A former child actor said, “To have people saying that they wished I was dead just for doing my job and being in a movie was kind of crazy.”

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She told the Hollywood Reporter, "For a good two years, I wasn't allowed to audition for things. The hardest part was being literally locked out of something I loved so much."

When she wanted to audition for The First Wives Club, they wouldn't even let her in the casting office. However, she contacted Paramount chairperson Sherry Lansing personally and sent in an audition tape.

She landed the role, which was small but critically acclaimed. Then, in 2006, she founded Ask Elizabeth, an advice website for young people. She told People, "It was a vulnerable time, but it made me stronger. ... I decided to be of service to others because of what I'd been through. I walked through fire, but I came out the other side."

One of those interesting things was a small role in the 2025 Best Picture Oscar nominee Bugonia, but, after Batman and Robin, she was never on the superstar trajectory she once was on.

Francis added, "They wanted to attack the picture when, for some, it didn't live up to its promise. And they came after this 18-year-old girl, who had only done it for me. ... The daughter took the bullet for Michael Corleone — my daughter took the bullet for me."

She also shared the sage advice Anjelica Huston gave her when she was 20: "Not everyone's going to love you. Don't waste your time on the people who don't."

In 2014, he told GQ, "I just make stuff, and sometimes it does well. But there's a lot in that movie [The Love Guru] comedically that I'm really, really proud of. I completely recognize it didn't meet an audience. ... I can tell you this, which makes people laugh: I tried my hardest. I can tell you that much. I just love making stuff, dude, you know, you can't be too attached up, and you can't be too attached down."

"It didn't derail me because I've fought as a Black woman my whole life. A little bad publicity about a movie? I didn't love it, but it wasn't going to stop my world or derail me from doing what I love to do.

... Growing up as a Black woman, that's two strikes against you. There's an innate resilience. I hated that it got all put on me, and I hate that, to this day, it's my failure. I know I can carry it. I still have a career 20 years later. It's just part of my story. That's okay, and I've carried other failures and successes. People have opinions, and sometimes they're louder than others. You just have to keep moving," she said.

Halle went on to make her mark on the superhero genre as Storm in X-Men: The Last Stand. And, of course, she's had a fabulous career, appearing in everything from thrillers like Perfect Stranger to gritty dramas like Bruised (which she also directed!).

Halle did indeed persevere, returning to the superhero genre as Storm in X-Men: The Last Stand, making her directorial debut with Bruised, and joining the John Wick universe. But while her career wasn't ruined, she never quite regained that same level of box-office clout she had in the early '00s.

He continued, "Granted, the movie wasn't great, and maybe some people hated my performance, but I acted my little ass off in that movie, okay? And to have people saying that they wished I was dead just for doing my job and being in a movie was kind of crazy. You know, being a teenager at the time, and no one was really there to guide me through it or, like, help me, really. I just had to suck it up and deal with it. I had to kind of figure it out on my own, and, you know, it took me three years to finally let go and move on."

After Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Charlie essentially stopped acting. Aside from Ingrid Goes West in 2018 and a single episode of Yellowjackets in 2021, he hasn't had another acting credit.

Likewise, NAACP executive director Benjamin Hooks called the movie a "cheaply-made, cynical viewpoint of Black involvement in American life."

Director Spike Lee also criticized Soul Man. On The Dick Cavett Show, he said, "The whole premise is that he's passing as Black, and it's so phony. That means all the Black people in the movie are idiots… that they could think that this guy is Black. ... They're trying to pass it off as an attack on racism. I really don't see it that way. That's not funny to me."

"It was a great lesson for me just as a person, because it made me much more aware of the issues we face on a day-to-day basis, and it made me much more sensitive to racism. And I think a lot of the people that have seen the movie feel that same way. But there's a lot more judgment about the movie from people that haven't seen the movie, who are like, 'A white kid paints himself black and goes through this experience? How could you do this horrible thing?'" he said.

They moved forward with production, but on set, the vibes were off.

Chris told the Ringer, "I have to admit there were plenty of days when I went home just not knowing what we got, which is not a really good sign. If you're doing a comedy, you should feel like you at least made the crew laugh. For some reason, it just felt like we were performing for a hostile group of people holding the cameras. I don't think any of the crew completely understood what we were trying to do, and maybe that's because we didn't totally understand what we were trying to do."

Adam said, "If it had just been seen as weird or something that didn't quite work, quirky, but off-putting, that's one thing. But it wasn't even given that much credit at first. It was seen as something worse than the worst Pauly Shore movie, the stupidest, dumbest, most brainless whatever. That's what hurt the most, I think. What freaked me out the most. That it was just seen as hacky. And hacky is the only word that I wouldn't use to describe it, but that’s how it was treated."

Adam said, "Sometimes it felt like we had committed some sort of sin that we were now paying for. But all the obvious things that lead to a fall — greed, ambition, narcissism —personally, I'm pretty low on the spectrum for all those things. Chris, too. So there was no meaningful self-reflection regarding that stuff. I guess it was just a combo of bad luck and stupidity. Or naivete. ... It still to this day baffles Chris and I why anyone gave a shit that much about this little movie."

Cabin Boy became a favorite punchline of David Letterman, who appeared in the movie (Chris and Adam both got their start writing for Late Night with David Letterman). However, over time, it became a bit of a cult classic — it's so bad that fans can't help but love it.

Chris would never again headline another major motion picture, but he would find success on the small screen, becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member and playing Roland Schitt in Schitt's Creek. (Adam also continued comedy writing for SNL, The Larry Sanders Show, and Divorce.)

Over the decades, the film has found some true fans, and Lea appreciates all of them. She said, "People love Howard the Duck, and those are some of my favorite fans. Because anybody that goes, 'I don't care what anybody says, I think it's really cool' is my kind of person."