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Actors you thought could have been bigger than they turned out to be


Here are a few of the actors I thought were destined for bigger things.

1) Claire Forlani - She costarred with Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black, and I thought she had amazing screen presence and would be the next big thing. Unfortunately, she seemed to stick with her B grade movie line up, and her next big movies were 'mystery men' and 'the medallion'. More or less flops.

2) Josh Harnett - He had a great start with Pearl Harbor, and was offered huge roles like Spiderman and even Batman. But he did the 'Leonardo DiCaprio' thing and turned down the blockbusters, choosing more drama-driven roles. For Leo, the post-Titanic strategy paid off in spades, for Josh however, it meant fading into obscurity with a string of bombs. It's kind of ironic that Ben Affleck, who did sign on to the big movies that came his way, got to have his cake and eat it too, directing a few critically acclaimed movies then landing Batman, the role that was offered to Josh.

3) Mischa Barton - She was the 'it girl' of the 2000s, with the success of The O.C., she was thought to be outgrowing her TV stardom as the bright lights of the Silver Screen beaconed. But Hollywood never worked out for her. I didn't think she was the next Julia Roberts, but I was actually surprised at how poorly her move to cinema paid off. She more or less did a Farrah Fawcett, who left her stardom on TV for an unsuccessful shot at the big screen.

Who do you feel were meant to have bigger careers?

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Skeet Ulrich. When he played Billy Loomis in Scream, it looked like he would be going places, but overall he's worked sparsely since the 90's.

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I just looked him up. It seems that once the 'youth' roles dried up, so did the parts he got offered. That happens a lot. You get stuck as one age group, or you hang onto too long and you're unable to transition to 'adult' roles. I think Ryan Phillippe was like this. He played the "young" guy way too long.

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He seemed to be everywhere in the 90's and 2000's and then just disappeared. He is on TV now in Riverdale.

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Neve Campbell. That's the big one that always, always comes to mind. She was set to be huge after Party of Five, the Scream franchise and The Craft - then the 2000s arrived and she departed.

If I think of more, I'll add them later.

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Jamie Gertz she was in some popular films in the 80's and 90's but never quite kept it going. Then ended up on TV.

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