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00:00As a certain Italian stallion once mumbled,
00:03Ain't nothing over till it's over.
00:05And in the case of these returning acting sensations,
00:09they all definitely were not ready to hang it up,
00:12and went on to produce the sort of unexpected comebacks
00:14that Rocky Balboa himself would have been proud of.
00:18I'm Gareth here from WhatCulture.com
00:20and here are actor comebacks nobody saw coming.
00:23Ben Affleck.
00:24After slowly turning himself into one of Hollywood's new leading men
00:28in the time post-Good Will Hunting,
00:30a string of box office disasters appeared to derail Ben Affleck's promising career.
00:35So after the critically panned outings that were 2003's Daredevil, Jiggly and Payback,
00:41Affleck ultimately decided to turn his attention to directing a few years later.
00:46His first flick, Gone Baby Gone, was adored by critics.
00:49But it was crime thriller The Town and historical drama Argo
00:53that really announced the once downtrodden thespian
00:56as one of the hottest directors in the business.
00:58And before long, he was surprisingly once again lifting Academy Award gold
01:03and even stepping back into the superhero genre,
01:06this time as the Batman.
01:09Not even a rather turbulent time as the caped crusader
01:12and his very public struggles with addiction
01:14could keep this resilient artist down though.
01:17With Affleck returning from rehab in 2018 to eventually star in the likes of The Wayback
01:22and The Tender Bar,
01:23before directing and appearing in the well-received Nike Air Jordan biographical drama
01:28at...
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01:44I'd make that deal.
01:45Damn good deal.
01:46Cameron Diaz
01:47Despite being classed as the highest paid actress over 40 just a few years earlier,
01:52the mega star that is Cameron Diaz decided she'd had enough of Hollywood in 2018.
01:57And you can't blame her.
01:58After decades of non-stop traveling and starring in everything from The Mask to Shrek,
02:03not sure why I went for both the green ones there,
02:06Diaz would eventually tell Kevin Hart on his heart-to-heart show
02:09that it was simply time for the star to make her life manageable by me,
02:13instead of having various parts of it handed off to other people.
02:17And it honestly looked like the chances of a sensational Diaz return one day
02:21were rather slim after the actor told Sirius XM's Quarantined with Bruce in 2021
02:26that she couldn't imagine being a mother who spends 14 to 16 hours away
02:31from their young child shooting on a flick.
02:33But then, in a move that just about nobody saw coming,
02:36Diaz suddenly made a retirement U-turn a year later.
02:40Reuniting with Annie co-star Jamie Foxx, Hayden Christensen
02:44Hayden Christensen's work as Anakin Skywalker slash Darth Vader
02:48was repeatedly criticized by fans and critics alike
02:51at the time of the prequel's release.
02:53Something that didn't exactly help the youngster
02:56when he pursued projects post-Galaxy Far, Far Away.
02:59A number of flops or critically panned releases came next
03:02in the years that followed his initial run as the Fallen Jedi.
03:06And it got to the point where the star of Jumper, Awake and Virgin Territory
03:10simply decided to step away from the industry for a bit to work on his farm instead.
03:15Christensen would ultimately tell the LA Times that
03:18if I can come back afterward and claw my way back in,
03:21then maybe I'll feel like I earned it.
03:23After noting how he felt like he'd simply been handed opportunities after Star Wars.
03:28Then, after making the odd forgettable film Here or There over the next few years,
03:31A vocal cameo in The Rise of Skywalker was shockingly followed by a sensational small screen return
03:37as both Skywalker and Vader in Disney Plus' Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
03:43And Christensen's terrific work as Vader slash Skywalker now looks set to remarkably continue,
03:48with the comeback king once again dusting off Anakin's boots in the Ahsoka series.
03:52But what's been your favorite Star Wars project of the Disney era?
03:56Was it Obi-Wan Kenobi or something else?
03:58Well, you let me know in that comment section right down below.
04:01Matthew McConaughey
04:02This charming Hollywood heartthrob was enjoying a pretty successful career throughout the 2000s,
04:08regularly being found with his top off and flirting his way through the likes of
04:11How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and failure to launch.
04:15But this all led to the mighty Matthew McConaughey being somewhat typecast.
04:19So, towards the end of the decade, the star told his agent to only send him small budget scripts
04:25that weren't in any way glamorous.
04:27And what came next was something ultimately referred to as a wonderful and rather unlikely
04:32McConaissance.
04:33After smashing it in features like the late William Freekin's Killer Joe,
04:37McConaughey once again proved he possessed some serious acting chops with his displays in Magic Mike and Mud.
04:43But all that stellar work was merely setting the stage for a 2013 that would cement the star
04:48as Hollywood's new go-to dramatic talent.
04:51With his scene-stealing work on the Wolf of Wall Street,
04:54an Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club,
04:57completing one of the most extraordinary comebacks of recent times.
05:01All right, all right, all right.
05:03Winona Ryder
05:04Throughout the late 80s and 90s,
05:06The Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, and Little Woman Thespian
05:09was one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood.
05:12However, Winona Ryder would later admit that she felt depressed during that latter decade,
05:17also noting how she was wrongly looking at the industry to validate herself as a person at the time.
05:22In 2001, Ryder was then arrested for shoplifting $6,000 worth of designer goods,
05:28with police also finding a syringe and painkillers in her possession.
05:32This all led to the star taking a few years off from the business,
05:35before gradually starting to remind folks why she was once seen as one of the most bankable names in the
05:41game,
05:41in the likes of Star Trek, Black Swan, and HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero.
