I was just thinking about certain stars from the past 20 years who once had promising careers, and then seemed to have gone nowhere.

Take Adrien Brody. He won the Oscar for "The Pianist" in 2002, but since then, you really haven't heard a whole lot about him.

Since 2002, he had a few successful films in which he was part of an ensemble cast, such as "Midnight in Paris" (2011) and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014).

In terms of sci-fi, he starred in the 2005 "King Kong" movie, and 2010's "Predators", the latter of which was not a huge hit.

One wonders what happened... Was he just a flash in the pan ?

Don't forget THE JACKET, with a very kreepy Kris Kristofferson, one of my favorite movies.

Film making is a fickle business. My son who is now in college has been working behind the camera and in front of it in the small Mississippi market can tell you all sorts of stories.
Certain actors keep getting roles because of being friends with the director or sexual favors or the amount of money given to the production. Other actors have acted poorly on one production and word spread fast. Chance is a big player. My son was an extra in "MA" currently in theatres but could have had a slightly bigger part he had to turn down due to being in Iceland with National Geographic learning nature videography last summer when that role was being filmed. There is a actress we know that gets a ton of independent work, small roles and extra work because she is so pleasant to be around. So, going back to Brody, any or all of this as well as a thousand other factors could all play into this.

He won the Oscar in 2003, the same year as Halle Berry and her career also did not benefit from it

Instead of doing movies of substance, all she did after the Oscar were more action and superhero films, and some horror flicks

Just a few years ago, she was reduced to doing a TV show on CBS (I can't recall the name), which only lasted 1 year

She's in JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3, playing a character that in my opinion doesn't work.