The Oscar Curse

That moment has happened:  hearing your name and thanking everyone you've ever met, including your agent, and then God. You've won an Academy Award.  Everything will be magic from now on!  (The clip is a classic from 1939.)

Well, not always.  What have you seen recently of Roberto Benini, Adrien Brody, Richard Dreyfuss, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cuba Gooding Jr., and even Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Halle Berry?  Granted, Paltrow, Witherspoon and Berry have taken off Mommy time.  That's worthy of respect.  But the roles that followed their Oscars were often bombs.  Come on, "Catwoman," Halle?  "The Stepford Wives," Nicole? 

"The Goodbye Girl" netted Richard Dreyfuss a Best Actor Oscar in 1978.  His career stumbled a bit, and later he had a serious drug and alcohol problem.  While driving under the influence, he was pulled from the wreckage of a car accident and was heard to say "It's all Oscar's fault."  His later appearance in "Whose Life Is It Anyway" showed an eerily similar accident.  Things improved a few years later when he was nominated for "Mr. Holland's Opus."

After winning an Oscar, an actor can be seen as too expensive for the next role or too easily recognized to blend into a part.  Personal problems can also arise.  An Oscar win can break a marriage, especially if both spouses are actors.  Or a winner might be holding out for the perfect role and doesn’t find it.