For such a big deal film so few careers were made

I just lost two hours of my life tracking down a bunch of where are they now articles about the cast and it surprises me how few of them had much of an acting career considering this film was kind of an indie big deal at a time when being in an indie big deal film was kind of a big deal.

I lived in a stereotypically hipster neighborhood in the early 90s and this film was definitely known and popular among the film fans I knew. I even suffered through "Barcelona" with a girl I was dating because Metropolitan was somehow a life-defining favorite for her. (It may be that I suffered through that girlfriend to watch Barcelona, but I digress..)

I have to admit it kind of captures some weird early Gen X sense of ennui and existential nihilism, it's like part Woody Allen and part Slacker in a weird way.

But unlike other "hot" indie films of its era, nobody managed to get a career out of it. A good chunk of the cast are so lost to time they don't even have a stub Wikipedia page. Only Isabelle Gillies and Taylor Hundley seemed to do much after, and really, Gillies pulled the pin on acting for her marriage (which failed, and she turned into a well-reviewed book) and Hundley was plugged into an A-list scene to the extent that "Metropolitan" was almost a side-hustle for her.
More is written about Carolyn Farina's lack of an acting career than her actual acting career.

Is this because Whit Stillman managed some serious magic casting novices and somehow making a good film? These people were never going to be significant talents anyway, it was just some crazy accidental success? None of them took acting all that seriously -- Carolyn Farina seems to have put more effort into making excuses for her lack of success than she put into actually becoming one.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but seems odd that this film didn't do more for its cast.