I know some people love smaller films and stage acting but she actually had a following. I'd watch a movie just to see her in it. Come back to Hollywood Julia!
shareI'm wondering the same thing. Great to see her back even though she didn't get the credit she deserved for INLAND EMPIRE. I KNOW WHO KILLED ME is not very good. She has some very good moments in it though.
shareShe had a lot of momentum, but her career just didn't seem to pan out. I think the fact that she was the "It" girl for several months in the '90s may have led to her downfall. She's a good actress, but I don't think she was every destined to be a great one or a major star.
shareI wondered the same thing and I found this article that offers a lot of insight:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-484550/Julia-Ormond-The-ri se-fall-Hollywood-star.html
Basically she never thought she would last as the Hollywood "It Girl" anyway. She was treated unkindly by certain reporters who slandered her reputation and labeled her as difficult to work with, which is ridiculously untrue. So that among other reasons (like getting married again, having a daughter, and being a UN ambassador), she sort of faded away from the big starring roles. Mostly by choice, as it were.
But expect to see her acting career resurface...Benjamin Button being the beginning of several interesting supporting roles. She wants to be someone other than the one-dimensional leading lady. She's smart, talented, and still incredibly beautiful, so no doubt fans will be pleased.
Her biggest film roles were in box office bombs - First Knight, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, the remake of the classic Sabrina and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button all struck out at the box office. Had they performed better, Ms. Ormond’s profile as an actor might be higher.share
She seems to have been more interested in social and political causes - She’s been involved a in number of political and social causes over the decade. That has to have taken time away from her acting.
She’s was a stage actress, and then abandoned it - While she had ten years of stage experience before her television fame she left it, which given her modest success in other media, might not have been a wise idea.
She never appealed to American film audiences - Unfortunately, to become a star in Hollywood, you have to first appeal to American film audiences. Ms. Ormond never did (nor has) and her career stalled as a result.
Poor career decisions - After the failure of her major films during the 1990s, retrenching with a long-term television role might have been helpful. This didn’t happen; nor did a series of indie film hits that might have also done the trick. Essentially in the 2000s, Ormond was a series of projects , none of which did much for her career, overall. It’s clear that multiple poor decision were made about her career and only a tiny fraction of them were good ones.
Hollywood thinks women are disposable and just replaces them with the next, younger one.
shareAnd let's face it, they can. There's always someone younger waiting in the wings, ready to step into someone else's shoes.
shareWhen actress is talented and charismatic - she survives. See Kidman, Salma Hayek, Streep, Bullock, Roberts etc. They all survived into their 50-th fine.
Its those untalented who only had face but not charisma - vanish fast and are replaced by new younger faces.
Mediocre talented hot young men are replaced too once they hit certain age. See Freddie Prinz, Ryan Phillippe, Josh Hartnett, Elija Wood...
Its simple - she was Fake Star.
Hollywood does that to a lot of actors. They try to make stars out of unknown actors by showing them into everyone’s faces by suddenly casting them in bug movies. Usually in supporting roles next to real stars that will carry the movie. And producers start thinking they are now real stars only to see that public doesnt care about them at all and no one is gonna go to movie specially for them in lead roles. So they stop trying to push them.
And then people dont understand what happened. Some actors appeared out of nowhere and disappeared overnight.
Famous examples - Mena Suvari, Thora Birch, Julia Ormond, Eva Mendes, Leelee Sobieski, Jessica Biel, Rachael Leigh Cook, Elijah Wood, Piper Perabo , Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Famke Janssen, Natasha Henstridge, Amanda Peet, Téa Leoni, Jessica Alba, Kate Bosworth, Jennifer Garner, Taylor Kitch and many more.