History HollywoodHypeMachine / TooEarlyToCall

* Creator/MichaelCera came out with a '''vengeance''' after ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', appearing in several films that attained mainstream recognition plus artistic credibility (particularly ''Film/{{Juno}}'') and things were looking up. Then ''Film/YearOne'' put him on a bumpy road in 2009, while both of his films released the following year, ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' and ''Film/YouthInRevolt'', [[CriticalDissonance despite positive critical reception]], weren't as successful financially. His problem? Cera [[TypeCasting played the exact same nerdy-shy-guy character in every film he's been in so far]], right down to specific mannerisms and vocal style. This eventually stuck to him in a big way, and his career took a tumble. He hasn't had a major hit or appearance in years, and now Creator/JesseEisenberg (who has a similar appearance and acting style) has gone on to become a bigger star. In recent years, he admitted that he deliberately shirked from bigger projects because he felt uneasy about all the big publicity he faced.

* Creator/DevPatel first came to the public's attention with his role in ''Series/{{Skins}}'', before his career exploded with the success of ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. He was nominated for many awards, and looked to be a star in the making. Unfortunately, his next role was as Zuko in ''Film/TheLastAirbender'', a critically-derided BoxOfficeBomb that nearly put a stop to his rising international career. He managed to repair his reputation somewhat in Britain with ''Film/TheBestExoticMarigoldHotel'' and landed a good supporting role in Creator/AaronSorkin's ''Series/TheNewsroom'', so he's not completely gone, but his chance at superstardom seems to be long past. However, he was nominated for an Oscar in 2017 for ''Film/{{Lion}}'', so things may be looking up for him. The further critical success of ''Film/ThePersonalHistoryOfDavidCopperfield'' and ''Film/TheGreenKnight'' have also been good for his career.

* Creator/FlorencePugh first received attention in her native country of England for her performances in ''Film/LadyMacbeth'' and ''Series/TheLittleDrummerGirl'', but her three releases in 2019--''Film/FightingWithMyFamily'', ''Film/{{Midsommar}}'', and ''Film/{{Little Women|2019}}''--was what catapulted her into international stardom, including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. Since then, she's kept the ball rolling with her role as Yelena Belova in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, starring with ''Film/{{Black Widow|2021}}'' and ''Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}}''. 2022 served as the first major rough patch for her, with the release of ''Film/DontWorryDarling'', and while it did alright at the box office and her performance was agreed to be great, it got mixed reviews and the film's many behind-the-controversies quickly overshadowed everything else about it. However, she would make a quick rebound with ''Film/TheWonder'', a voice role in ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'', and ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}'', and is set to star in ''Film/DunePartTwo'' alongside fellow young up-and-coming stars Creator/TimotheeChalamet, Creator/{{Zendaya}}, and Creator/AustinButler, so her career looks to be a very promising one.

* Creator/EmmaStone also fits, with ''Spider-Man'' crowning a rise after a series of well-received movies (''Film/{{Zombieland}}'', ''Film/EasyA'', ''Film/TheHelp''). She later earned an Oscar nomination for ''Film/BirdmanOrTheUnexpectedVirtueOfIgnorance''. Then in 2016, she earned a lot of praise for her performance in the musical film, ''Film/LaLaLand'', for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical and an Oscar for Best Actress. Later, she got nominated again at the 2019 Oscar in the supporting category for her role in ''Film/TheFavourite''.

* Creator/TimotheeChalamet had his breakout role in 2017's ''Film/CallMeByYourName'', which netted him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, becoming one of the youngest actors to do so at only 22 years old. Since then, he's become one of Hollywood's hottest young stars, bolstered by well-received supporting roles in ''Film/LadyBird'' and ''Film/LittleWomen2019'', and is considered to be one of the finest actors of his generation. His three films in 2021 - a leading role in ''Film/Dune2021'', his first mainstream film role, and supporting roles in the large ensemble casts of ''Film/TheFrenchDispatch'' and ''Film/DontLookUp'' - boosted his profile even further. However, he's still young and has a long career ahead of him, so where his career will ultimately head is anyone's guess.

* Creator/MichaelShannon had been kicking around for years in prominent supporting roles in films such as ''Film/EightMile'' and ''Film/BadBoysII'' but it was his scene-stealing role in ''Film/RevolutionaryRoad'' in which he just about stole the film from Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio, Creator/KateWinslet and Creator/KathyBates with ten minutes of screen time, that earned him huge praise and an Oscar nomination. Since then, he has gone from one success to another with acclaimed starring roles in films like ''Film/TheIceman'' and ''Film/TakeShelter'', rave reviews for supporting roles in ''Film/PremiumRush'' and ''The Runaways'' and most notably his role in HBO's ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' and his role as Zod in blockbuster ''Film/ManOfSteel''. He later received another Oscar nomination for ''Film/NocturnalAnimals'' and was praised for his performance in ''Film/TheShapeOfWater''. While he may not exactly be anyone's idea of a leading man, it's likely he will stay around for some time. He's currently slated to reprise his role as Zod in ''Film/TheFlash2023''.

* Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy hovers around this. While her performance in ''Film/{{Split}}'' was praised, she was not the main draw of that film, and its sequel, ''Film/Glass2019'' failed to satisfyingly conclude its story. However, she received praise for the smaller scale thriller ''Film/{{Thoroughbreds}}'' and the horror movie ''Film/TheWitch''. This focus on smaller scale projects would continue to earn her acclaim, from ''Film/{{Emma}}'' to ''Series/PeakyBlinders''. However, attempted franchises with Taylor-Joy such as ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'', ''Playmobil: The Movie'' and ''Film/TheNewMutants'' did not pan out. Her true breakout hit was as Beth Harmon in ''Series/TheQueensGambit'', which really brought her a lot of attention from critics ''and'' audiences (and even led to a chess boom in real life). Since then, Taylor-Joy has juggled dramatic and horror roles, but the box-office returns usually aren't there, even if her performances are consistently praised. She's since been cast as Furiosa in the character's eponymous ''Film/MadMax'' spinoff and as the voice of Princess Peach in [[Creator/IlluminationEntertainment Illumination]]'s ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', so time will tell if critical acclaim will translate into box-office success.

* Creator/ViolaDavis has had a string of very well-received roles over the past few years starting with the acclaimed ''Doubt''. However, she hasn't done anything really big since then. This doesn't speak to lack of talent, but more about what kind of roles Hollywood offers black actresses. Davis' later films included small supporting parts in ''Film/EndersGame'', ''Film/BeautifulCreatures'', and ''Film/{{Prisoners}}''; something she's not very happy about, calling these roles "mammy-ish" and "down-trodden". For similar reasons, she also doesn't like ''Film/TheHelp'' that much despite it being UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated, criticizing how the black maids were reduced to [[SupportingProtagonist Supporting Protagonists]] to the white characters (which already attracted criticisms of a "white savior" narrative) and thus didn't give the audience enough of an idea about how her character and the other maids dealt with racism in the Jim Crow South. But Davis landed her own series with ''Series/HowToGetAwayWithMurder'' on ABC which got renewed for a fourth season, and resulted in her winning an MediaNotes/EmmyAward for Best Actress in a Drama Series. She later won a well-deserved Oscar for her performance in the 2016 film adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Fences}}''[[note]]a role for which she had previously won a Tony in 2010[[/note]], which showed that her career is going steady so far. In addition to building critical respect with serious roles, she also branched out into franchise work when she joined the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse as Amanda Waller. She portrayed Waller in ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'' (despite being negatively reviewed, her performance was unanimously deemed one of the film's best elements) and its sequel ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'' (which was an AcclaimedFlop due to its release amidst the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, being widely considered an EvenBetterSequel despite making less money than the first). In 2023, she became the third Black woman and 18th person to attain [[UsefulNotes/TheEGOTs EGOT]] status when she won a Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for ''Finding Me''.

* Creator/PatrickDempsey had a serviceable but unremarkable film career for ages. Once ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' became big, Hollywood began trying to promote him as the next big thing. Of the leading-man roles he's starred in since then, only ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'' was really a critical and/or commercial success, and that one was arguably helped by having the Disney name behind it as well. His other roles haven't really set the world on fire, though he readily admits that his acting on ''Grey's'' mainly helps finance his auto racing career and also wouldn't mind pursuing motorsports full-time. Dempsey has still made sporadic returns to ''Grey's'' every few seasons, and later reprised his ''Enchanted'' role in the Creator/DisneyPlus-exclusive sequel ''Film/Disenchanted2022''.

* Creator/JessicaBiel gained a lot of hype early on from ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', but struggled to maintain a successful career afterwards. She has, among many other things in her favor, an amazing fitness-girl body that still frequently shows up in magazines, a high-profile marriage to Music/JustinTimberlake, and several potential break-out roles, but also suffered from a string of critically trashed {{Box Office Bomb}}s like ''Film/BladeTrinity'' and ''Film/{{Stealth}}''. When she finally got naked in a "serious" movie (hoping for the extra career boost that it usually provides hot, young, fading actresses), it was for a stripper role in a straight-to-video film (''Powder Blue'') that earned her zero legit cred – and sadly for all concerned, is more likely to be remembered as Creator/PatrickSwayze's final film. The bombing of the ''Film/TotalRecall2012'' remake, which reportedly cost Creator/{{Sony}} over $200 million in losses, seems to cement her even further into this, especially as her generation of actresses include megastars like Creator/ScarlettJohansson and Creator/KirstenDunst; there is in fact a 1998 ''Teen People'' [[https://www.thegossipers.com/public/scarlettkirstenjessica1.jpg pictorial of the three]], ostensibly pushing them as future stars, but whereas Dunst and Johansson were nominated for an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward in 2020 and 2022 respectively, Biel, so far, has zero.[[note]]Johansson in fact received two simultaneous nominations — Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress — in the same year, one of the few actors to achieve this feat.[[/note]] To date, Biel, despite being on tons of magazine covers, is still just a minor star, and at this point is best known as "Justin Timberlake's Wife". However, in 2017, she returned to the small screen with her critically hailed role in ''Series/TheSinner'', receiving Golden Globe and UsefulNotes/EmmyAward nominations.

