MovieChat Forums > Lisa Bonet Discussion > She threw away a promising career

She threw away a promising career


I, like the rest of you, thought Lisa was so hot on the Cosby show. But she threw it all away.

SHe was a stupid rebellious head strong little freak while Cosby was trying to bestoe decades of wisdom upon her and lay the frame work for her to have a life long career. That movie Angel Heart was such a hap-hazard career decision in light of the fact that she was starring in the number one tv show on television at the time only multiplied her error.

Angel heart was just so far out there from where she was with the Voodoo and the devil and the bloody sex and the white lover and just a stupid thing. If she wanted the world to know that she was a freak she could have eased into it over the course of a few movies like Endless love, or indecent proposal or something.

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PLEASE READ COUPLE OF MY POST ABOUT LISA BONET. SHE DID NOT THROW AWAY A PROMISING CAREER. SHE CHOOSE NOT TO BE LABEL AS DENISE AND IT THE PUBLIC THAT WAS UNACCEPTING OF HER ACTING CHOICES. BUT THAT IS THERE PROBLEM. SHE HAS ACCOMPLISHED WHAT SHE HAD TO DO IN HER EARLY YEARS AS DENISE HUXTABLE. SO, WHAT SHE DOES NOT HAVE A BUDDING CAREER. WHAT BLACK FEMALE ACTRESS NOW REALLY HAVE A BUDDING CAREER? YOU JUST HAD HALLE COMING OUT IN MONSTER BALL A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO WHICH IS NOW ACCEPTABLE. SHE WAS A WHITE MAN. SHE WON A OSCAR. TIMES HAS CHANGED THE MOVIE ANGEL HEART IS CONSIDER A CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE AND IT WAS PRODUCED IN 87. YEARS HAD GONE BY AND TO TRUTHFUL HONEST ABOUT IT LISA BONET HAD OPEN A LOT OF DOORS FOR BLACK ACTRESS BUT DID NOT GET CREDIT FOR IT, AND SHE PROBABLY OPEN THE DOOR FOR HALLE PERFORMANCE TO BE ACCEPTED IN HOLLYWOOD. DO YOU REALLY THINK IF HALLE BERRY PLAYED DENISE HUXTABLE AND DID A MOVIE LIKE ANGEL HEART 23 YEARS AGO SHE WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN A BACKLASH FROM BILL COSBY. COME OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE AND STOP USING LISA BONET AS AN SCAPEGOAT ABOUT HER CAREER. EVERYTHING THAT WAS WRITTEN ABOUT HER DOES NOT FOCUS ON HER AS A HUMAN BEING BUT AS A ACTRESS AND SHE IS CONSTANTLY BEING JUDGED FOR A MOVIE THAT WAS DONE 23 YEARS AGO. I AM QUITE SURE WHENEVER YOU ARE DOING IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT LOVER IN REAL LIFE YOU ARE QUITE FREAKY. REMEMBER SHE WAS BEING PAID FOR HER PART AS AN ACTRESS AND ACTING OUT SOMETHING THAT WAS WRITTEN ON PAPER. DO YOU GET THE POINT THAT I AM MAKING IF NOT I AM SORRY FOR YOU AND THE REST OF THESE INDIVIDUALS THAT DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SEPARATE WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS UNREAL.

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Okay where to begin, First. Please stop using all caps it makes your words difficult to read.

One thing you have to accept or else there is no need for me to waste my energy with responce. Being a actor or a artist makes your life some what public property. A celebrity has to except the accolades along with the critisms. Why is it that anyone would walk the Red carpet and risk being told that your outfit sucks? It is apart of the business. That is why they have critics who are paid to give opinions about celebrities because this apart of the business. I offer my critisms for free--

Next the reason they call it show business is because acting is the art of make believe for money. The art of portrayal the art of faking it. Stars are made. Some big hollywood guy can just pick anybody and then put a whole lot of money into your image and you will become famous over night. Like the American Idol's. But if you get a shot, a lucky break then YOU have to work it. Some people play the game well and some people don't. You dont have to be a perfect person you just have to make the audience believe you are what you seem.

With that being said and I hope you understand then prehaps why I said she threw away a promising career. Cosby gave her a break. The ground work was laid for her to be a Denise, who was an Icon of young America. She could have rode that vehicle for years and made many movies and lots of money. She could have broken out into more racier roles more gradually, she didn't have to kill off Denise all at once and run her fans away in the process. I mean if you were a parent and your little girl looked up to Lisa Bonet and then that movie comes out what do you say to your daughter about Lisa Bonet after that? You say that girl is wicked and crazy and I don't want you to watch that movie!

That is my problem with Lisa Bonet at 18 years old. People were surley advising her not to do it. trying to guide her steps. Cosby was trying to tell her. She was really that stubborn to go against all the good advise.

You cannot compare her to Halle Barry because Halle was already a very established movie actress not a kid coming off of her first sit com. If Halle had never starred in Monsters Ball she still would be known as the most successful Black actress in hollywood. Just like Denzel is the most successful Black Male. And it was not that Lisa was the first Black women to sleep with a white man. It was the fact that she in essence was Denise Huxatable and it was not the way to go with that successful tv personna. She Could have starred opposite young Hollywood hunks as teen lovers and did all kinds of things like that but once she did the voodoo slut thing it was over for her.

