Actors and directors who went from being hated to being legends

Laura Palmer25 said:Where on earth did you guys get Clint and Schwarzenegger from? Everyone loved the second guy—he’d head straight from the gym to the set, and after Conan the Barbarian, he was basically a god. We're talking about guys who actually faced real backlash, where people were practically calling for them to be taken down by the press. They just weren't the media darlings back then (think Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Robert Pattinson and his girl, or Robert Downey Jr.).

Anyway, I still can't wrap my head around Robert Downey Jr. even today.

Spot on. 😁

Morgan Brown4 said:Don't bring up Morgan Freeman or Anthony Hopkins here; that's not what I mean.
They became famous relatively late, but—as far as I can tell—they were never really hated by the public.
Then again, Ryan Reynolds and Ben Affleck have already stacked up some more recognizable roles and movies.

People love Clint Eastwood specifically because of those "cheap westerns" 🤦 and Dirty Harry.
And from what I know, the consensus is overwhelmingly positive regarding both those films and his performances in them.

I guess I could maybe agree regarding Schwarzenegger's early career, back when he had that trashy Hercules in New York followed by a few supporting roles.
But people love him precisely because of The Terminator, Conan the Barbarian, Predator, Total Recall, Command... Maybe he was better in Maggie, but those earlier roles are exactly why everyone knows and likes him. 🙂

Being hated implies pure repulsion, dismissal, hatred, envy, and jealousy.
John Travolta was mocked at the start of his career, and it took Diamond to pull him out of it.
Casey Affleck was definitely hated—more than his brother—and now he’s considered a more respected actor than Ben, even if he's still pretty disliked. 😛

Maybe Sean Penn?

I think right now, nobody can touch Shia LaBeouf when it comes to being hated, and it's not like he's overly praised either.

Laura Palmer25 said:Where on earth did you get Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger from? Everyone loved the latter back when he’d roll straight from the gym to the set; after Conan the Barbarian, he became an absolute icon... we're talking about types of actors who lived under constant threat of being hated by the media or the general public just for existing (think Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Robert Pattinson and his girl, or Robert Downey Jr.).

By the way, I still can't wrap my head around Robert Downey Jr. today.

Sure, but among which audience? If we're using that logic, then Hulk Hogan belongs in the same category. People loved them, sure, but only a specific subset of people. You wouldn't expect some suburban housewife to identify with Clint Eastwood while he's busy filling people with bullets and dropping cult lines, yet when he's doing something like Madison County, she absolutely can. The man grew up in every sense of the word and expanded his reach.
Can you even imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to break into serious drama? With Maggie, he actually proved he had the chops for those kinds of roles.

By that logic, Matthew McConaughey really hit his stride during that phase when he was cranking out those silly romantic comedies. I'm positive the housewives absolutely adored him once he pivoted to those chick flicks after moving away from the more serious roles he had back in the 90s (and eventually circled back to in the 2010s).

And as for Maggie, that’s basically the movie that put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map. It's the first thing you think of now, especially when you realize he was doing that low-budget stuff like Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator right before that... 🙄

Morgan Brown4 said:If you follow that logic, Matthew McConaughey fits right into that stretch where he was just churning out mindless romantic comedies; I’m positive the suburban housewives absolutely adored him when he pivoted to those chick flicks and walked away from the heavy-hitting roles he actually had back in the nineties before finally finding his way back to them in the 2010s.

And that Maggie Smith movie—it’s really just the one that put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map, isn't it? The one that immediately hits you when you realize he spent all those years before that actually grinding through absolute garbage like Conan O'Brien and The Terminator. 🙄

I was just using housewives as an example, but honestly, actors like Clint Eastwood are in a league of their own when it comes to expanding an audience. He managed to climb all the way from those gritty, low-budget westerns directed by Sergio Leone to receiving an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award—an honor held by only forty-six people, including the absolute legends of acting and directing—all while sitting on four Academy Awards. Who else even has a life story like that? Being hated is always relative, since any niche group will always have its devotees, but isn't the real goal to actually become a household name for everyone?

Is there anything more pretentious than an industry handing out trophies to itself just to feel important? You have to wonder if these AFI honors actually mean anything, or if it's all just a hollow circle jerk designed to convince us that Hollywood still has a soul.

Is there anything left to say about a career that spans decades of grit and celluloid legend, or are we all just circling the drain of cinematic history? Does anyone actually believe we'll ever see another figure quite like Clint Eastwood again?

If Arnold Schwarzenegger ever actually walks away with an Academy Award, he’ll probably go down as one of the most successful people to ever walk this earth, regardless of whether we're talking about acting or just life in general. I mean, think about the trajectory: starting out as some immigrant laborer, turning into a seven-time bodybuilding champ, evolving into a legitimate actor with increasingly decent roles, becoming the Governor of California, and then potentially landing an Oscar? Even someone like Chuck Norris would look pretty small compared to that kind of climb.