What the Hell Happened to Cuba Gooding Jr.?

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Academy Award winner, Cuba Gooding, Jr. used to be cast in movies to
give them an air of prestige. His presence was a signal to the
audience that the movie they were seeing was meant to be taken
seriously, even if it was a Michael Bay movie. But then, Gooding’s
image changed. After a string of critical drubbing and commercial
disasters, Gooding went from Hollywood darling to direct-to-video
pariah.

What the hell happened?

I love it when a celebrity’s humble beginnings have been preserved for
posterity. In the case of Cuba Gooding Jr., he started off as a break
dancer. In 1984, his dance troupe performed alongside Lionel Richie
at the closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in LA.

That couldn’t be more 1984 if it was written by George Orwell. Side
note: I learned via VH-1′s Pop Up Videos that Richie was a terrible
dancer. His videos frequently featured him from the waist up. Even
his hit song Dancing On the Ceiling features very little dancing from
Richie. He relied heavily on back-up dancers and future Oscar winners
to supply the ”karamu” for his “fiesta”.

In the late 80′s, Gooding paid his dues with guest spots on TV shows
like Amen and MacGyver. His role on MacGyver was a recurring guest
spot. He played Billy Colton on three episodes from 1988-1990.

In 1988, Gooding make his big screen debut in Coming to America
opposite Eddie Murphy. As pictured above, he was a customer in the
barbershop scene. The following year, he appeared in the musical,
Sing. His role was similarly small.

Gooding’s big break came in 1991 when he landed the lead role in John
Singleton’s directorial debut, Boyz N the Hood.

Gooding played Tre, a high school student in a bad neighborhood. Tre
was at a point in his life where he could go either way. He could go
on to college but he was in danger of getting dragged down by his
violent surroundings.

Boyz was one of the first films to depict life in South Central LA.
It tapped into the growing rap culture in a way no previous film had.
Over time, its cultural impact has lessened thanks to the imitators
Boyz spawned. But in 1991, Boyz N the Hood was a pop culture
revelation.

Boyz N the Hood was screened at Cannes. It opened to rave reviews and
was a smash at the box office. Singleton became the youngest director
ever to be nominated for an Academy Award.

In short, it was a triumph. And Gooding was at the center of it with
his leading man debut. Much like the character he played on-screen,
Gooding’s career could have gone a number of ways. Anything was
possible, but nothing was guaranteed.

The next year, Gooding followed up Boyz N the Hood with Gladiator.
No, not the Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott hit from 2000. This Gladiator
was a boxing movie which co-starred Brian Dennehy, Robert Loggia and
James Marshall from TV’s Twin Peaks.

At the time, Gladiator was viewed as a test to see if either Gooding
or Marshall had the star power to open a movie. But the movie was
panned and bombed at the box office. It seemed both actors had failed
the test.

Later that year, both Gooding and Marshall appeared in Rob Reiner’s
military courtroom drama, A Few Good Men.

A Few Good Men starred Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore. The
all-star cast included supporting roles by Kevin Pollak and Kevin
Bacon. Point being, the movie was crowded with actors. Of the two,
Marshall had the larger role as one of the defendants being tried by
Cruise.

Men got great reviews and was nominated for several awards. It was
also a commercial success. But Gooding’s role was too small to be of
any great significance.

In 1993, Gooding starred opposite Emilio Estevez, Jeremy Piven, Dennis
Leary and Stephen Dorff in the thriller, Judgment Night.

Leary played a drug dealer who pursues the other characters through
town after they witness a murder. I don’t remember much about the
movie except that at some point, Gooding’s character goes wild-eyed
crazy. Also, it’s really silly which is a polite way of saying
“stupid”.

At the time, Estevez was looking to break away from his Brat Pack
image. And the rest of the cast were up-and-comers. Gooding, Piven,
Dorf and Leary were all seen as tremendously promising actors. But
Judgment Night failed them all. Reviews were bad and the movie
bombed.

In 1994, Gooding appeared opposite Paul Hogan and Beverly D’Angelo in
the Western comedy, Lightning Jack.

Hogan wrote and starred as an Australian bank robber in the US.
Gooding played a mute whom Hogan takes hostage. Eventually, Hogan and
Gooding’s characters team up. It was a long way from Boyz N the Hood,
but also a sign of things to come for Gooding.

Like most of Hogan’s attempts to recapture the success of Crocodile
Dundee, Lightning Jack got terrible reviews. While it did well in
Hogan’s native Australia, it was not a hit in the US.

Gooding started off 1995 as part of an all-star ensemble in Wolfgang
Petersen’s disaster movie, Outbreak.

Outbreak starred Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman. In
addition to Gooding, Patrick Dempsey, Donald Sutherland and Kevin
Spacey had supporting roles. Like A Few Good Men, it was a crowded
cast. The monkey’s face appeared on the poster, but Gooding didn’t.

Outbreak opened to mixed reviews, but it was a hit at the box office.
Gooding’s role was too small for it to matter very much.

