17 Actors Who Have Opened Up About Struggling To Find A Job After A Big Break

Normally, we'd expect an actor to get plenty of offers after his "big break," like how Titanic made Leonardo DiCaprio an instant A-lister, or how The Wolf of Wall Street catapulted Margot Robbie's career.

20th Century Fox Film Corp. Everett Collection, courtesy of Mary Cybulski/Paramount/Everett Collection

However, for many players, a big role doesn't always lead to meaningful advances in the industry. For others, the pool of opportunity could dry up sooner than expected. Either way, actors can often attribute their lack of job offers to factors like racism, age, or handwriting.

Here are 17 actors who struggled to find work after their "big break":

1. After suddenly picking up everything everywhere, Ke Huy Quan "couldn't find a job, not even a phone call." He also lost his health insurance after failing to post documents in 2021.

Courtesy of Allyson Riggs /© A24 / Everett Collection

But after the film's release, she began receiving offers from major Hollywood producers.

He said on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show , "Our movie came out in March. And in April, Kevin Feige called me and asked me to join the MCU family. No one wanted me, and when he was one of the most powerful producers in the world, I said, "Hey, we want you in season 2 of Loki ," she says.

2. After nearly 40 years of career, Michelle Yeoh has found that "the roles get smaller as you get older" and "you get more and more forgotten".

Everywhere suddenly everything vomited and broke this cycle.

He said on The Envelope LA Times podcast, "The first thing was, 'Finally, thank you. You [filmmakers] see me, you really see me, and you give me a chance to show you. I can do it all ' because it means you're the one controlling the entire process of telling the story.

3. After her Oscar-winning performance on West Side Story, Rita Moreno believed that "Hollywood is really taking a break." He turned down any formulaic role that was offered to him and was "absolutely heartbroken" that he didn't get bigger roles.

United artists from the Everett Collection

He told BuzzFeed, "I've been offered a lot of smaller films. I remember getting the Golden Globe and the Oscar and saying, 'I'm never going to play a role like this. I won't do it,'" I said. I haven't worked on a film in seven years.

4. Mena Massoud beat 2,000 other actors to star in Aladdin (2019), which grossed $1 billion at the box office. Then a month later: " Aladdin hasn't had a test since it came out."

Courtesy of Daniel Smith / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Everett Collection

He told the Daily Beast: "I'm tired of being silent about this. I want people to know that when you do something like Aladdin, it's not always gingerbread and roses. “He probably made millions. He got all these offers.' It's not one of those things."

5. Bella Thorne found it "very difficult to find a job" after the Disney Channel series Shake It Up ended in 2013. The casting directors didn't want to see him, they said, "He's a Disney actor." ""

Bruce Birmelin / © Disney Channel / Courtesy: Everett Collection

He told the Happy Sad Confused podcast , "It was like starting over and going all the way down."

6. After winning the Oscar for Monster's Ball in 2002 (she was the only black actress to win the award for best actress), Halle Berry hasn't had the same offers as her white peers. and often had to take portions to feed her children.

Courtesy of Lions Gate/Everett Collection

He told Entertainment Weekly: "It was amazing. Because I thought they were going to put her in the back of a truck and drop her off at my house, right? When you achieve a historic win like this, you think, 'Oh, this is going to happen.' It changed me dramatically, but it didn't change my place in the company overnight. I had to get back to work. I had yet to break the deadlock fight out."

7. Aidy Bryant rose to fame as an actress on "Saturday Night Live," but outside of show business, she was only offered fat character roles, like "the ugly girl who is the male character's wife in prison." "."

NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

She told Adweek, "I remember thinking, 'Oh, they think this is a funny thing for me, and it's so offensive.' I think I should write about myself..."

In fact, he chose to write roles for himself by co-creating and starring in the television series Shrill .

8. When The Kissing Booth aired on Netflix, Jacob Elordi became an overnight celebrity. He later moved to Los Angeles, "but hadn't booked a job" and lived in his car for a while.

