Cuba Gooding Junior has admitted he got too bigheaded after winning an Oscar for “Jerry Maguire”, which led him to make stupid career choices.
The actor, who since his Oscar win has taken parts in turkeys like "Boat Trip" and "Snow Dogs", says turning down a part in legendary director Steven Spielberg's epic slave movie "Amistad" was one of his biggest mistakes.
"Steven Spielberg came to me and said, 'I want you to be in Amistad' and I said, 'It is a slave role, show me the money. I am so a big thing,' and he goes, 'I can direct you.' And I said, 'No, I have to pass'," Cuba says.
"To me, at the time, I remember this interview I read with Christopher Reeve talking about 'Superman'. What other role could live up to being Superman - he was Superman. I bought into that. People were telling me (of “Jerry Maguire”), 'You are black, it is a comedy role, you are not gonna win this thing'.
"So, when I won it, it was like I had all these things in my life - 'This is what you are, this is what you've become... Now represent that. I have arrived and now I have to live up to this thing.
'I didn't know the next day I should have rolled up my sleeves and said, 'OK, now let's continue on this journey.' Creatively, I stopped myself."