05:46And while an epic big and small screen comeback looked depressingly unlikely at the start of the century for this
05:52icon,
05:53Stranger Things most certainly happened, and Ryder hasn't looked back since.
05:57Michael Keaton
05:58Now sure, this particular icon of the 80s and 90s still showed up in his fair share of films
06:03in the time post-legendary Beetlejuice and Batman performances,
06:07but Michael Keaton largely stayed under the radar when appearing in a supporting capacity
06:12in Herbie Fully Loaded, Cars, The Other Guys, and other 2000s and 2010s offerings.
06:17After spending years turning down various studio projects and claiming that he wanted to repaint himself though,
06:24Keaton finally got the chance to do precisely that in the most surprising and compelling ways.
06:29Playing a faded Hollywood icon who was known mostly for his work as the superhero Birdman,
06:34Keaton's impressive turn as Rigan Thompson in Alejandro G. Inara 2's Birdman
06:39led to the most unexpected of career resurgences.
06:43An Academy Award nomination later, this star soon began showing up in more Oscars Best Picture winners like Spotlight,
06:49and even produced one of the finest villain performances the MCU has seen to date in Spider-Man Homecoming.
06:55Let's just not talk about the Mobius stuff.
06:57He even got nuts again in The Flash, what a time to be alive, eh?
07:01Brendan Fraser
07:02This mummy, George of the Jungle, and Encino Man Superstar once felt like a leading man destined to remain on
07:09top.
07:09But in the wake of being the victim of an alleged sexual assault in 2003,
07:14Brendan Fraser would eventually note to GQ how he felt work withered on the vine in the years that followed
07:19the incident.
07:20On top of that horrendous experience, Fraser's body also began to break down after years of grueling stunts,
07:27with the star requiring numerous surgeries that resulted in him being in and out of hospital for nearly seven years.
07:33But then Darren Aronofsky ultimately came calling in the wake of Fraser's brilliant small screen work on the affair,
07:39Trust, Titans, and Doom Patrol turning a few heads towards the end of the 2010s.
07:44What came next was a transformative and deeply moving turn as the morbidly obese English teacher Charlie and the Whale,
07:51and a once unthinkable Oscar win sealed an unexpected but well-deserved comeback for the ages.
07:57Nicolas Cage
07:58As Nicolas Cage himself would eventually admit to GQ,
08:02the phone stopped ringing for him after a string of rather disappointing box office performances
08:06from the likes of Ghost Rider, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Drive Angry.
08:10So that, issues in his personal life, and the fact he was paying $20,000 a month trying to keep
08:16his mother out of a mental institution,
08:18left the face-off and raising Arizona actor in a position where he had to make certain straight-to-VOD
08:24films
08:25throughout the 2010s just to keep himself from having to file for bankruptcy.
08:29Those who had understandably forgotten just how great this prolific talent could be on his day
08:34were then given one hell of a reminder in 2021,
08:37when Cage unleashed one of his finest turns in years as a former chef turned truffle hunter in Pig.
08:43And in typical Cage fashion,
08:45the star chose to follow that well-received and unanticipated return to a quieter way of performing,
08:51with the outrageous unbearable weight of massive talent,
08:54playing multiple balmy versions of himself.
08:57While he technically never left,
08:58it's sure good to have this one-of-a-kind artist back in the spotlight,
09:02Robert Downey Jr.
09:03Another star who once looked like one of the most promising names in Hollywood,
09:08Robert Downey Jr.'s career ultimately stalled a few years on from his Academy Award-nominated work
09:13as the iconic Charlie Chaplin in 1992.
09:16The star was arrested for drug offences on a number of occasions during the 90s and early 2000s.
09:21He also spent time in prison,
09:23and it got to the point where this undoubtedly gifted but hugely troubled performer
09:27was pretty much unemployable.
09:29After stopping for a particularly disgusting burger from Burger King in 2003,
09:34though,
09:34the actor who'd struggled with addiction for years finally decided to commit to properly getting himself clean.
09:40From here,
09:41the performer who once seemed set to become yet another Hollywood tragedy,
09:44started to once again smash it in the likes of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Zodiac,
09:49with all that outstanding work leading to an Iron Man screen test that would change his life forever.
09:54And that brilliant MCU audition soon paved the way for RDJ,
09:58becoming one of the most successful actors of all time in the remarkable 15 years that followed.
10:04Kee Hee Kwan
10:05Kee Hee Kwan struggled so much to find work in the time after playing Short Round and Data
10:09in Temple of Doom and The Goonies, respectively,
10:12he eventually decided to quit acting altogether.
10:15Then a film by the name of Crazy Rich Asians landed in theatres in 2018,
10:19and Kwan realized that, despite originally feeling he was at peace with his decision to leave acting behind,
10:25he wanted to return to being up there with them after 20 years away from the front of the camera.
10:30So after inspiring so many up-and-coming Asian actors with his displays in the 80s,
10:36Kwan finally made one of the most heartwarming, surprising, and impressive comebacks of recent times
10:41in last year's Everything Everywhere All At Once.
10:44Picking up a damn Oscar in the process, baby!
10:47With Kwan now also appearing in the acclaimed recent American-born Chinese series,
10:52and Loki Season 2 as well,
10:54it looks like this returning talented force thankfully won't be disappearing again anytime soon.
11:00We'll see you next time.
11:00We'll see you next time.
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