Cuba Gooding's career suffers the same problems a moderately-talented actor's career does when the spotlight shifts for whatever reason.
IDK enough about the personal and external choices that shanked his career arc but IMO a better WI is WTF happened to Eddie Murphy's career? ASB's call him home?
Eddie was an unstoppable phenomenon in the 1980's and 1990's, then Poof!
Box office toxic waste, in bummer after bummer in the Oughts.
*Shudder*
Cuba never struck me as more than a good character actor. Personable enough, but not a Talent redefining the landscape of film and theater.
If I knew the secret to shifting B-List Actors into hit machines, I wouldn't be working at a water plant!
Seriously, his main problem is IRL he's a sane family man and treats acting like a job, not his personal statement. So he gets capable sidekick roles and stays off the tabloid radar. So from a branding standpoint, he's pretty tough to shift.
Dude has an Oscar and keeps getting movie work which is FAR better than 99.999% of actors achieve.
Making him Denzel or getting him Will Smith cash and clout requires a shift both in how he acts and is perceived.
Here's a WI- what if Cuba was the Operative in Serenity? Bad ass credentials.
He's been cops and soldiers and such, but as part of an ensemble. He needs to be The Man, whether hero or villain to stand out.
Cuba could also have been Agent J in MIB.
He's done dramatic stuff credibly but he's not edgy enough to do what Daniel Day-Lewis or Russell Crowe does to really scare, inspire, and completely dominate a scene.
He's funny but not Will Smith or Robert Downey Jr hilarious.
YMMDV but he needs the roles and the scripts to redefine how folks look at him to be either a badass thespian or a hit machine IN HIS OWN RIGHT.