Celebrities feel like gods to most people nowadays. Their stars are so bright that their diehard fans mistake them for literally residing in the heavens. The reality is that these celebrities were just like us common folk at a time. The only way to achieve success is through one’s own grit and will. Even if one were to be born into a celebrity family there is no guarantee for success (looking at you, After Earth’s Jaden Smith). Once these actors achieve this success they are only seen in empowered roles that never show them as less than perfect. Even if they are seen in peasant like roles they are still the focus of the film.
In the Marvel universe, these actors are superheroes and achieve feats no normal human could ever do. Once you’ve seen them onscreen showcasing these amazing abilities you can only see them in that light. In actuality, these stars have had a whole lot of low moments in their career. When they were nobodies in the film industry, they were required to play parts that are hilarious to watch, even without the benefit of hindsight. Most of the time the actors have a funny bone and find amusement in their embarrassing earlier roles, but at no point will you see them shouting aloud of their involvement in these films.
Here are 23 Roles Marvel Actors Would Rather We Forgot.
23 Mark Ruffalo : Clearasil Commercial
Who knew the guy who would come to be associated with anger management problems would be part of a commercial that was so chill? Because Mark Ruffalo brought the ‘Cool’ in ‘Coolness’ for his advertisement of Clearasil clear pads. In the 1980s, when, let’s face it, commercials used to be so much more fun than they are now, Mark auditioned, and got the part, for a young hunk in this Clearasil commercial. As a young lad having just entered his twenties, Mark had his youth as an advantage as the pretty boy nabbed the role for the commercial.
Banner’s secret is he’s always angry, but Mark’s secret is he always ‘Double Zaps.’
You’ll get that joke when you inevitably check out the Clearasil commercial. The advertisement was played again to an older Mark a couple years ago, much to his embarrassment, on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. He admitted the director of the commercial only took him in thanks to his good look and the fact that he looked like a guy who had just walked off the street for the job. To add insult to injury, Mark was also told his advantage was that he didn’t know how to act at all which helped give off a normal boy vibe for the commercial.
22 Chris Evans: Not Another Teen Movie
In the 80s and 90s, the teen comedy genre was a beast of its own. You could fill multiple lists by naming them. Some of the more famous ones included Pretty in Pink, 10 Things I Hate About You, Can’t Hardly Wait, The Breakfast Club, She’s All That, and Clueless. There came a point when making a teen movie wasn’t original in the slightest and instead we got a bunch of movies that parodied such films. The most popular ones would be Scary Movie and American Pie. Then there was Not Another Teen Movie. This film saw the first leading role by Chris Evans, who was only 19 years-old when it was filmed. Joining him is Chyler Leigh (of Grey’s Anatomy fame) as the stereotypical high school boy and girl.
Now that Chris has established himself as the ultra straight man Captain America, it would be huge shock to those who watch Not Another Teen Movie and witness the uncomfortable whipped cream scene where he has covered portions of his body with cream and left everything else off. The film is largely a grown-up comedy whose only purpose now is to bring much embarrassment to its cast. Chris has ventured in dramatic movies like Gifted and just finished a run on Broadway, and so a film as slapstick like Not Another Teen Movie wouldn’t look great on his acting resume.
21 Brie Larson: The Tonight Show
She has not been seen onscreen in a Marvel movie yet, but Brie Larson is officially part of the Marvel family due to her upcoming starring role in Captain Marvel. The film will also be the first outright female led Marvel Cinematic Universe film (Ant-Man and the Wasp doesn’t count) making Brie a pioneer of sorts. But let’s not let it be forgotten that the Captain herself found her first acting jobs in fake commercials on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in 1997. Jay Leno was known for making many skits as part of his show and these would cast children when required.
Enter Brie Larson into her first claim to fame, well sort of.
In 2017, when she had already won an Oscar for the film Room, Brie was shown one of the several clips she had filmed when she 8 years old. The skit was absurd, featuring two little girls who made pastries out of a ferret they had run over using an Easy Bake Oven. It might sound gross but the clip didn’t actually show the baking part. It wasn’t all that funny either except for displaying Brie’s reaction at having taken part in a ridiculous skit such as that.
