Since leaving prison in 2013 after serving time for tax evasion, Wesley Snipes He has not stopped looking for the safe passage that will take him back to the upper echelons of Hollywood. He has tried his hand at movies and series, with cameos and secondary characters, even with the help of friends like Sylvester Stallone and Eddie Murphybut at 61 years old he does not end up giving the push he so badly needs to return to the top.
His last big opportunity took place in 2021. First with the sequel A prince in New York 2 on Amazon Prime Video that, despite initial interest, ended up disappearing from the radar between oblivion and mixed reviews. Months later she returned with A real story, a miniseries of Netflix where he even had free rein to put into practice his great passion for the dramatic genre. But the attempt was left half-done because of a predictable story, lacking originality and where Snipes was also unable to uncover his talent.
Nevertheless, There is a rumor that he could have a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine as Blade but, at the moment, nothing is confirmed. Even the actor himself responded by playing the game on his social networks. Without a doubt, if it were reality, it would be a surprise capable of causing nostalgic palpitations as it is the most emblematic character in his filmography with a trilogy that left its mark, while it would lead to the reunion with Ryan Reynolds 20 years after Blade: Trinity (with all the jokes that entails). In addition to charting his return to the action blockbuster, demonstrating his weight as a figure from another decade but, also, that promise of a great star that remained stuck in another era.
An unstoppable rise
Wesley Snipes He was born on July 31, 1962 in Orlando, Florida, beginning a slow but sure path to stardom after being discovered by an agent at age 23. He made his debut a year later alongside Goldie Hawn in Throw me the ball, girl (1986), the same film that would serve as a springboard to Woody Harrelsonforging a friendship that led them to film the comedy together White people don’t know how to jump (1992).
His face began to be recognized very quickly, but not because of the comedy with Goldie but because shortly after he played the villain who faced Michael Jackson in the video clip (or rather musical short film) of Bad who directed Martin Scorsese.
The year was 1987, in the midst of the music video boom when the King of Pop was one of the pillars of that phenomenon. Thanks to this video, he caught the attention of different studios and filmmakers, such as Spike Leecontinuing with all kinds of genres, playing romantic heroes (Wild fever)accompanying Denzel Washington in drama (Mo’ Better Blues), giving life to gangsters (The king of New York) and drug traffickers (New Jack City).
In short, his rise was unstoppable.
Being an expert in martial arts made him an ideal candidate for action films, and in the early ’90s he was a partner in Sean Connery in the dubious adaptation of Rising Sun (1993) by Michael Crichton and was Stallone’s futuristic rival in The Demolisher (1994). He even gave life to a drag queen in the comedy Queens or kings? alongside Patrick Swayze and, something that few remember, he won the best actor award for after one night at the Venice Film Festival in 1997.
Although few recognized his worth as an artist, especially critics, Wesley managed to start 1998 established as a blockbuster star thanks to Blade. The film was a commercial success, the biggest in Wesley Snipes’ career as a protagonist, and managed to grant him something that is now common when a project is successful: a trilogy..
The two sequels also did well at the box office – although not so much from the attack of the specialists – while without knowing it they were creating a lesson on the future of the superhero genre that decades later dared with darker and more adult tones, as was the trilogy of Christopher Nolan’s Batman, Deadpool either joker. It was a saga that was ahead of its time and few have recognized the originality that encompassed its attempt..
Seeing the economic success achieved, several studios became interested in him and gave him wings to continue flying as an action star, as was the case with Undisputed either Altered identity. But none managed to repeat the feat. What’s more, starting in 2004, many of his productions were released directly on video. Without a doubt, it is striking to see how Wesley went from rubbing shoulders in front of the cameras with Sylvester Stallone, Denzel Washington or Sean Connery, and from starring in his own high-budget productions, to suddenly move to a secondary level and with minor films.
Farewell to the top of Hollywood
And so we come to the main reason for his professional decline. Wesley had a loyal audience, there were still production companies that continued to bet on him, but the majors They turned their backs on him. And two years after the premiere of Blade: Trinity He was accused of defrauding the government with false income statements and not filing their taxes between 1999 and 2004. The case was serious and, as usually happens in Hollywood when there are scandals involved, the industry distanced itself. Between 2006 and 2009, the years the case was active, he only made three feature films and in 2008 he was convicted of failing to file his taxes and sentenced to serve 3 years in prison.
Wesley disappeared from our radar in December 2010 when he entered a Pennsylvania correctional facility, being released in April 2013 while completing his sentence with three more months of house arrest. But he wanted to go back to work. And he sure needed it. That actor who earned salaries of seven and eight figures for his films (for Blade He collected $8 million and for the third part, $13 million – via imdb) had been without income of the same caliber for a long time and the first to give him a chance was his former co-star, Sylvester Stallone, who summoned him for his testosterone bath in The Expendables 3, the saga that brings together old glories of the action genre.
There were Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson with special cameos. His participation was minimal but I remember interviewing him when he visited Spain for the premiere of the film, and he seemed delighted with the opportunity, very close to the press (at least in my interview) and happy to be back.
However, the success of that delivery did not serve as a launch pad for the come back that he wanted so much but since then his presence on screen has gone very unnoticed. His triumphant return remained stagnant in The Expendables 3 and his next projects were direct-to-video films or cameos that did not leave their mark, as was the case with his I My name is Dolemite, the mentioned A prince in New York 2 (both films by his friend Eddie Murphy) or an episode of What we do in the shadows. He even released a novel that he co-wrote with Ray Norman in 2017 called Talon of Godabout the battle between good and evil, but it had no impact.
Curiously, and I think few know it, Wesley is passionate about dramatic art. A creative guy who sees himself as an artist first and foremost and one of the few actors who achieved success in the American industry with a degree from New York University’s theater school.
“I didn’t get into the business to be a movie star, but because I was an artist with skills and training,” he declared in a 2015 interview. “I would do anything they asked me, it was my joy and it still is. Whether in this scenario or another, I will find a way to be happy and creative,” she said. For that reason, A real story He caught my attention in 2021 after landing in the Netflix catalog, because not only was it his first major role in eight years but because it allowed him to give free rein to that dramatic vein that he so longed to demonstrate in Hollywood. But the attempt was left half-finished.
That is to say, instead of serving as the much-needed stepping stone to regain its place on the industry’s radar with a platform with massive reach like Netflix, A real story It was crowned as a missed opportunity for Wesley Snipes.
An opportunity that, in the end, I needed. On the one hand because despite asking for a new opportunity with Blade for several years, Marvel he ended up leaving him out of the reboot by signing a rising actor as Mahershala Ali (with a remake that promises to place the vampire superhero in a higher place by introducing him to the Marvel universe), and because at 61 years old, Wesley Snipes It is very far from the professional reach that its rivals in the genre had at the end of the ’90s and beginning of the century. His star shone for a very short time and now it barely flickers in the distance.
This article was written exclusively for Yahoo en Español by Cine54.
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