From Loved to Hated: 15 Hollywood Stars Who Fell from Grace

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Ignacio Weil

Entertainment - September 9th 2025, 19:00 GMT+2

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 174223508 — Will Smith

Grace met gravity on live television, and that moment still anchors his reputation no matter how many charm offensives follow. The decade-long Academy ban formalized consequences that fans and studios had already started to impose: lost prestige lanes, careful PR choreography, and fewer risks taken on anything that isn’t franchise-proof. When apologies morph into marketing beats, audiences smell calculation, not contrition. Yes, he can still open a crowd-pleaser, but that doesn’t erase the trust gap with awards voters, brand partners, and a chunk of the public. The comeback narrative keeps trying to sprint past the damage, while the damage keeps setting the pace. Even supporters admit the room goes tense when his name enters a conversation about “professionalism” or “role model.” Hollywood forgives talent, but it never forgets tape. The career isn’t over; the halo is. | © Columbia Pictures

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 181257447 — Blake Lively

The internet may be fickle, but the current mood around her isn’t just noise – it’s fatigue with celebrity privilege packaged as relatability. When headlines blur with legal crossfire and influencer-grade messaging, the brand starts to look more polished than persuasive. Red carpets still love her, yet the comment sections tell a different story, where fashion moments compete with accusations of tone-deaf timing and thin-skinned responses. This isn’t a legal verdict; it’s a credibility one, rendered daily by audiences who no longer separate the persona from the press cycle. Studios like bankable, controversy-light stars; lately she’s only been one of those two things. The longer the discourse sits at a boil, the harder it is to sell the “America’s stylish bestie” act without eye rolls. Popularity can survive backlash; likability doesn’t always. Right now, she’s spending it faster than she’s earning it. | © Wayfarer Studios

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 181524568 — P. Diddy (Sean Combs)

Empires don’t collapse quietly, and his didn’t either. Multiple lawsuits, graphic allegations, and federal attention torched decades of mythmaking about hustle as virtue. A single piece of surveillance footage did more reputational damage than a thousand denials, and corporate partners took the hint faster than fans. In the culture ledger, mogul swagger flipped into liability overnight, because power looks different when the stories around it change. This isn’t just about “bad headlines”; it’s about a trust crash that brands treat as non-negotiable. Collaborators have distanced themselves, the luxury sheen has dulled, and the public no longer grants benefit of the doubt. Whatever the court timeline, the cultural sentence already arrived. The empire stands, but the aura is gone. | © Apatow Productions

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 181617889 — Mel Gibson

There’s a reason his name still triggers a wince before anyone mentions a film: some statements don’t weather with time, they corrode. The anti-Semitic tirade and abuse saga didn’t just dent a star image; they rewired it, permanently. A prestigious directing comeback proved the industry will rent talent even when it won’t buy the person, but rentals don’t restore reputations. For every admirer who says “separate art and artist,” there’s a producer who quietly won’t pick the fight with press, partners, or their own crew. The result is a career that exists – but never on the old terms, and never without an asterisk. Audiences can admire the shot choices while still rejecting the man making them. That tension is the brand now, and it’s not going away. The work persists; the welcome doesn’t. | © 20th Century Studios

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 181943993 — Bill Cosby

From cultural cornerstone to cautionary tale, the speed of his collapse remains the benchmark for modern scandal. A vacated conviction on procedural grounds didn’t move the public one inch; a later civil verdict only hardened the perception that the story people believed was the story that mattered. Institutions stripped honors, distributors shut doors, and the nostalgic glow around a generation’s TV childhood vanished like it had never existed. Attempts at public re-entry read less like comebacks and more like stress tests no one asked for. The brand isn’t “complicated”; it’s radioactive. If fame is a contract with an audience, this one has been terminated with cause. Time can soften memory; it hasn’t softened this. Some legacies you can’t rehab. | © First Artists