20 Elizabeth Olsen: How The West Was Fun
In the 90s and early 2000s, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were the go to child stars for a number of studios. Their fame was born from Full House and the fact that they were twins contributed to a number of movies based on their chemistry and likability. It was in 90s, when Mary-Kate and Ashley themselves appeared as little more than toddlers, that their younger sister Elizabeth Olsen made her first film appearance. A TV movie, with a child friendly moral behind it, the film will appear extremely cheesy to even the kids today, let alone those who were children in the 90s.
Elizabeth didn’t even have a sizable role in the movie. She is credited as ‘Girl in the Car’ among the cast and the whole point of adding her in was to complete the sibling set in the film. More than two decades later, she is popular for playing Scarlet Witch. Her sisters have both given up acting, which means Elizabeth is the only one to continue the Olsen name in film. She will want people to remember her for more meatier roles than ‘Girl in the Car’ when all is said and done.
19 Emma Stone: The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody
Emma Stone is relatable to the public due to her personality being relatable. In her interviews she has been candid about her multiple failures in auditions, providing proof that the experiences of her character in La La Land hit close to the bone. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress at only 28, by which point she had already starred in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Both those movies kind of sucked but Emma and Andrew Garfield were the few positives to take from the films.
Emma has always given a committed performance, even as a literal dog in the Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
It’s true. The Oscar winner didn’t appear in person on the Disney Channel hit show. Instead, she voiced the dog Ivana, belonging to London Tipton. At the end credits her name is listed for her contribution to the part as ‘Emily Stone,’ which is her real name. Emma had earlier auditioned for another child-centric show, All That, but had failed to land a role. Perhaps, at the time this was the best she could get but as this isn’t an animated movie role that required her to play a Dog, this short one-time role as Ivana the Dog won’t be part of her best performances.
18 Robert Downey Jr.: Saturday Night Live
The undisputed king of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This ergo makes him the king of all Marvel related franchises there have ever been. Robert Downey Jr’s lead role in Iron Man in 2008 began his resurgence after a number of years of highly publicized scandals. In the early 2000s, he had won a Golden Globe Award for Ally McBeal but his frequent trouble with the law meant he had been fired from the show. And yet, even this isn’t the lowest he has gotten to in his professional life. That time period would fall in the mid-1980s. Robert was a mere 20 when he was cast as a regular on Saturday Night Live and remains one of the youngest signings ever on the show’s history.
This honor is the only one he will ever receive from the show as he is considered to be one of the worst cast members to have been featured on it. In fact, more than half of the cast members of the season Robert was on were fired before the next season commenced. Since his departure, he has only returned once in 1996, and was absent from the star-studded 40th Anniversary. Safe to say, this is one gig he would like to forget.
17 Ryan Reynolds: Sabrina The Teenage Witch
Who’s that guy with the blonde hair? Well, it’s our very own Deadpool. You might not recognize him without the mask or the fact that he looks extremely silly. But back in 1996, a 20-year-old Ryan Reynolds sported this very look for the teen movie Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The show of the same name is known as Melissa Joan Hart’s claim to fame but everyone tends to forget the show was commissioned because of the success of this film.
Before he was the Merc with a Mouth, he was Blondie with that Hair.
Ryan has retained the youthful look all his life and into 2018 when he is to turn 42, and the only difference between the Ryan of now and then is that atrocious hair, a style he will never be wiling to try on again. In the follow-up series, the cast saw a revamp except for Sabrina herself. Ryan didn’t make the cut for Sabrina’s real love interest of Harvey either, playing a guy called Seth–although in the film Seth is her main love interest instead of Harvey. An interesting factoid is that Melissa Joan Hart has claimed they were both “smitten” with one another on set but a romance did not blossom due to her existing relationship at the time. What might have been, right?
16 Linda Cardellini: Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
When Scooby-Doo arrived in theaters in 2002, there was a mixed sentiment surrounding what we would expect from it. Earlier scripts–written by none other than Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn–had a crazy setting where all the child-friendly themes from the cartoon were disposed of in favor of showing the Scooby Gang as a bunch of misfits. This was erased once the more child-oriented final product was confirmed. It still didn’t do any favors for the cast who suffered from the series’ ridiculous premise. Linda Cardellini played Velma Dinkley in both films and is still fondly remembered by kids who have grown up now. It was her first big budget film.
