After Playing Dwayne Johnson’s First Hollywood Love Interest, How Did Actress Kelly Hu’s Career Decline?

Since the start of his Hollywood career in 2001, Dwayne Johnson has worked with several stars. While some grew alongside him, others couldn’t survive in the film industry and faced a decline. Kelly Hu, who once worked with ‘The Rock’, had to bid her time in Hollywood goodbye. Although it’s unclear why the actress left the film industry, what led to her decline is worth exploring.

A movie that gave Johnson his first chance as a lead actor saw Hu’s decline in Hollywood. Let’s begin by finding out what kind of relationship the two co-stars had in the movie and in real life.

Dwayne Johnson’s first on-screen romance in Hollywood

The Rock’s Hollywood career began with The Mummy Returns in 2001. However, it wasn’t until the next year that he finally got a lead role in The Scorpion King (2002). In the spinoff of The Mummy series, Johnson played Mathayus. Following the plot of the movie, the movie shows a romantic spark between Mathayus and Kelly Hu’s character, Cassandra. The two had key roles in the movie, serving as lead co-actors.

The 2002 movie ended up getting a hit box office response grossing more than $180 Million while the production cost was $60 Million. So, Kelly Hu’s movie career was less likely to have been affected negatively by this project. This puts the blame on the projects that the actress was part of in the following years.

Despite the successful project, the two never worked together again. While ‘The Rock’ mostly stuck to film projects, Kelly Hu went on to try her luck in a lot of different fields of media. She even got into the gaming industry.

Dwayne Johnson’s former co-star’s interesting past projects

Hu, who played Johnson’s first-ever love interest in Hollywood, started her career back in 1989. Her first film was Friday The 13th Part VIII. She accepted a number of projects before crossing paths with ‘The Brahma Bull’ in 2002. This movie was important for him because it was his first lead role and also because he was going to meet one of his ‘best friends to be’ during a promotional campaign. While the movie could’ve been equally valuable for the lead actress, she decided to take on varied projects in her career instead of sticking to Hollywood.

Apart from the movie projects Kelly Hu signed since her arrival in Hollywood, the actress has also worked on several TV shows. In Case of Emergency is a show she worked on, which unfortunately had to be canceled before its season one finale. She has also worked in Hawaii Five-0 and Warehouse 13 among several other names.

Hu also became a recurring name in the video game industry. The actress’s voice appeared in several gaming projects, including titles like Battlefield: Hardline, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II, and Batman: Arkham Origins.

She was also part of some animated projects. These projects include a ‘Batman’ movie called Batman: Under the Red Hood. The other notable animation project she was part of is the all-time popular Phineas and Ferb, in which Kelly Hu gave voice to Stacy Hirano. Her last widely acclaimed work in the entertainment industry also appears to be an animated project.

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As mentioned above, it’s hard to determine where exactly Kelly Hu’s decline began. Her way out of the entertainment industry was a very gradual process.

After a successful project with Dwayne Johnson, how did Kelly Hu gradually exit the entertainment industry?

Although Kelly Hu became a recurrent personality in the video game industry as a voice artist, the actress still hadn’t completely left Hollywood. Hu kept returning to work on a good number of American shows. If that wasn’t enough to keep her hands full, her modeling gigs and voicing animated projects also kept her busy. So, even though the actress was not taking on big Hollywood projects anymore, she wasn’t completely out of the scene either.

‘Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe’, was her last notably known project. This animated movie was released in 2020, five years after the animated series’ final episode. Kelly Hu reprised her role as Stacy’s voice actress in the movie.

Since then, the audience has not seen much activity related to Kelly Hu and her career in Hollywood. Due to some reason, Kelly Hu left a lot of it behind after 2013. We can see this as the start of her smooth and slow exit from the industry.

Although Hu might have retired from a full-time acting career, she might make up her mind to return to Hollywood anytime. Moreover, the 55-year-old currently claims to be an entrepreneur while also often appearing as a model. Her business is a t-shirt company called ’33Edge’. Hu sells merch to promote humanitarian values of equality and unity and even models on the company’s official website.

So, even though she might have taken an exit from movies and shows, it appears that the Hawaiian-born is actively doing what she is passionate about.

Do you think if Dwayne Johnson had done more movies with Kelly Hu, she could’ve stayed longer in the film industry? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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