AHC: Save Cuba Gooding Jr Career

[John Fredrick Parker]

In the late 90's, he looked like a rising star -- getting an Academy nod for Jerry Maguire and praise for As Good as it Gets, followed by very decent roles in What Dreams May Come and Men of Honor. Then his career to a, er, different path, and by 2007 he was in films like Norbit and Daddy Day Camp. So with his filmography up to this point unchanged, how could Cuba be taken seriously as an actor? Not just projects to avoid, but other films he could have been in?

 

[TxCoatl1970]

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.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

IMO a better WI is WTF happened to Eddie Murphy's career?

TBF, there was a thread on that not too long ago.

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.

That works.

 

[Parterre]

TBF, there was a thread on that not too long ago.

This is the important question!

 

[thekingsguard]

Radio was viewed by many to be the beginning of the end of his big years as a film star... unfortunately, Tropic Thunder pegged it pretty close on this one. he tried to win an Oscar/gain acclaim by playing a mentally handicapped character, and sadly, the role was more parody then dramatic tension.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

<snip>

So Cuba needs a smarter Oscar grab circa 2003? Seems doable, what other roles could he try?

 

[OnlyAlb]

Radio was viewed by many to be the beginning of the end of his big years as a film star... unfortunately, Tropic Thunder pegged it pretty close on this one. he tried to win an Oscar/gain acclaim by playing a mentally handicapped character, and sadly, the role was more parody then dramatic tension.

This might be an unpopular view of mine but I didn't find radio to be a bad movie. It's not a great movie but it isn't totally trash in my opinion.

 

[thekingsguard]

So Cuba needs a smarter Oscar grab circa 2003? Seems doable, what other roles could he try?

Maybe he get's the role Eddie Murphy got in Dreamgirls?

This might be an unpopular view of mine but I didn't find radio to be a bad movie. It's not a great movie but it isn't totally trash in my opinion.

No, but it was sort of the movie that turned the tide against him - portrayals of the mentally handicapped require a touch a little more graceful then Radio, which was slightly more subtle than Carlos Mencia.

 

[TxCoatl1970]

Good thoughts, Kingsguard!
The trouble is, Cuba's never been formally trained as an actor from what I can tell.
He's worked plenty, but doesn't have the technique to channel the gravitas, pathos, and bathos to be a badass thespian. I don't think you need to channel Stanislavsky for eight years or be in the Royal Shakespearean Company as long to get that foundation, but it certainly helps.

You don't need that background to work TV and get parts in movies as Cuba did.

As to being a hit machine "star"- that's alchemy. Having the right agent or contacts that get you the right project with the right script, right director, right cast to make the movie at the right time that really captures the audience- luck plays a big part in it.

I said it before- Cuba's a moderately talented actor making a damned good living, but not A-list. Sad to be that close to being a superstar, but AFAIK he's not crying about it.

 

[black angel]

kill off Terrence Howard, no really they look too much alike

so a lot of roles that Cube can do go to Terrence Howard, the worse Cube does the better for Howard.

 

[Emperor Norton I]

His career is bad? Hmm, I don't keep up with films so I suppose I assumed he was still a rising critical darling. I feel like an unfrozen caveman to this topic.

 

[clifton]

His career is bad? Hmm, I don't keep up with films so I suppose I assumed he was still a rising critical darling. I feel like an unfrozen caveman to this topic.

Yea I found Cuba Gooding jr not a bad actor. He still acts in decent films and isn't addicted too drugs or alcohol. He could be a lot more worse. Like the guy who acted in homelone 1 and 2.

Now he would be a serious challenge.