But the sequel’s lackluster performance made the cast, and Linda, appear as subpar actors.
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed received similarly bad reviews as the first one but it didn’t have box office receipts in support either this time and the series was shelved. Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar never really recovered from it while Matthew Lillard took on the role of Shaggy on a full-time basis. Linda seemingly disappeared from the mainstream eye for a number of years before showing up in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Her performance as Hawkeye’s supporting wife was a departure from Velma’s ill-fated attempt at being attractive in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
15 Paul Rudd: Gen-Y Cops
Paul Rudd was already 31 when he starred in the Hong Kong movie Gen-Y Cops but in the year 2000 he had only a handful of film credits to his name. What was originally his most embarrassing film role was the lead in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers but Paul stated in 2007 that the embarrassment has subsided and he is now proud to have been in the Halloween franchise. This leads us to Gen-Y Cops. The movie is as over the top as one might expect by checking outs its official trailer, which has no dialogue just a bunch of people jumping around with Paul trying his hardest to look serious.
His reason to be there was more or less to be the Token White Guy. In Asian films, this is a sought after role that requires the actor look as Westernized as possible. A good example would be checking out Bollywood films featuring westerners. Getting back to the Rudd, his appearance is as stereotype White Guy as possible, dressed in a suit and sporting a blonde hairdo to boot. The craziest part of it all, though, is that Paul seems to be having some genuine fun in the film. Still, it’s not exactly a legit superhero role as Ant-Man.
14 Idris Elba: Space Precinct
The clip for this one is a definite requirement. There’s no chance you won’t bawl with laughter when watching Idris Elba play the part of a Pizza Delivery Man in an episode of Space Precinct. The whole thing is bizarre to begin with, even before Idris shows up a couple of strange people talk in an absurd conversation, which is interrupted by Idris’ character. He sounds nothing like the real Idris Elba as the developers wanted someone with an actual American accent.
Funny thing is, the person dubbing over Idris’ Pizza Delivery Man doesn’t sound American in the slightest.
It’s an augmented voice of a person who’s trying too hard to sound like an American. Not helping matters is that Idris was seen onscreen for hardly 8 seconds before he is cut short both times. For some reason, his role is reduced to a man of with an extremely short physical stature as well. It’s like something out a “Pinch me, I’m dreaming” scenario. What’s amazing to realize is that Idris was only 22 when he recorded this bit role but he looks exactly the same in 2018. Mind you, this episode aired in 1994! 24 years later, it’s still coming back to haunt him.
13 Jennifer Lawrence: Monk
Jennifer Lawrence knows her fair share of embarrassing roles that she would never go through again. Never an A-grade student in school, the actress took off from home with dreams of making it big in Hollywood, but had to contend with some ups and downs. She had a supporting role in The Bill Engvall Show which never made use of her talents right. However, The Bill Engvall Show was a definite step up from her small role in Monk in which we didn’t know she had appeared until an episode of Conan where the host played footage of Jennifer as a school team Mascot!
Her part was simply to annoy Adrian Monk and act like a goof, jumping around in her equally goofy costume. She would reveal her face later on in the episode, which ultimately helped Conan producers nab the footage to embarrass her. She volunteered as tribute in The Hunger Games but this Mascot portrayal was definitely not her personal choice. On Conan, Jennifer stated she had mixed up which part she would be up for before it was relayed to her that she would be playing the Mascot instead of a normal role. Personally, it was a better performance than the one she gave in Red Sparrow.
12 Oscar Isaac: Illtown
Apocalypse was introduced as the first mutant, and the most feared of all, in the titular X-Men: Apocalypse. Its antagonist looked the part too, someone who did not appear to want to be crossed in the slightest lest you want to meet your end within moments. Apocalypse was played by Oscar Isaac, who was not unfamiliar with playing bad guy type characters. He had also appeared in a mob movie called A Most Violent Year, which required him to look the part of someone who could intimidate others. Truth is, all someone from the X-Men had to do was blackmail Apocalypse they would reveal photos from Illtown and the superhero would have scurried away.