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 182045257 — Kevin Spacey

Hollywood rendered judgment fast, and nothing that happened in court since has meaningfully reopened the gates. Roles were erased, scenes reshot, and a once inevitable awards pipeline died on contact with the allegations. Legal outcomes may complicate the narrative, but they don’t compel casting directors, insurers, or marketers to take the risk. The audience calculus is brutal: if your presence becomes the story, you’re not an asset, you’re an uncertainty. Occasional indie or overseas work doesn’t change the headline that prestige Hollywood moved on. He can argue nuance; the marketplace speaks in yes or no. So far, it’s no. Until someone with real leverage dares a test case, this remains a career paused on an image problem that won’t unfreeze. | © DreamWorks Pictures

Shia labeouf fury msn — Shia LaBeouf

The rise was jet-powered; the reckoning was too. Lawsuits, rehab, and public admissions recast the prodigy as a liability, and studios don’t build nine-figure schedules around liabilities. Prestige directors still bite because volatility can equal electricity on screen, but that’s not the same as a clean bill of marketability. Settlements close court dockets, not public memory. Each new project arrives preloaded with a debate about accountability that eclipses the work. The indie circuit will forgive if the work sings; the mainstream wants assurance it won’t have to explain its choices. That assurance isn’t there yet. Artistic talent survived; AAA trust did not. | © Sony Pictures

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 182249355 — Ellen DeGeneres

A brand built on warmth met receipts about workplace coldness, and you can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube. The internal investigation, producer firings, and final-season farewell weren’t an arc – they were an autopsy. Stand-up returns and wry mea culpas may win back some fans, but daytime’s advertising ecosystem thrives on wholesomeness without disclaimers. Sponsors remember, staffers talk, and the audience that once saw a safe harbor now sees a contradiction. She’s famous enough to keep touring, but not trusted enough to carry a daily show back into living rooms. The cultural catchphrase she curated – “be kind” – now reads like a dare. The empire ended because the promise broke. | © Netflix

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 182343986 — Amber Heard

Public opinion didn’t just sour; it fractured into warring camps that still treat every casting rumor like a referendum. The 2022 courtroom saga with Johnny Depp turned a private implosion into a globally streamed spectacle, and the narrative momentum never went back in the bottle. Even a reduced settlement and a quieter posture couldn’t thaw the meme economy that made her a shorthand for “celebrity controversy.” Work continued, but the roles were smaller, the press cycles rougher, and the comment sections merciless. The result is a career that exists under floodlights – every festival appearance, every interview clipped and litigated by the internet. Studios read those tea leaves, which is why she hasn’t been handed a risk-on blockbuster since. Fame didn’t vanish; goodwill did, and rebuilding it is a marathon no one can run for her. If there’s a comeback path, it starts with projects that speak louder than headlines. | © Warner Bros.

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 182428269 — Rachel Zegler

The speedrun from breakout darling to discourse magnet was almost modern to a fault. A few interview clips about a fairy-tale reboot ricocheted through culture-war feeds, and suddenly a rising star wore the internet’s favorite scarlet letter: “ungrateful.” The irony, of course, is that her actual work drew strong notices in a major franchise prequel, but perception rarely surrenders to nuance once the algorithm takes a side. Disney delays and PR fumbles kept the kettle boiling, letting detractors sell a simple story – too simple for a career still in the opening chapters. She’s talented, she’s vocal, and she’s learning in real time that likability is a currency Hollywood spends before it earns. The lesson is brutal but predictable: your quotes can overshadow your cues. A reset is possible, but it will require movies that remind people why they cared in the first place. For now, she’s trending as much for commentary as for craft. | © Disney

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 182505666 — Brie Larson

If the internet had a trophy for “most efficiently targeted by bad-faith outrage,” her mantle would be full. An Oscar for exacting, humane drama should have insulated her; instead, one superhero press tour turned into a years-long lightning rod for dudes who hear “inclusion” and translate it as “invasion.” That noise never stopped, and it got louder when a later MCU chapter stumbled at the box office – proof, in some minds, that their grievance was prophecy. Meanwhile, back in reality, she kept stacking auteur collaborations, franchise paydays, and brand cachet like a professional who understands the assignment. The paradox is that she’s both “controversial” online and perfectly employable in the rooms that matter. Does the backlash dent likability? Sure. Does it erase the resume? Not remotely. If the goal is to measure public perception, call it polarized – but remember that polarization hasn’t kept cameras from rolling. | © Marvel

