People Who Wiped Their Asses With Their Oscars
Nothing is more coveted to an actor than the opportunity to win an Oscar. So why do so many Academy Award winners make so many bad choices for their follow up movie after they win? You would think that you would take that win and up the ante. Parlay that award into more great films. And some do. But we were shocked when we realized how many people followed up that part of a lifetime with embarrassing performances in bad movies.
1. Anthony Hopkins follows up Silence of the Lambs with Freejack
Anthony Hopkins scared the shit out of everyone in Silence of the Lambs, locking up best Actor in 1991. At that point, he should have been able to pick and choose any roles he wanted. And he picked…..Freejack!? Yep the 1992 film starring him, Mick Jagger and Emilio Estevez. Sure, it’s a cult classic today, but not exactly a great follow up to Silence of the Lambs. He plays Ian McCandless, the man who wants to use Emilio Estevez’s body to prolong his own life. This widely panned film was immediately relegated to the Sunday Afternoon movie.
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2. Kevin Costner follows up Dances with Wolves with Waterworld/The Postman
Kevin Costner grabs the Directing Oscar for Dances with Wolves in 1990, yet doesn’t exercise his skills behind the camera again until 1995 with Waterworld, when the film’s original director walked off the set . After all the accolades he received for Dances with Wolves, he shit all over it with one of the biggest bombs in Hollywood history. Bonus fact, the next film he decided to direct was the equally shat upon The Postman in 1997.
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3. Halle Berry follows up Monsters Ball with Die Another Day and X Men 2, and then Catwoman!?
In 2001 Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress, and she won it for her role in Monster’s Ball. The only way to top that is to immediately be in the Bond film Die Another Day as Jinx Johnson. Then follow that with her portrayal of Storm in X Men 2. And to complete the hat trick, she then starred in Catwoman, quite possibly one of the worst films ever made, earning her the Razzie.
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4. Roberto Benigni follows up Life is Beautiful with Pinocchio
After a hyper-enthusiastic acceptance at the Academy Awards, Roberto Benigni left everyone watching with winner’s remorse. Did we really just give that guy an Academy Award!? Well, we’ll see what he does next. 2002’s Pinocchio only confirmed our suspicions that Roberto is completely insane and shouldn’t be anywhere near a movie camera.
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5. Natalie Portman follows up Black Swan with Your Highness
It’s one thing to follow-up an Oscar performance with a shitty movie. It’s a totally different thing to have a major ad campaign for that shitty movie running DURING the run up to the Oscars. Everyone knew Natalie Portman was a shoe-in for Best Actress last year for Black Swan, and that’s why it pained us so much to watch the ads for her follow up film. Your Highness of course, went up in smoke. It tanked…bad.
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6. Denzel Washington follows up Glory with Heart Condition
What better way to follow up your portrayal as a former slave turned civil war soldier than with a light hearted comedy about a recently deceased black lawyer who’s heart gets transplanted into a racist cop!? Oh, and the ghost of the lawyer haunts the cop and helps him solves crime. That’s exactly what Denzel did after Glory. The movie was such a disaster that it has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has scared Denzel from doing comedies all together.
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7. Robin Williams follows up Good Will Hunting with Flubber
Robin Williams, who is literally comedy royalty gets an Oscar win for Good Will Hunting. And his next co-star is…a piece of green goo !? Why Robin? Why would you follow up that stellar performance in Good Will Hunting with Flubber!?
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8. Adrian Brody follows up The Pianist with The Singing Detective
Brody’s Oscar win was surprising to begin with. All the more reason to choose your next film wisely. But what did he do? He followed The Pianist up with a filmed called The Singing Detective, in which Robert Downey Jr plays –surprise!–a singing detective! Not the best choice.
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9. Louis Gossett Jr. follows up An Officer and a Gentleman with Jaws 3-D
Lou Gossett Jr. made history on Oscar night by becoming the first African American man to win an Academy Award for a supporting role. This was for his portrayal of Marine Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in “An Officer and a Gentlemen”, the demanding drill instructor who terrorized Richard Gere throughout the film. His follow up? Jaws 3-D, where the terror of the Jaws franchise completely evaporated and the effects were laughable. Lou Gossett took his fans from a historic Oscar moment to a really fake looking bloody shark jaw floating towards them in 3 dimensions.
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10. Micheal Cimino follows up The Deer Hunter with Heaven’s Gate
After picking up the Oscar for The Deer hunter the sky was the limit for Micheal Cimino. How does he follow up winning the golden bald man? Heavens Gate! A critical and commercial bomb so bad that it almost destroyed a studio. Heaven’s Gate is now synonymous with the word bomb so much that Hollywood only uses it in hushed tones. As in..”Oh Oh Titanic is costing so much money is this Cameron’s Heavens Gate?” Cimino is rarely seen in public and has never directed another hit movie.
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