Oscar was asked about the part years later when his fame was on the rise and he reacted appropriately with embarrassment. It is the natural reaction for someone whose role was credited as ‘Pool Boy.’ So scarce is footage of the film that you’ll hardly find it anywhere. Even the still from his role is barely around the internet. Oscar would definitely prefer the footage to stay as far away as possible. It’s hard to imagine this boy would be chosen to appear in the X-Men film series and Star Wars!
11 Dave Batista: Wrong Side Of Town
Before 2010, Dave Batista (within this list we’ll spell him according to his WWE ring name because we want to) wasn’t interested in the slighted in the world of acting. Having debuted in the WWE in 2002, for the next eight years Batista was the number two guy for the company behind only John Cena. Seeing John receive all the movie opportunities like The Marine and 12 Rounds, despite being of the same value as him, Batista decided to take a big risk and venture into movies. We know now that it was a good bet as he is the most popular Guardian as Drax the Destroyer.
Before that role, however, he was only cast as musclebound meatheads. His first film appearance was in the terrible Wrong Side of Town. The poster promised Batista to be the main character, having him front and center, but was actually lead by Rob Van Dam instead. Batista’s role in the movie was in barely two scenes, where he threw a couple of lines at Van Dam and took part in a hilariously terribly choreographed fight with a guy three times smaller than him. His acting is nowhere near Drax level and he seems to be playing the WWE wrestler Batista outside a wrestling ring. Over time his abilities have certainly improved but Wrong Side of Town is as crappy as it gets.
10 Don Cheadle: The Meteor Man
All actors have to pay their dues before reaching the top of the ladder and this role falls under that category for Don Cheadle. Cheadle’s first movie part came in 1984, a full 9 years before The Meteor Man, which is this atrocious movie you see him in the picture, but over the previous decade, he had hardly had any named characters he could claim he had portrayed. At least in The Meteor Man, he had a role that had a name. Then again, when said role is called Goldilocks who forms part of the Golden Locks crew, it might be best to forget the character existed in the first place.
Cheadle had barely anything to offer in this film other than looking like a Backstreet Boys reject. He was one of the henchmen of the bad guy while the hero looked like someone who had stolen a costume from Eddie Murphy in The Adventures of Pluto Nash. It’s a horrendous film that is, unfortunately, Don Cheadle’s first superhero movie as opposed to the popular belief that Iron Man 2 was where he first became acquainted with the superhero genre. As the Backstreet Boys would say, this was “Ain’t nothing but a mistake!”
9 Chris Pratt: Wanted
Like Paul Rudd’s portrayal of the Token White Guy in Gen Y-Cops, Chris Pratt was generally relegated to the part of the Token Fat Guy (if there is such a thing) prior to bagging a supporting role in Moneyball. His worst film would have been Bride Wars, where he isn’t funny at all compared to the riot he has been in all other roles, but Wanted was released earlier than that film in 2008. His film roles were scarce at this time and a bit role in Wanted was something of a high profile portrayal. Too bad he plays someone you want to punch in the face–or smash in the face with a keyboard–right from the get-go.
In retrospect, it is amusing that within today’s context we saw Professor X smashing Star-Lord’s face in an office space. In the film, Pratt only had a part to play in the beginning moments where his character was used to illustrate to the audience how much of a loser James McAvoy’s character was. The only memorable thing about Chris Pratt’s stint on Wanted was the pleasure at seeing his face hammered by a computer keyboard. Now the hottest star in Hollywood with Avengers: Infinity War and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom releasing in the same year, Pratt has come a long way in the past decade.
8 Halle Berry: The Flintstones
Halle Berry doesn’t seem to age. The above picture was taken when she was only 27 years-old yet one might say she looks exactly the same now when she is 51! The good thing about this eternal youth is that people would focus on that aspect rather than earlier failings in her career. She debuted in 1991 but didn’t star in a popular level film until The Flintstones. The movie was based on the successful cartoon of the same name and the widespread notion was that it would be a failure. However, it turned out to be a huge success by raking it more than $300 million worldwide.
The reason why it isn’t Halle’s highest point is due to the fact that the film itself is totally ridiculous. Like Linda Cardellini’s Scooby-Doo performance, this film would have been a hit in any case regardless of who was in it. The actors would never benefit from starring in a ludicrous setting save for some short-term goodwill. With Halle winning an Oscar for Monster’s Ball (Do not watch this film unless you want the Nice girl image of Halle Berry shattered), and becoming Storm in X-Men, The Flintstones should remain back in the Stone Age.
