What the Hell Happened to Sean Young?

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http://lebeauleblog.com/2011/05/21/what-the-hell-happened-to-sean-young/

Posted by lebeau

After documenting the downward spiral of Val Kilmer, I asked “Who
could possibly follow up this train wreck?” Fortunately, a reader had
the perfect suggestion. Sean Young may be the only person in
Hollywood with a reputation as toxic as Kilmer’s. In fact, her story
may just be more interesting than watching Iceman pack on the pounds.
Instead of asking “What the hell happened to Sean Young?” some readers
may be asking themselves “Who the hell IS Sean Young?”

In the 80′s she was a star on the rise. She had the looks and plenty
of talent. A long and distinguished career seemed certain. But in
the early 90′s all that evaporated.

Today Young, who is a skilled tap dancer, can’t even get cast on TV’s
Dancing With the Stars!

But let’s start at the beginning. After debuting in the Merchant-
Ivory film, Jane Austen in Manhattan, Young appeared in the comedy
classic, Stripes:

It was a small part, but Young made the most of her screen time as the
future Egon Spangler’s girlfriend.

The next year, 1982, Young appeared in two films. The first was the
forgettable Gary Marshall spoof, Young Doctors in Love. The movie had
a talented cast and attempted to do for daytime soaps what Airplane!
did for disaster movies. But alas, it just wasn’t very good.

As you can see from the clip, it comes close to getting a laugh. But
the timing is off. Whereas Airplane! fired off gags at a machine-gun
pace, YDiL just limps from yuk to yuk. And that’s probably more than
anyone has written about Young Doctors in Love in at least a decade.

The other movie Sean Young made in 1982 was Ridley Scott’s Blade
Runner.

Blade Runner was a visionary sci fi film that wasn’t appreciated when
it was released in 1982. But today, it has gained mainstream
acceptance from critics and audiences alike. It has influenced
countless films with its dystopian view of a future where it never
seems to stop raining.

Young played Rachel, a replicant (robot) who doesn’t know she’s not
human. She’s obviously beautiful, but Young also manages to be
vulnerable and mysterious. With Blade Runner, Sean Young’s career
seemed to be taking off.

Young’s next film was another sci-fi fantasy that would take on a cult
status. Although unfortunately 1984′s Dune would never be seen by
anybody as anything more than a missed opportunity.

Dune had a long and troubled past even before director David Lynch
came onboard. Lynch’s final version of the film was deemed too long
by the studio. They hacked it down to just over a two-hour running
time. But the shortened film didn’t make a lot of sense.

Given that Dune was directed by David Lynch, I’m not sure the original
cut would have been any more coherent, but I would love to have seen
it!

Young followed up Dune with Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend.

Baby was a kids movie in which Young and William Katt aka The Greatest
American Hero find a baby dinosaur. It was a blatant attempt to cash
in on ET. But of the ET rip-offs, well, let’s just say it was a lot
better than Mac and Me.

In 1987, Young got what could have been her breakout role opposite
Kevin Costner in No Way Out.

Young was born to play femme fatale roles. The timing seemed right.
Costner was hot off The Untouchables. Critics liked the film and it
was a hit. But it didn’t quite catapult Young to the top of the A-
list the way Basic Instinct did for Sharon Stone.

The same year, Sean Young had a smaller role in Oliver Stone’s Wall
Street. This is where the “crazy” starts to show up.

Stone has been very vocal over the years in his displeasure over Daryl
Hannah’s performance in the lead role. And yet, he refused to fire
her. Young irritated Stone by repeatedly insisting that she should
swap roles with Hannah.

Reportedly, Stone was so annoyed with Young that he wrapped up her
scenes early and had her dropped off at a bus station.

In 1988, Sean Young appeared in The Boost with James Woods.

The Boost got mixed reviews although Roger Ebert certainly championed
it. It had very little impact at the box office. And yet, it would
surely impact Young’s career.

Exactly what happened between Young and Woods during the making of The
Boost may never be known. They both tell wildly different tales.

Although according to Entertainment Weekly, they both agree that Young
definitely did not super-glue Wood’s penis to his leg contrary to
urban legend. Beyond that, they don’t agree on much.

Regardless of what happened, what we do know is that Woods would go on
to file a restraining order against Young. The matter was settled out
of court. But the damage was done. Woods made Young out to be a
lunatic in the “Glenn Close boiling rabbits” mold. And the image
stuck.

Around this time, an accident forced Young to drop out of Tim Burton’s
Batman. The role was recast with Kim Basinger. Instead of a star-
making turn in Batman, Young appeared in Cousins, a remake of a french
comedy starring Ted Danson.

In 1990, Young was fired from Dick Tracy. The official reason was
that she did not come across as maternal enough for the role of Tess
Truehart. Young claims she was fired for refusing the advances of
star and director, Warren Beatty.

In 1991, Young appeared in another modern film noir, A Kiss Before
Dying.

Young is a natural for the noir genre, but she sleep-walks through her
dual roles as wealthy twins pursued by Dillon’s murderous social
climber. Her performance was so bad, she won two Golden Raspberries.
One for each twin. Sorry to say, they are richly deserved.

A Kiss Before Dying got mostly negative reviews. Roger Ebert
championed the film, but it bombed anyway.

While audiences were ignoring Young’s latest release, she grabbed
headlines for something else…

Obviously, Batman was a huge hit. So when the sequel was being cast,
Young considered herself a front runner for the role of Catwoman.
However, Burton wouldn’t see her.

So she showed up at Warner Brother studios in a homemade Catwoman
costume and demanded to be seen. Reportedly, Burton hid under his
desk.

Later, Young made the unfortunate decision to take her one-Catwoman
show on the road. She appeared in her homemade Catwoman costume on
the Joan Rivers show and once again pleaded for the job.

Even as a fan of Young’s, I remember wondering what the hell she was
thinking.

In 1992, film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave Young a
spotlight on their show. They actually hoped for better things for
Young, but by then it was too, little too late.

Following the Catwoman debacle, Sean Young retreated Hollywood for
Arizona. She still worked, but her career suffered.

She returned to comedy with Carl Reiner’s Basic Instinct spoof, Fatal
Instinct. And then she appeared as the villain in Ace Ventura, which
is probably the last role she is remembered for.

In 1995, Young appeared in the last movie I ever saw her in, Dr. Jekyl
and Ms. Hyde.

The movie is supposed to be a comedy in which Tim Daly’s Dr. Jekyl
transforms into sexy villain Young. But the movie’s one joke isn’t
very funny.

Since 1995, Young has made a steady string of direct-to-video movies
and even appeared in TV shows like One Tree Hill. And though Dancing
With the Stars refused her, Young did make the cut for Skating With
the Stars… although she wiped out and was eliminated early.

Today, Young is best known for appearing on the VH1 reality series,
Celebrity Rehab as a patient of celebrity ambulance-chaser Dr. Drew.

And then, at a 2012 Oscar party, there was this:

Young made headlines for getting arrested for striking a security
guard after crashing an Oscar party. This comes after a high profile
incident in which a drunken Young was escorted from the Directors’
Guild Awards for heckling.

In 2007, Young told Entertainment Weekly she was a “comeback waiting
to happen”. That’s probably true. But with her reputation as a loon,
it seems few in Hollywood are willing to give her a second chance.