How Captain America Ended Matt Salinger's Acting Career

Matt Salinger, who is the son of legendary American author J.D. Salinger, was known to audiences before donning the stars and stripes. He'd appeared as Burke in 1984's Revenge of the Nerds, and starred in a number of TV movies. However, his turn as Cap was slated to be his big breakout. Instead, the production ran out of money, and the final product suffered.

During a 2011 interview with GQ, Salinger noted that while the movie was filming in Yugoslavia, director Albert Pyun kept pushing important shots off to future filming locations, such as Alaska or the mainland United States. However, the production never made it to Alaska, and there were only two days of pickups when it returned to the mainland U.S. "They just ran out of money," Salinger said. "It was a lot of well-intentioned people that loved the story and loved the character and wanted to make a good film and just weren't able to."

When asked about the film's legacy, Salinger revealed that, for him, it was the beginning of the end for his full-time acting career.

"This movie was one example of several that showed me how powerless actors were to make a movie good or not. It was one of the beginnings of my stepping out of acting and stepping into producing. As a career, it became clear to me that it was going to be entirely too frustrating."