7 Samuel L. Jackson: Together For Days
Had Samuel L Jackson debuted in films earlier on, we would have felt that he has been active in the industry forever. Like Nicolas Cage, Sam Jackson appears in several movies at a time, his filmography is huge in itself. Yet, Jackson only made regular film appearances from 1987 onwards, when he was already 38 years old. Before that, he had been an extra in a couple movies in 1980 and 1981. However, his debut had been much earlier in 1972 in a movie called Together For Days.
It’s insane to think Nick Fury got his start here.
Although the film’s premise sounds groundbreaking for a movie released 46 years ago, it was a blaxploitation film that didn’t take itself seriously when it should have. The plot followed an African American falling in love with a Caucasian woman and the reactions of their family and friends over their relationship. The film has never caught on, even after Jackson’s rise in fame, thanks to its complete disappearance. There doesn’t seem to be any footage available of it as Sam Jackson himself made fun of this fact on an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno where he was relieved the host had been unable to acquire a copy of the film, and also revealed it had been re-released under the title Black Cream. Doesn’t exactly scream Oscar-worthy, does it?
6 Natalie Portman: Mars Attacks!
Tim Burton’s popularity hasn’t faded in recent years: It has plummeted. The director’s style was once seen as endearing and drew audiences to the cinema. But due to repeated collaborations with Johnny Depp where the premise was always kooky with the cast always drenched in white makeup, this endearing quality lost its shine. Tim Burton was almost at his absolute worst with Mars Attacks! This film had an ensemble cast of heavyweights like Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Glenn Close, Michael J. Fox, and Danny Devito. Future big name Natalie Portman rounded up the numbers.
As of 2018, Natalie is best known for starring in the Star Wars franchise and as Jane Foster in the first two Thor movies. Those famous film credits to her credits will cover up Mars Attacks! nicely and she wouldn’t want to take a repeat trip down to space again. The film tried its hardest to be funny but will even be trumped in quality by the lowest of parody movies like Meet the Spartans or Epic Movie. Fortunately for Natalie, her part was one of the few which didn’t require her to act like a total moron and she came out not looking as bad as many of her co-stars.
5 Jeremy Renner: National Lampoon’s Senior Trip
Most of the people trying hard to sound smart on Facebook like to brag that they don’t consider Rotten Tomatoes to be a reliable site when it comes to choosing movies. These people claim the low Tomatometer scores don’t mean anything. But when a film scores a 0% (meaning no one gave it a good review) there has to be something wrong with it. Jeremy Renner will not be bragging about starring in National Lampoon’s Senior Trip. The actor was only 24 when he formed part of the large cast and must have figured it was a nice film to add to his then-empty film credits.
Almost 24 years later, the film is derided as one of the worst films ever made. The National Lampoon series is a fine example of a franchise that should have been shot in the head after its first film. The only thing Jeremy ha going for him in this film is his pretty boy face, other than which his character has zero qualities and is an underachieving student. If National Lampoon’s Senior Trip had existed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it would have been a good tool for Tony Stark to blackmail Hawkeye with.
4 Aaron Taylor-Johnson: Shanghai Knights
Unlike 95% of the heroes who had shown up from previous movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson did not reprise his roles as Quicksilver from Avengers: Age of Ultron to Avengers: Infinity War. While Scarlet Witch has done well for herself by appearing in Captain America: Civil War and Infinity War since her first appearance, her brother has been left out. However, Aaron Taylor-Johnson must be used to playing characters we have forgotten about. One of his earliest ever roles came as a child in Shanghai Knights. It’s not common knowledge due to the extreme difference between his current appearance and how he looked as a child, but Aaron had played Charlie Chaplin in Shanghai Knights.
The part was strange as well as the character of the young Chaplin was all over the place n the film, sometimes aiding the heroes but left forgotten by them at the end. Now known as an action hero, having starred in Godzilla and The Wall, it would be a blast from the past should he be reminded of his bit role as the butt of Owen Wilson’s jokes in Shanghai Knights. Like Quicksilver, he’ll want to run away from it as fast as possible.