Later that month, Gooding also appeared in Losing Isaiah opposite
Jessica Lange and Halle Berry.

Isaiah was a melodrama about a white family that adopts a baby who is
abandoned by her black, crack-addict mother. Halle Berry plays the
crack addict, so you know she’s going to go to rehab and clean up real
nice. Like, “most beautiful woman in the world nice”.

Naturally it ends with a courtroom drama in which hot button issues of
the day are dramatized. Samuel L. Jackson plays Berry’s lawyer who I
assume swears a lot because he is played by Samuel L. Jackson. And
also that he is awesome for the same reason.

Gooding’s role was so small that I could find no reference to his
character in any of the plot summaries I read. Which is probably a
good thing since Losing Isaiah got bad reviews and flopped at the box
office.

Later that year, Gooding also appeared in the HBO movie, The Tuskegee
Airmen which starred Lawrence Fishburn. I mention this because he
would eventually return to the same material on the big screen.

Gooding’s promising career had stalled out since his debut in Boyz in
the Hood five years earlier. I’m sure many had written him off along
with that Twin Peaks guy. But all that changed in 1996 with Cameron
Crowe’s Jerry Maguire.

Tom Cruise played a sports agent with a crisis of conscience. Gooding
played his only client, a promising athlete with a chip on his
shoulder and a naked desire to see “the money”.

Given Cruise’s track record at the time, it’s no surprise the movie
was a hit. But it surpassed any reasonable expectations. It became a
cultural juggernaut. The catchphrases from Jerry Maguire were
everywhere. If you’re like me, you still cringe a little when you
hear “You complete me” or “Show me the money”.

Jerry Maguire got positive reviews and was a huge hit at the box
office. It launched Rene Zellweger’s career, established Crowe as an
A-list director and won Gooding an Academy Award.

When Gooding won Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire, he gave one
of the most memorable acceptance speeches in the Awards’ history. His
enthusiasm was contagious. Audiences and Hollywood were smitten.

Watching that speech all these years later, I had a couple of
thoughts.

1. Really? They cut him off after 60 seconds?

2. Mira Sorvino – So hot! Seriously, what the hell happened?

The next year, Gooding appeared in another Oscar-winning dramedy,
James L. Brooks’s As Good As It Gets.

Jack Nicholson starred as an obsessive compulsive novelist who falls
in love with a waitress played by Helen Hunt. Greg Kinnear played
Nicholson’s neighbor, a gay artist whom Nicholson’s character verbally
abuses. Gooding had a small role as Kinnear’s agent who turns the
tables on his former A Few Good Men co-star.

Like Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets got positive reviews, was a hit
at the box office, and won a lot of awards. But this time, the Oscars
went to Nicholson and Hunt. Gooding’s role was practically a cameo
appearance.

In 1998, Gooding co-starred opposite Robin Williams in the New Age
drama, What Dreams May Come.

Williams played a man who died and actually passes on to the
afterlife. Gooding played his spiritual advisor on the other side.
Williams’ journeys take him through Heaven and Hell without being
especially interesting.

What Dreams May Come got mixed reviews and disappointed at the box
office.

In 1999, Gooding starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in Jon Turteltaub’s
thriller, Instinct.

Instinct was marketed like a follow-up to Silence of the Lambs with
Hopkins playing an anthropologist who has been living with gorillas.
Gooding played the psychiatrist tasked with figuring out why Hopkins
killed some rangers in Africa.

But Instinct was no Silence of the Lambs. It got terrible reviews and
bombed at the box office.

Later that year, Gooding co-starred with Skeet Ulrich in the action/
comedy Chill Factor.

Gooding plays an ice cream delivery man who is tasked with saving the
world. The kid from Scream shows up. Hilarity fails to ensue.
Reviews were scathing and the movie flopped at the box office.

That same year, Gooding used some of his Oscar clout to produce and
star in the film, A Murder of Crows with his friend and business
partner Derek Broes. That film marked the start of Gooding’s direct-
to-video career.

Gooding bounced back in 2000 opposite Robert DeNiro in the military
drama, Men of Honor.

Gooding played a Navy diver who is trained by a racist Master Chief
played by DeNiro. Because this is a movie, Gooding and DeNiro
eventually find common ground. Also, Charlize Theron shows up.

Despite mixed reviews, Men of Honor was a hit.

In 2001, Gooding had a small role in another military-themed drama.
This time, it was Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor was a blatant attempt to recreate the success of
Titanic. It featured a doomed romance set against a historical
backdrop. But with all the explosions and patriotic jingoism one
expects from auteur, Michael Bay.

The movie was supposed to cement Ben Affleck’s status as an A-list
star while making stars out of Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett.
Instead, it contributed to Affleck’s career implosion and buried
Hartnett in over-exposure.

Gooding was one of many cameos in the film. He played Dorie Miller, a
ship cook who became the first African-American to be awarded the Navy
Cross. All I remember is that he went absolutely ape shit with a big
gun.

Pearl Harbor got bad reviews. It disappointed at the domestic box
office, but turned a profit overseas.

