Elizabeth Berkley

Berkley was able to take on the role of Nomi malone in the controversial Paul Verhoeven movie Showgirls (1995) following her departure from Saved by the Bell. The sex- and sexually explicit film received an NC-17 rating in the United States (the first big-budget film to be awarded the rating), was a box-office disaster in its initial theatrical run,[14][15][16] and extensively criticized by critics. Berkley's performance earned negative reviews and was criticized by Todd McCarthy describing it in Variety as "harsh, graceless and quickly tiresome",[17as well as Janet Maslin of The New York Times saying that Berkley showed "the eyes wide-mouthed and vacant of a party doll that was inflatable. "[18] In the wake of the film's negative repercussions, Berkley made a reportedly "tempestuous" departure from her talent agency, Creative Artists Agency,[19] and then spent the following week interacting with ICM, William Morris Agency and United Talent Agency, eventually signing with the latter. In the month of January, 1996, she landed a supporting role in The First Wives Club, the comedy with Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler. She was then a Madonna body-double named Tina in an independent movie The Real Blonde. Berkley was cast in the lead role in the anime film Armitage III: Poly Matrix that also starred Kiefer Sutherland and booked parts in independent films like The Taxman, Tail Lights Fade, the acclaimed Roger Dodger (winner of the first Tribeca Film Festival), and Moving Malcolm. [20] She was also an agent for Al Pacino in Oliver Stone's sports drama Any Given Sunday. This role was also an supporting one in Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. (21) She was on stage with Eddie Izzard as Honey in the London stage version of Lenny in 1999.