HOLLYWOOD - When he won the best-actor Oscar for his role in
The Pianist
, Adrien Brody planted a passionate, and shocking, kiss on the lips of Halle Berry.
It was a moment that connected them in more ways than the locking of lips. It has been five years now, and the movie world is still waiting for Brody to find a role equal to his 2002 star turn.
He's not alone.
The Oscar landscape is chock-full of actors and actresses who reached the pinnacle of their profession when they captured the golden statuette - and then find themselves faced with the pressure to follow with an equally brilliant performance.
And public opinion can be swift, and cruel, when that doesn't happen.
"Winning an Oscar puts a huge spotlight on your career," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking company Media by Numbers. "It raises expectations, and suddenly what an Oscar implies is that you are the best of the best. . . . It creates the expectation that you will do Oscar-worthy work."
Berry would know. She won best actress for 2001's
Monster's Ball
, only to follow that a few films later with the likes of
Catwoman
and
Perfect Stranger
. The critics sharpened their claws, seeming to relish the opportunity to shred both the movies and Berry's performances.
Then there's Helen Hunt, so charming as the waitress who deals with the irascible Jack Nicholson in
As Good as It Gets
; she has yet to recapture the glow of that 1997 performance.
Kevin Spacey, who delivered an absorbing and Oscar-winning performance as a suburban father in the 1999 black comedy
American Beauty
, also has had trouble reaching those heights again.
One of the biggest puzzles is Cuba Gooding Jr., who won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for the 1996 film
Jerry Maguire
.
"This is a guy who, in
Jerry Maguire
, set the world on fire," Dergarabedian said. "He stole the movie." But follow-up films such as
Snow Dogs
,
Radio, Boat Trip
and, most recently,
Daddy Day Camp
have left his fans scratching their heads.