* Creator/EmiliaClarke has been slowly rising to the top since she was cast as Daenerys Targaryen in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', which earned her many UsefulNotes/EmmyAward nominations. But then, she landed the role of Sarah Connor in ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'', which received negative critical reviews, most of which panned her performance. Although she quickly recovered with her starring role in ''Film/MeBeforeYou'', her film career was hampered by the commercial failure of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' spin-off ''Film/{{Solo}}''. With the poorly-received finale of ''Game of Thrones'' in 2019 – which her character was at the crux of – only time will tell if she will stay on top or be remembered as a OneHitWonder. Since that debacle, she has moved from Westeros to [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel]], making her debut in ''Series/SecretInvasion2023''.

* Creator/ViolaDavis has had a string of very well-received roles over the past few years starting with the acclaimed ''Doubt''. However, she hasn't done anything really big since then. This doesn't speak to lack of talent, but more about what kind of roles Hollywood offers black actresses. Davis' later films included small supporting parts in ''Film/EndersGame'', ''Film/BeautifulCreatures'', and ''Film/{{Prisoners}}''; something she's not very happy about, calling these roles "mammy-ish" and "down-trodden". For similar reasons, she also doesn't like ''Film/TheHelp'' that much despite it being UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated, criticizing how the black maids were reduced to [[SupportingProtagonist Supporting Protagonists]] to the white characters (which already attracted criticisms of a "white savior" narrative) and thus didn't give the audience enough of an idea about how her character and the other maids dealt with racism in the Jim Crow South. But Davis landed her own series with ''Series/HowToGetAwayWithMurder'' on ABC which got renewed for a fourth season, and resulted in her winning an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward for Best Actress in a Drama Series. She later won a well-deserved Oscar for her performance in the 2016 film adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Fences}}''[[note]]a role for which she had previously won a Tony in 2010[[/note]], which showed that her career is going steady so far. In addition to building critical respect with serious roles, she also branched out into franchise work when she joined the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse as Amanda Waller. She portrayed Waller in ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'' (despite being negatively reviewed, her performance was unanimously deemed one of the film's best elements) and its sequel ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'' (which was an AcclaimedFlop due to its release amidst the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, being widely considered an EvenBetterSequel despite making less money than the first). In 2023, she became the third Black woman and 18th person to attain [[UsefulNotes/TheEGOTs EGOT]] status when she won a Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for ''Finding Me''.

* Creator/AmandaSeyfried, after well-received early appearances in ''Series/VeronicaMars'' and ''Film/MeanGirls'', was seemingly on a streak of success after becoming a major box-office draw (with hits such as the aforementioned ''Mean Girls'' and ''Theatre/MammaMia''). But in an eleven-month period from 2011 to 2012, she had three major flops in a row – ''Film/RedRidingHood'', ''Film/InTime'', and ''Film/Gone2012'' – with some reviews for the third one questioning if she even had appeal or talent in the first place (though others reviewers contended she was better than the material). ''Film/LesMiserables2012'', in which she played Cosette, was successful critically and commercially, but most of the acclaim was directed at Creator/AnneHathaway and Creator/HughJackman. Her role as the title character in ''Film/{{Lovelace}}'' has gotten her a lot of praise, but the movie made only half a million at the box office. Hollywood has long-since given up on an A-List role for her, but she can probably maintain a solid career as long as she doesn't overreach. Her attempt at becoming part of a franchise to boost her success crashed and burned with the critical and commercial failure that was 2015's ''Film/{{Pan}}''. She reprised her role in ''Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain'' in 2018, which was a moderate success. Then in 2020, she played Marion Davies in ''Film/{{Mank}}'', which received critical acclaim. Seyfried's performance in this film is deemed her finest yet, such so that she got an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She later played disgraced medical entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in the Creator/{{Hulu}} series ''Series/TheDropout'', based on the titular podcast. Her performance netted her rave reviews once again and an eventual UsefulNotes/EmmyAward.
* Creator/OctaviaSpencer got major acclaim and won an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for her role in ''Film/TheHelp''. However, like her co-star Viola Davis, she hasn't done anything noteworthy since. This doesn't speak to lack of talent, but more about what kind of roles Hollywood offers black actresses. She got her own series, ''Red Band Society'', on Fox, and a major role as Johanna in the ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' movies at least. Spencer has since returned to being a character actress, with two more Oscar nominations for ''Film/HiddenFigures'' and ''Film/TheShapeOfWater''. At most, she has had a hit playing the titular antagonist of ''Film/{{Ma}}'', as well as an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward-nominated performance as Madam C.J. Walker in the Creator/{{Netflix}} miniseries ''Self Made''.