Death hath no aroma like the stench of failure that follows Rosario Dawson's every career move. In her few short years in Hollywood, Dawson has taken roles in flops with greater frequency and consistency than any actor of her generation. And as we approach the halfway point of the decade, Dawson continues to establish herself as the official mascot of failure in the 2000s.
\The Adventures of Pluto Nash"" lost more than $90 million. She was in it. ""Alexander"" is in the act of flopping."" She was in that too. ""Josie and the Pussycats."" ""The Rundown."" She even appeared in critically acclaimed fare that failed to break out of the red-""Shattered Glass"" and ""25th Hour.""
Dawson's career is an epic exploration into the art of financial bad ideas in film. Naturally, then, it wasn't a string of acting roles and off-Broadway appearances that built up her stardom from the ground up. She was first noticed while sitting on the porch of her New York City home and was subsequently cast in 1995's infamous ""Kids,"" the movie where its titular kids had a lot of sex with little exposition. It was not a critical success, but with actors literally recruited by their running into its director, ""Kids"" had the dirt cheep budget and jarring premise to turn a tidy profit. That profit which launched Dawson into regular employment and eventually into B-list fame and stardom.
But while her acting may be unimpressive, she can't be blamed for the poor performance of her movies. After all, she's not a leading actor like Ben Affleck or Kevin Costner, whose movies' mass audiences might actively avoid. No, what Dawson possesses is a uniquely astute ability to pick movies that will fail.
After the teen sex flick's relative success, Dawson spent the next few years jumping back and forth between Hollywood roles and indie flicks, developing her knack for picking losers. She played supporting roles in 1998's ""He Got Game,"" the Denzel Washington starrer that barely surpassed $20 million in domestic gross, and 1999's ""Light It Up,"" which would be best known as Usher's first and last starring role if anyone remembered it; it grossed under $6 million.
Dawson closed out the '90s and began the new millennium mostly in smaller indie projects. Those flopped, too. ""Sidewalks of New York"" was a modest commercial success, but in 2001 and 2002, she saw ""Ash Wednesday,"" ""Chelsea Walls"" and ""Love in the Time of Money"" just barely hit theaters at all-including a whopping $2,942 gross for ""Ash Wednesday.""
But it was Dawson's involvement in 2001's ""Josie and the Pussycats"" that really set the tone for the impressive streak of Hollywood duds she would begin the following year. In her highest profile role at the time, Dawson found out that audiences clearly weren't enthralled with long tails, and ears as hats. The movie was not only a financial failure, but essentially marked the point at which Tara Reid changed from popular young actress to public lush.
Then it began. In 2002, Dawson appeared in her biggest hit, ""Men in Black II."" On one hand, Dawson played a pivotal role in a movie that grossed $190 million. On the other hand, that movie was drubbed by critics who liked the first ""MIB"" and it grossed a full $60 million less than its predecessor. And that was the last movie she appeared in that made back its budget.
Since ""Men in Black II,"" Rosario Dawson filmography has added up to one resounding thud. ""Shattered Glass,"" ""This Girl's Life,"" ""25th Hour,"" ""The Rundown"" and ""The Adventures of Pluto Nash"" all failed to even break even in theaters, while ""Pluto Nash"" was one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history, grossing under $5 million against a reported budget of $100 million. And her current release is Oliver Stone's ""Alexander,"" which is on pace to gross $40 million domestically-less than 30 percent of its budget.
Naturally, all of this raises one key question: What the hell is wrong with Rosario Dawson?
The funny thing about Dawson's string of flops is that it shows such a diversity of failure. ""Men in Black II"" took a movie that thrived on the chemistry of its two lead actors, then made a sequel in which they hardly share any screen time. ""Pluto Nash"" failed to understand that if people didn't want to see a poorly aged Eddie Murphy hamming it up on earth in big-budget movies, they probably didn't want to see him hamming it up in outer space in a huge budget movie either. And of course, ""Shattered Glass"" showed that people simply don't find journalists interesting (you bastards).
It isn't that Rosario Dawson did anything specifically wrong; her acting is usually passable. And it isn't that the opportunities have held her back, ""25th Hour"" came from acclaimed director Spike Lee, ""Alexander"" was exacted on the public by its own big name director and ""Pluto Nash"" was a tremendous investment of capital to trust any actor with. Dawson's problem is in choosing movies, plain and simple. The movies she starred in were destined to fail. People often joke about actors needing to fire their agents, but for Dawson, it's no joke.
Her follow-up to 'Alexander seems remarkably ill-fated. Dawson is set to appear in ""The Devil's Rejects: House Of 1000 Corpses 2."" Apparently the story of corpses 1001 through 2000 rockstar (and, most definitely not director) Rob Zombie will reappear behind the camera. ""Corpses"" started filming two months after ""Alexander."" While 'Alexander' wasn't the pinnacle of Oliver Stone's career, the move from the director of ""Platoon"" to the guy who recorded a song called ""Living Dead Girl"" could easily be the biggest step backwards since Scarlett Johansson's role in ""Lost in Translation"" lead into her role as an SAT stealing teenie-bopper in ""The Perfect Score.""
One has to admire Dawson's perseverance, though. Like the Milwaukee Brewers, she keeps on going, no matter how much her existence seems to be an exercise in circling the drain. Perhaps Dawson is just a victim of bad luck or bad choices. But more than anything, she just goes to show what Bernie Brewer has been showing Milwaukee fans for years:
Even failure needs a mascot.
