For me, its Cameron Diaz in Scorcese’s epic Gangs Of New York. Now don’t get me wrong — Diaz isn’t a terrible actress, to me. In some light-hearted romantic comedies she’s perfectly adequate. But placing her in a period piece opposite Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio? That’s WAY above her pay grade, honestly.
She just… couldn’t sell it. The part. There was no moment where I “bought” Cameron Diaz as a 19th century Irish prostitute living in New York. Liam Neeson playing an Irish gang leader? Perfect cast. Day-Lewis sold it, too, he always does. DiCaprio brought his A-game and still gets played off the screen by Day-Lewis and others. And yet DiCaprio’s performance is admirable, all the same. He’s still Mr. Titanic to me in the film, doesn’t disappear into his character the way others do. But he does what he’s paid to do well enough for me not to be distracted by his performance.
Cameron Diaz does not. She sticks out like a sore thumb for the entirety of the movie, all scenes she’s in feel somehow lesser for her presence and she brings down the movie as a whole from what could have been a legendary classic to a movie with great potential that doesn’t quite live up to that potential. Diaz doesn’t kill the film — no mere mortal can kill any Daniel Day-Lewis role. But by being in it, she mortally wounds it.