Gladiator 2: Actors that won’t be Coming Back #shorts

More movie stars than ever before are crossing over into the world of TV, but for a rare few, they remain loyal to films with no TV roles in their career. In both TV and films, much of the work is very similar. However, there are differences which come with being an actor who primarily works for one side or the other. For instance, movie actors spend a fixed amount of time on location for a movie. Once the initial recording is done, there may be reshoots, and when the film is released, they will typically participate in the marketing.

When actors work on TV shows, it’s usually a much longer-term commitment for the leads and recurring guests. It takes time to film an entire season of a show, living near a studio, or location for that series, often for several years. It is also a more steady job, but it is usually a longer commitment that comes with that stability. With that in mind, some actors have chosen to focus solely on acting in films and avoid the world of TV altogether, although it’s becoming increasingly rare with the introduction of limited series and wealthy streaming giants.

8 Tom Cruise

His TV Career Never Took Off

Tom Cruise began his career at 18 after moving to New York to pursue his goal of becoming an actor. In order to break into the industry, Cruise auditioned for a number of TV shows, but was unsuccessful in his efforts to land any roles (via Fox News). While working as a busboy, Cruise joined an acting agency to improve his chances of finding acting work, and almost immediately, he was cast in the movie Endless Love. The following year, he landed his first leading role, and the rest is history.

7 Robert Pattinson

Getting Off To An Early Lead

Robert Pattinson landed some uncredited work in 2004, but his debut role happened when he was just 17 years old. Pattinson was cast as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and with such a prominent role in a huge franchise, the course of his career was set. Just a few years later, he landed the lead role of Edward Cullen in Twilight, and despite mixed reviews, Pattinson’s talents propelled him forward to dozens of other film roles in the years following until he grew to be a star in massive hits like The Batman and Tenet.

Related After working with Catwoman in the first movie, The Batman 2 could have Robert Pattinson’s Batman team up with some major new DC heroes.

6 Nicolas Cage

Ready To Make The Move To TV

Nicolas Cage has had a full career in Hollywood, with his first credited roles coming in 1981, and almost 120 projects since then. Cage has familial connections in the industry, with his uncle, the famous director Francis Ford Coppola, but Cage worked hard to achieve success on his own, changing his name in order to do so from Coppola to Cage. However, after more than 40 years working on films, Cage has turned his attention to TV and suggested he is interested in exploring the medium more (via Deadline), but as of writing, he has never appeared in TV shows.

5 Christian Bale

Early Success Led To Distrust Of The Industry

Christian Bale is well-known for incredible roles, such as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Batman in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, and many other titles. However, Bale values his privacy and staying out of the spotlight. As well as avoiding appearances on talk shows, Bale has managed to steer clear of television roles since the very earliest days of his career, in 1986 and 1987. With early success from his appearing in Empire of the Sun at age 13, Bale developed a disdain for the media and stardom, and thus decided to work primarily for the money (via The Guardian).

Since then, Bale has revealed that he has a very intense love/hate relationship with acting and making films, where he occasionally finds himself very distant from the whole operation, and at other times, he finds something that ignites his passion and he dives back in. Bale likely avoids doing work in TV in order to keep control and distance from his work, selecting the projects he is passionate about and being locked in for a set timeline, rather than something more ambiguous.

4 Judy Garland

A Multi-Talented National Treasure

Judy Garland was a star in the Golden Age of Hollywood. She had a lengthy career with MGM, before breaking ties with the production company and working on other projects. It was at this point that Garland turned to trying her hand at projects on TV, but only ever in special shows where she would be a guest star as herself, or on the short-lived The Judy Garland Show, which was released between 1963 and 1964. However, she never appeared in an acting capacity on TV, as her show was focused on performing music and dance numbers with various guests.

Related Judy Garland was one of the brightest stars of Old Hollywood, but her tragic death cast a dark cloud over her legacy as a performer.

3 Jake Gyllenhaal

Entertainment Is In His Blood

Jake Gyllenhaal was also born into a family that was involved in the entertainment industry. His mother was a screenwriter and producer, while his father is a director. Both Jake and his older sister Maggie earned critical acclaim for their work in films, with Oscar nominations and critical success throughout their careers. Early in Jake’s career, he appeared in 1 episode of the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street, in an episode directed by his father where Jake played the son of Robin Williams. Since then, he has solely worked on films, with a rare appearance in comedy shows.

2 Marilyn Monroe

Avoiding The Spotlight

Marilyn Monroe is one of the first real movie stars and icons of cinema who remains a well-known name to this day. Her personal life was the subject of much speculation, drama and tragedy, which led to the release of a recent controversial biopic about her life starring Ana de Armas. However, Marilyn appeared in dozens of movies while she was alive, and managed to avoid ever working on any serial TV shows, as well as most talk shows. Despite this, there was still a lot of discussion and debate about her personal and private life without Monroe’s input.

1 Angelina Jolie

Dedicated To Her Career

The first decade of Angelina Jolie’s career was mainly in short films and music videos with many uncredited roles. However, when she decided to actively pursue an acting career like her father, Jon Voight, she threw herself into the world of acting, appearing in 15 projects between 1995 and 2000. This was also when she made her only appearance on TV in two episodes of a TV miniseries titled George Wallace. Jolie then landed a leading role in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and focused more on leading roles in action films.