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 182542328 — Ezra Miller

The list of headlines read like a studio executive’s nightmare: arrests, protection orders, a burglary case, and a public pledge to seek treatment for mental-health issues. For a would-be franchise anchor, that’s not turbulence – it’s a stall. The superhero film that was supposed to reset a cinematic universe arrived under a cloud so thick even good reviews wouldn’t have cut through; instead, the box office collapse became the story. Apologies were issued, statements were made, and then came the long, awkward quiet that follows when insurers and PR teams speak louder than casting directors. It isn’t just that fans balked; it’s that the risk profile ballooned to a point no tentpole wants to underwrite. Rehabilitation is possible, but the road back runs through small parts, spotless months, and a lot of time. The spotlight won’t forget quickly, and neither will the spreadsheets. Trust is the first role to win. | © Warner Bros.

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 182723457 1 — Terrence Howard

Once slotted as a franchise cornerstone, he blinked and the cornerstone became someone else’s close-up. The salary dispute over a certain armored Avenger was the career fork everyone remembers, but the tabloid trail – domestic-violence allegations, messy divorces, and pseudoscience detours – made the studio calculus even simpler: fewer headaches, please. Television gave him a second empire and a primetime redemption arc, but that didn’t translate back into AAA leads when the show ended. Reputation isn’t only what fans think; it’s what producers fear they’ll have to clean up at 3 a.m. That fear is hard to shake once it calcifies, even for a performer with real presence on screen. The result is a résumé full of work and a ceiling that moved lower while no one was looking. If there’s a blockbuster bridge back, it hasn’t been built yet. You can be talented and still be a risk; Hollywood is allergic to the second part. | © Marvel

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 183024631 — Joss Whedon

The architect of quippy, ensemble-driven pop epics became a cautionary tale about what happens behind the camera when the brand promises the opposite. Cast members from different eras described a pattern – bullying, berating, retaliating – that turned nostalgia into evidence. His attempt at a reputation rescue in a long-form interview only sharpened the edges; instead of contrition, readers got rationalizations and score-settling. That sealed the industry verdict: the era of automatic greenlights was over. Fans learned a bitter lesson about separating tone from temperament; execs learned to ask how many HR fires come bundled with a writer’s room. Credits stand, but so does the testimony, and the second one is what determines who gets a second act. For a man who once defined “event TV” and “event cinema,” the quiet is deafening. The culture moved on, and the phones stopped ringing. | © Marvel

Cropped imagen 2025 09 05 183158378 — Harvey Weinstein

No single figure did more to redefine the limits of accountability in modern Hollywood. The convictions, the prison sentences, the overturned verdict and ensuing retrial – every legal twist has been public, but the social judgment was instantaneous and permanent. Survivors spoke; the industry finally listened; the era of whispered warnings gave way to documented histories in court. Whatever happens on appeal in one jurisdiction, the Los Angeles conviction stands as a hard wall between him and any fantasy of rehabilitation. Companies scrubbed his name, institutions reassessed their complicity, and a generation of workers recalibrated what “normal” should mean on a set. This isn’t a fall from grace; it’s an exposure of rot. The myth of the mercurial genius-producer died with the man’s power. In the ledger of celebrity perception, this entry is written in ink. | © Time Magazine

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Fame can flip fast in Hollywood. One minute a star is headlining blockbusters and soaking up standing ovations; the next, they’re trending for all the wrong reasons as fans, studios, and brands pull back. This article looks at 15 Hollywood stars whose reputations took a hard turn – from widely admired to widely criticized – thanks to scandals, lawsuits, troubling behavior, or a long string of public missteps. We’re not relitigating court cases here; we’re tracking public perception, career fallout, and how quickly a spotlight can become a searchlight.

To keep things fair, each entry notes the peak moment that made the celebrity beloved, the catalyst that accelerated the fall, and what the career impact has been since – lost roles, cooled award buzz, or diminished box office. Some have attempted comebacks; others remain in the wilderness. Either way, these are the stories that define the modern celebrity backlash cycle – how a mix of social media, 24/7 coverage, and shifting cultural standards can turn a red-carpet darling into a cautionary tale.