GIPHYElisha Cuthbert stole the hearts of pretty much every heterosexual adolescent male who grew up watching The Girl Next Door on repeat.
While that pool scene may have sent teen pulses racing, and shot Cuthbert into the mainstream, apparently it didn’t do her career any long term favours, according to YouTube channel, Nicki Swift.
The Girl Next Door – along with Cuthbert’s other Hollywood film credit in the House of Wax horror – didn’t do particularly well in either the box office or the critics’ reviews.
GIPHYElisha Cuthbert began her acting career at the young age of 14-years-old, with a starring role in Nickelodeon‘s Are You Afraid Of The Dark.
She played Megan for four years and then bagged parts in small-time catchily-named films such as Dancing On The Moon and Time At The Top.
Quickly, with the experience she had garnered, Elisha landed her most recognisable role – to an American audience, at least – as Kim Bauer on 24.
She ditched the series after just three seasons to focus on her film career, which turned out to be an optimistic but perhaps poor choice for Cuthbert.
The Girl Next Door was released in 2004. The studio had hoped Cuthbert’s portrayal of a retired porn star would emulate Julia Roberts’ Pretty Woman, but alas, it was not to be.
GIPHYFollowing that came the horror of House of Wax – also starring Paris Hilton, for reasons we can presumably link to nepotism – as well as The Quiet and Captivity, which was dubbed ‘torture porn’ and nominated for three Razzies.
Cuthbert returned to television in the short-lived Happy Endings and the distinctly average – yet slightly stereotypical – One Big Happy.
GIPHYMost recently Cuthbert has starred alongside Ashton Kutcher in Netflix original, The Ranch.
The 34-year-old actor has made appearances in a number of Canadian films, since marrying hockey player Dionne Phaneuf; the couple now split their time between Canada and LA.
Thanks to her role in recent Canadian comedies such as the Goon sequel Last of the Enforcers, Cuthbert may be having a renaissance.
But she’ll always be The Girl Next Door to so many – and perhaps that’s part of the problem.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.