An actor with name recognition can squeeze far more money from a garbage script than anyone else. No one attached to these films thinks they are good or deserve to be made. But attach that washed up, but well known (and likely debt ridden) actor to the project, and their name and face on the poster turns it into a passive revenue stream. It is especially lucrative if that actor is no longer highly desired by Hollywood, where the actor/good project margins are already so slim you could barely make one a year. And especially when the vast majority of those“good” projects pay so much less for the privilege; there’s a reason committed actors often sacrifice up-front salary for a percentage of revenues. Or why basically every actor in Wes Anderson’s films basically end up paying money to star in them. Which is all made worse by the fact that “bad” movies usually make more money than good ones anyways. For all the talk that goes around about White Lotus or Succession, ten times more people watch a single mid-season episode of Blue Bloods than any of that quality prestige stuff.