Later that year, Gooding appeared as part of the star-studded ensemble
in the comedy, Rat Race.

Rat Race aspired to be an update on It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
But it turned out to be closer to Cannonball Run. The plot had mostly
C-list celebrities racing to win a cash prize.

Gooding was joined by fellow African-American Oscar-winner Whoopi
Goldberg. Rat Race was the first film to feature two African-American
Oscar winners. It also featured a crazy squirrel and a busload of
Lucille Ball impersonators.

Reviews were mixed and the movie was a modest hit at the box office.

In 2002, Gooding starred in the Disney comedy, Snow Dogs.

Gooding played a Florida dentist who inherits a team of snow dogs. In
short, it couldn’t be farther from Oscar territory. Actually it could
as we will see soon. But at the time, it was surprising to see
Gooding slumming it in a high concept Disney dog movie.

Reviews were negative, but Snow Dogs was a modest success. People
love dogs.

In 2003, Gooding hit what had to be rock bottom with the supposed
comedy, Boat Trip.

Gooding and SNL fat guy Horatio Sanz play a couple of buddies who
discover to their horror that they have booked a vacation on a gay
cruise. It’s a reprehensible premise which was poorly executed.
Critics savaged Boat Trip and the movie bombed at the box office.

Audiences officially began asking, “What the hell happened?”

After Boat Trip, there is nowhere to go but up. So starring opposite
Beyoncé Knowles in The Fighting Temptations was definitely a step up.
The film got mixed reviews and disappointed at the box office –
especially given Knowles’ popularity. But at least it wasn’t Boat
Trip.

Gooding ended the year with the drama, Radio, in which he played a
mentally challenged young man who befriends a football coach played by
Ed Harris.

When A-list actors take on roles like this, there are two ways it can
go. One, they can be heaped with praise and often awards for their
brave performance. Two, everyone cringes. Radio was one of those
movies where everyone cringed.

Radio got mostly negative reviews and disappointed at the box office.
If it was intended to get Gooding back in Oscar’s good graces, it
failed. But Gooding was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for
Worst Actor for all three of his films in 2003.

After Radio, Gooding plunged into the abyss of direct-to-video
releases. In 2004, he did voice work on Disney’s Home on the Range.
That film’s failure caused Disney to shutter their feature animation
division for years. Gooding came to specialize in gritty dramas like
Dirty, Shadowboxer and End Game.

In 2007, Gooding had something of a comeback on the big screen. He
started the year with a supporting role in Eddie Murphy’s comedy,
Norbit.

Norbit played a skinny nerd and his outrageously fat and disgusting
fiance. The movie was reviled by critics and many believe it cost
Murphy his Oscar for Dreamgirls. In spite of that, Norbit was a hit
at the box office.

Later that year, Gooding starred in Daddy Day Camp, the sequel to
Murphy’s family comedy, Daddy Day Care.

Daddy Day Care was a surprise hit for Murphy in 2003. But when Murphy
(who is not known for refusing to make sequels) refused to make a
sequel, Oscar-winner Gooding (who is not known for refusing to make
anything) stepped in.

Daddy Day Camp was even more critically reviled than the original
(which was not well-liked by critics). Unlike the first film, the
sequel failed at the box office.

Daddy Day Camp and Norbit won Gooding his second Golden Raspberry
Nomination.

Gooding ended 2007 with a small role in Ridley Scott’s crime drama,
American Gangster. American Gangster starred Denzel Washington and
Russell Crowe. The reviews were mostly positive and the movie was a
hit. But once again, Gooding’s role was very small.

After that, Gooding made a stream of direct-to-video movies that would
make Val Kilmer choke. The two even starred together in 2009′s
Hardwired. Gooding made two direct-to-video films with Christian
Slater; Lies & Illusions in 2009 and Sacrifice in 2011.

In 2012, Gooding returned to the big screen for George Lucas’ take on
the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails. Gooding had already
appeared in the HBO version of the story years earlier. But this time
he was the star and it was a theatrical release.

Reviews for Red Tails were mostly negative. After spending years in
production, Red Tails was a disappointment at the box office.

In 2013, Gooding will appear on the big screen again with a cameo in
Robert Rodriguez exploitation satire, Machete Kills. The movie is
loaded with stunt casting like Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay
Lohan and Lady Gaga. Appearing in Machete Kills is more or less an
admission that your movie career is over.

So, what the hell happened?

Let’s face it, roles like Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire don’t come
along very often. Gooding was exceptionally lucky to get cast in
movies like Boyz N the Hood and Jerry Maguire to begin with. Even an
Oscar winner can’t expect to keep scoring those kind of parts.

When those kinds of roles didn’t materialize, Gooding went for “the
money” (sorry, couldn’t resist) in the most low brow comedies
imaginable. Which was a bit of a strange career decision because he
was not known as a comedic actor.

Gooding cashed a few fat paychecks at the expense of his Oscar
prestige. Eventually, he settled for the regular paycheck of steady
work in direct-to-video releases.