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When you're in the business of show, any bad moment can be potentially career ending.
If you're an actor and your private transgressions happen to go public, you’d better be prepared
to look for a new line of work, like these actors who ruined their careers in a matter
of seconds.
Michael Richards
Actors that dabble in the minefield of stand-up comedy need to know how to avoid the influence
of hecklers.
When Seinfeld's Michael Richards found himself in fight with a member of his audience during
a show in 2006, he made a split-second decision that destroyed his career in an instant.
In a video widely circulated by TMZ, Richards responded to the man's criticism with a series
of racial slurs.
(Michael Richards going ham)
Richards left the stage without finishing his routine, but later appeared via satellite
on the Late Show with David Letterman to apologize for his outburst in an incredibly awkward
video.
"I’ve already heard you make some jokes about it, and that's okay you know, but I'm
really busted up over this, and I'm very very sorry."
It didn't do him any good, however, as his career since has never reached Seinfeld levels
again, and he himself became the punchline to a few jokes.
"Every time I see this backdrop, I think about Kramer f---ing up."
Mel Gibson
When it comes to career-ending outbursts, apparently 2006 was a popular year.
Actor Mel Gibson was arrested in Los Angeles after officers in Malibu caught him speeding
with an open bottle of ***.
When Gibson was cuffed and detained, he went off on a tirade, letting loose with a barrage
of anti-Semitic remarks.
Gibson buried his career once again in 2010 when a phone call with then-girlfriend Oksana
Grigorieva, again making racist remarks, was leaked to the public, and he was dropped by
his agency.
"I don’t need medication.
You need a f---ing bat to the side of the head."
Ten years later, Gibson is looking to make a comeback.
His violent daddy-daughter thriller Blood Father has been positively received by critics,
and his return to the director's chair with his so-called atonement piece Hacksaw Ridge
has gone down equally well, getting a 10 minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.
Tila Tequila
Remember MySpace?
Tila 'Tequila' Nguyen dominated the social media platform until she became one of the
most-hated TV personalities in history.
In 2007, MTV capitalized on her online fanbase by giving her a dating show, A Shot at Love
with Tila Tequila.
She also made her first film appearance that same year, though it all came crashing down
in 2013 after she made a bizarre post on her website, titled Why I Sympathize with Hitler.
Tequila wrote that she had "learned the truth about the war and what Hitler truly did,"
insisting that "he was not a bad person."
If that weren't enough, Tequila posted photos of herself superimposed over Auschwitz, dressed
as a bad Halloween version of a sexy Nazi.
Tequila attempted to get her career back on track in 2015 when she appeared as a housemate
on Celebrity Big Brother, but she was quickly removed from the house once showrunners became
aware of her past.
She apologized, but she was at it once again in 2016, launching an attack on Jewish conservative
political commentator Ben Shapiro, whom she said "should be gassed and sent back to Israel."
She also claims that she can “quantum hop” to parallel dimensions to visit other versions
of herself.
Maybe she can find a Tila that isn’t pure garbage and trade places.
Lindsay Lohan
After being cast in the surprisingly successful 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, Lindsay Lohan
became a teen sensation for nearly a decade, finding more success in 2003's Freaky Friday,
2004's Mean Girls, and 2005's Herbie: Fully Loaded.
But the public’s perception of her as an up-and-coming talent would abruptly change
after her 2007 car accident.
Lohan was charged with DUI, possession of ***, and misdemeanor hit and run.
Just two months later, she’d be arrested on identical charges, revealing a serious
problem to the world.
Hollywood producers also took notice and became hesitant to cast her in anything, especially
after she withdrew from multiple productions at the time, unable to hide her addictions.
Many said that they “would not hire her until she proved herself healthy and reliable.”
Lohan would continue to appear in films and TV, but now, in smaller productions and often
as a parody of herself.
Her most prominent role in the past ten years?
As herself, but with a really weird accent.
"And that's all he is, is my friend and business partner.
But his mother became a very close person to me."
Brendan Fraser
It’s one of those names that’s almost always followed by a question about whether
or not he’s even still alive.
American-Canadian Brendan Fraser graduated from a character actor to a bona fide movie
star when he appeared as the swashbuckling Rick O'Connell in The Mummy, the first film
in a trilogy that has come to define him.
The 2008 fantasy adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth returned huge box office
profits, reaffirming Fraser's position as a genuine leading man.
But then Fraser took a wrong turn.
He rejected the chance to reprise his role in 2012's Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
and let the role fall to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Content with the work he had done in Extraordinary Measures and Furry Vengeance, Fraser felt
comfortable letting the role go, though most actors wouldn’t hedge their careers on a
film where an otter drives a car.
When those two films became two of the biggest box office bombs of 2010, it became clear
that he’d made a huge mistake.
Journey 2 went on to surpass the original, raking in $335 million from a budget of $79
million, and leaving Fraser to slowly fade away.
Paul Reubens
Bow-tied, lovable weirdo Pee-wee Herman was huge during late ‘80s, the subject of two
feature films as well as an Emmy-winning children's TV series.
But during a visit with his parents in Sarasota, Florida, in 1991, Reubens was arrested for
indecent exposure at an adult movie theater, which was pretty bad news for the children’s
entertainer.
"There are a lot of things about me you don't know anything about—Dottie—things you
wouldn't understand.
Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand."
The actor pleaded no contest.
Pee-wee toys were pulled from shelves across the nation and Reubens retreated from the
public eye for the remainder of the '90s, despite a huge outpouring of public support.
He remained active both in front of and behind the camera, but in 2002, Reubens got caught
up in a child *** sting involving fellow Tim Burton alumni Jeffrey Jones.
Officers seized thousands of items from Reubens’ collection of vintage erotica, but found nothing.
Due to the nature of the charges against him, he was forced to keep his most popular character
buried.
Pee-wee finally returned in 2016, starring in critically acclaimed Netflix film Pee-wee's
Big Holiday.
The positive response to his comeback is little consolation decades of lost time for the lovable,
and profitable, man-child.
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