Courtesy of Netflix / The Everett Collection

She told GQ, "I think I have $400 or $800 in my bank account, I don't know, and Euphoria was my last audition before I went home to save up and get some money back."

While filming the Euphoria pilot, a producer noticed her living conditions and helped her to a hotel room.

9. After playing Alice Cullen in the Twilight series, Ashley Greene wondered, "Why is that so hard?" because "like Twilight , you descend from above and then you come back to reality".

He told Lucky magazine, " Twilight gave me something to look at. But now that it's over, there's work to be done. If I don't have it, Twilight is the only thing I can do. It's a family life." That's the way it is big."

10. Brenda Song rose to fame as London Tipton on Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck . He later tried his hand at writing roles for Asian actors. When he tried to audition for Crazy Rich Asian , the producer turned him down because "his image wasn't inherently Asian enough."

Courtesy of Danny Feld / © Disney Channel / The Everett Collection

She told Teen Vogue, "I was like, 'This character is 20, Asian American, and I can't even hear her?' I've auditioned for Caucasian roles throughout my career, but this particular role, wouldn't you allow me to blame myself for working my entire life, I said where do I fit in?

11. Puberty "ended his career" for Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk in The Goonies , "because he went from Chunk to Hunk and [he] couldn't get any more roles."

"It was amazing. My first love was acting, but adulthood had other ideas. It was a forced retirement. I haven't stopped acting. The actor gave up on me," she told the Daily Mail.

12. Fresh from the success of Jurassic Park, Laura Dern stars as Ellen in a new episode. Due to the anti-gay backlash, Laura stopped ordering within a year.

Touchstone Television/The Courtesy Everett Collection

He told Vulture, "[The episode] was the biggest thing I've ever been a part of. It was an incredible honor... I didn't think twice about it. It was a huge opportunity the phone said 'Yes' I went to Hollywood." [I was] told not to do it by some counselors who were gay. A lot of people in my life were very worried. And me thought, 'This is ridiculous.' The time was when Oprah [who plays Ellen's therapist] and I were having a snack, we were rehearsing, and suddenly there was a stampede of cops on and off the stage, they said, "There's a bomb threat, we're clearing the scene." And she literally propel us off the stage."

13. At 38, Liv Tyler felt like a "second-class citizen" in Hollywood because the only roles for women her age were "usually wife or girlfriend."

He told More magazine: "It's not fun when you see things changing. When you're a teenager or in your 20s, there are so many exciting parts of the mind to play with.”

14. Early in her career, Jessica Alba struggled to land roles because casting directors "couldn't find out her ethnicity". She had to try "exotic" roles because "they said, 'You're not Latina to play a Latina and you're not Caucasian to play a leading lady, so you're going to be.' exotic". anything".

She told PopSugar, "It was a weird thing because I've never looked at myself like that or had to sit in a bowl. So I was more determined to be a tall woman. To show that girls can look up to me, and we can be female protagonists".

15. After a successful run in her teens and twenties, Julia Stiles felt that "no one knew what to do with her" and "[she] hopped from job to job, not very connected and worried about where she was going." life would lead to a career". ".

Buena Vista / Courtesy of Everett Collection

He told the Daily Beast, "But for me, a movie like Hustlers is a validation that I have a place in the film industry and that the stories I care about are being told."

16. Although Vanessa Hudgens appreciates high school musicals , she closed herself to "the characters that [she] could play," and for a while she "fought and fought for the roles [she] really wanted." "

Fred Hayes / © Disney Channel / Courtesy: The Everett Collection

She told Untitled Magazine: "You've only seen me as Gabriela Montez and I love that character, but she's more than that to me. It was tough and a struggle, but then again, life is always a struggle. A career always goes on. The struggle to be one. You always want what you want. You will have to fight for it. It sure was tough getting through those tough parts, but I feel like I made it! a new chapter!"

17. And finally, Chris Owen rose to fame for his role as Chuck Sherman on American Pie . However, he later worked as a waiter in a sushi restaurant because "life doesn't always go your way".

Universal Collection / Courtesy of Everett

She told the NY Daily News, "I love acting and this job makes me struggle."

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