, one person can take the heat and be branded an outcast.

Having said that, let's take a look back at five movies that nearly ended an actor's career. Fortunately, all of these folks bounced back in the end, while some of their peers weren't so lucky.

Walking into a Paul Verhoeven film, it's best to expect the unexpected. If the filmmaker has taught the audiences anything through his filmography, it's that he's unafraid of taking massive risks that are often divisive. Consequently, it's unsurprising that his 1995 film, "Showgirls," elicited a general W-T-F among critics and viewers at the time of its release (even if it's gone on to become something of a cult classic). Yet, this steamy drama ruined Elizabeth Berkley's career for the longest time.

Berkley had become famous as Jessie Spano in the teen sitcom "Saved by the Bell." "Showgirls" was an attempt to shed her image as a young star and be taken more seriously as an actor. However, the role of drifter Nomi Malone, who dreams of becoming a Vegas showgirl, did the opposite for her career. "I was bullied," Berkley told People about the reaction to "Showgirls" from the media. "And I didn't understand why I was being blamed. The job as an actor is to fulfill the vision of the director. And I did everything I was supposed to do." The actor added that she was seen as "a pariah" in Hollywood and no one wanted to work with her.

Despite the entertainment industry trying to shut her out, Berkley persevered. She convinced people of her talents and used the negative reaction toward "Showgirls" as fuel to rebuild her career in her own way, securing roles in numerous films and TV shows thereafter.

The late '90s turned Ben Affleck into a movie star. From Michael Bay's "Armageddon" to John Madden's "Shakespeare in Love," you couldn't escape him. The turn of the millennium saw Affleck suffer from overexposure and a few divisive flicks such as "Pearl Harbor" and "Daredevil," but nothing could have prepared him for "Gigli."

Starring alongside his then-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, Affleck experienced the ire of critics and fans for this 2003 Martin Brest disasterpiece. It was a universal thumbs down for this rom-com about two gangsters falling in love. As a matter of fact, the only lasting quality about the film is the hilarious exchange between Lopez's Ricki and Affleck's Larry Gigli after she tells him that "it's turkey time, gobble, gobble."

As the golden boy of Hollywood, Affleck received the brunt of it all. The actor told Entertainment Weekly that the reception toward "Gigli" and himself made him wonder if his time as a performer was well and truly up. There was one bright spark out of the situation, though. "But if the reaction to 'Gigli' hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have ultimately decided, 'I don't really have any other avenue but to direct movies,' which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life," he said. Affleck turned his focus to directing, but he would return as an actor to secure roles in notable films like "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Gone Girl."

Roger Christian's "Battlefield Earth" is generally regarded as an awful movie adaptation that should have never happened, as well as one of the worst movies of all time. It received horrendous reviews and belly flopped at the box office, further compounding its status as a cinematic failure.

Yet, "Battlefield Earth" was a true passion project for John Travolta, who used his clout in Hollywood to get it made. At one point, he told Science Fiction Weekly that he viewed the L. Ron Hubbard story as "'Pulp Fiction' for the year 3000." Regardless of Travolta's involvement, it did nothing to turn around the movie's fortunes. Don't expect the actor to apologize for "Battlefield Earth," though, as he told The Daily Beast he would happily do it all over again. "I had the power to do whatever I wanted, and I chose to do a book that I thought was worthy of making into a movie," he said. "It's a beautiful film. It's a good movie."

While most people may disagree with Travolta on this assessment, there's no disputing the film had a negative effect on his career. Before "Battlefield Earth," he was starring in the likes of "Pulp Fiction," "Face/Off," and "Broken Arrow." After the 2000 movie, the blockbuster roles decreased. Sure, he still maintained a productive and likely lucrative career, but he was no longer the A-list John Travolta from before.

Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" remains a conundrum. The 2006 film received a decent reception from fans and critics alike, but it failed to ignite the box office. While it's unlikely to be anyone's favorite film about the Man of Steel, it's far from the disaster that some other comic book movies have been. However, "Superman Returns" almost ended Brandon Routh's acting career. At the time, Singer decided to cast the fresh-faced Routh as Kal-El. This was meant to be his breakout role and lead to a major career as a leading man in Hollywood — much like the Superman role had done for Christopher Reeve decades earlier.

Even though "Superman Returns" didn't make the money that the execs may have expected, there were still plans for a sequel. "It was a very slow fizzle out of the possibility of a sequel over the next two/three years," Routh said on the "Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum" podcast. The actor added how he and everyone around him bought into the hype that this was the start of something big, so he had to face the harsh reality that it wasn't going to happen.

Routh went from leading one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer to nothing over the next two years. While he has picked up roles over time, he never climbed his way back to the top of the film business. Instead, he found success on TV, where he received the chance to reprise the Superman role in the Arrowverse.

Disney put its eggs in one basket for 2012's "John Carter" — about $300 million worth of eggs, in fact. It was a major investment for the studio, hoping to turn Edgar Rice Burroughs' literary hero from yesteryear into the next "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. Unfortunately, "John Carter" flopped hard, failing to turn a profit and receiving middling reviews.

It's a shame, because the film showed promise and could have kickstarted something special over time. At the center of the storm was the lead, Taylor Kitsch, who Hollywood had its eyes on as the next big thing. He was cast in everything from "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" to "Battleship." After the failure of "John Carter," though, blockbuster makers cooled on Kitsch. However, he also chose a different path, starring in smaller films like "American Assassin" and "The Grand Seduction" and notable TV shows, such as "True Detective" and "The Terminal List."

Speaking to The Guardian, Kitsch revealed that the "John Carter" disappointment rocked him at first, but he had let it go in the years thereafter. "I'm proud of the way I led that shoot," he said. "You move on."