So what Lisa did was ill advised and a terrible career choice and as you can see she has done very little after Cosby and that is why I say it was a poor career choice for her and a mistake.

Finally I can't judge Lisa for her personal choices in life, like marrying Lenny Kravits or having a baby or whatever nor can I judge Bill Cosby for how he raised his kids and did whatever he did in his private affairs I only speak on the public side of these people and what I know about them from my observations. I say that Cosby is one of the greatest stars we have ever had in show business and I say that Lisa Bonet is just lost in space for now but i think there is still hope for her to do something. People still like seeing her on screen because she was so promising as Denise. We still want a peice of Denise.



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You are entitlted to your opinions. Just remember that Angel Heart was made in 87 and Monster Ball was made in the 2000 if I'm not mistaken. Yes, Halle was well established when she did Monster Ball and she built her career to the point that she got it now. BUt look what she won the Academy award for. Does this make her a freak because she did this picture and it was with a white man. You can not compare Denzel and any other black hollywood man against black female. Regardless of what black men in the movies are not going to be judged harsh like female are. Denzel is a wonderful actor and alot of other black men are.

I love your choice of words in describing certain characters. I guess any female actor that plays a picture that is demeaning to you is considered a slut thing role. Maybe one day we will see eye to eye on certain things.

It was only a poor career choice because it was hard for people to separate Denise Huxtable who is likeable and Lisa BOnet as being the same character and Lisa BOnet has an actress ruin that.

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Alright, you think my choice of words are too critical, fair enough. Allow me to point out that I don't make the rules of society which are the basis for public perception. Life is full of double standards for example: A Man can sleep with a lot of women and be considered a hot stud but if a women sleeps with a lot of men a she will appear slutty.

I didn't make the rules but I understand them. Sometimes You have to cater to the publics ideals of what is exceptable if you want them to love you. You have the good girls and you have the bad girls. There is sort of a courtship between the fans and the stars. When a person becomes "Americas little darling" then that means that she is so wholesome a cute and the kind of girl your son should try to marry. When a person is a " sex symbol" that means the kind of girl everybody wants to screw. But being a sex symbol and a slut symbol are two different things. There are many different degrees of all of this and I can't name them all. But basically as a girl you want to start out seeming wholesome and then slowly peel away the layers of your sexuality over the course of your career. Many actresses have never done a racy sex role on screen or refuse to show their chests and nakid flesh. But out of all the ones that come out the gate with a hot sex sceen few experience longevity.

Because it is like a courtship with the fans, if you give it up too soon then you become used up and old news The fun is in the hunt and the chase. A guy would think, wow that Lisa Bonet is so hot and I can't wait to see her give it up in a movie. And that moment should be a long time coming. It will be series of teasers that keep you coming back. But if you put it all out there in your first big role then you are taking a big risk. That is what Lisa did. She laid out about 15 years of hollywood work in one sex scene.

Let me answer your question about Halle Berry in Monster Ball. Because Halle had already had a whole body of work and a firmly solidified public image, that role in monsters ball couldn't hurt her or change the public perception of her. She was already a member of the hollywood elite. The fact that she starred in a slutty role simply only added to a well balanced body of work. The fact that she had sex with a white man in that movie was not earth shattering because this is not the first movie where she played opposite a white male and once again she had balance from all the roles she played that suited the tastes of her primary audience. And she didn't break the rule of public perception by doing a slutty role Like she did because the of rules say it is acceptable and sometimes required of women over 30 to get freaky on screen. It was time for her to give the audience some skin, sexual gratification. She is no longer a Teen or even a 20's something actress so society says its okay to be bold and sexually liberiated after 30. But with all that being said still most people in the Black community still were critical of her role in monsters ball and found it a slap in the face that she was awarded an academy award for just being a little country bumkin freak-a-zoid. This seemed to be saying to all black women that America thinks you are at your best when you are playing a whore.

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I know that Hollywood wanted to make Lisa a Movie Starlet
but she was not interested in being the token black in
white movies. She has stated that time and time again
in various interviews.

Angel Heart DID not ruin Lisa's career! It was Lisa
who gave up on Hollywood. I don't feel she was ready
for the pressure of being the only black catered too
in Hollywood.

I love Angel Heart and saw clips of Monster's Ball
Lisa's performance, her acting, her face is far
more better than Halle anyday (LOL) I don't care if
she did win an Oscar.

When Halle started in the 90's there was the so-called
Black New Wave of films and there were more actresses
that looked like her doing movies but when Lisa
was at the top of her game, there was NO Black Actresses
out there so I feel she wasn't ready but I think
she is ready now, since she is more experienced and older.

She definitely has the IT factor and I believe that
she still has a shot at being a Hollywood Starlet.

Miss. T

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Halle's performance in Monster's Ball is strong but that sex scene wasn't necessary. Also, I do think some black people LOST RESPECT for Berry after Monster's Ball. If you've noticed Berry hasn't had a hit in YEARS since Gothika.

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LISA IS A CREEP

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