Love affairs, violent outbursts, and the spit seen 'round the world… Some movies
are best known for the crazy things that happened while the cameras weren't rolling.
"Don't Worry Darling" had been garnering hype since Olivia Wilde first signed on
to direct and Florence Pugh and Harry Styles were cast as the leads. It seemed likely to
be one of the most anticipated movies of 2022 since its announcement, but gossip
has been following the film's production since the start of principal photography.
Wilde split with her longtime fiancé Jason Sudeikis — with
whom she shares two kids — while she was working on the film. Rumors of
her new relationship with Styles were confirmed not long after.
There was also an awkward conflict between Olivia Wilde and Shia LeBeouf,
who was originally slated to star. Wilde told Variety that the former
"Transformers" star was fired because of the "combative energy" of his acting process,
while LeBeouf denied this claim and said that he quit because Wilde didn't give the actors
enough time to rehearse. Then there was Pugh, who uncharacteristically refused to promote the
film on her Instagram while Wilde was enthusiastically singing her praises.
Everything came to a head at the film's Venice Film Festival premiere in September
2022. Pugh didn't show up for the Q&A, Wilde and Pugh avoided each other on the red carpet,
and there was a whole conspiracy theory that Styles may have spit on Chris Pine
at the premiere — which Wilde denied on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
"Harry did not spit on Chris, in fact, but that did—"
"Only time will tell."
"No, I pro— he really didn't!"
"Well…"
"He d— hahaha!"
Pugh has declined to comment directly on the rumors of her feud with Wilde,
but she did finally post about the film on her Instagram, praising the film's crew.
When "Blade" came out in 1998, it put Marvel on the map in a new way thanks to Wesley
Snipes' turn as an extremely cool vampire. By the time of the release of 2004's "Blade:
Trinity," Snipes' star had faded — and according to actor Patton Oswalt,
this was partially because of his antics on set. In an interview with The A.V. Club,
Oswalt revealed that filming "Blade: Trinity" was one of the worst work experiences he's ever had.
According to Oswalt, Snipes refused to film most of the movie, meaning that a body double had to
be used for a number of scenes. Snipes also allegedly got into verbal and physical fights
with writer-director David Goyer and insisted on staying in character throughout the production.
"He would only answer to the name Blade, you couldn't call him…"
"He would only answer to Blade?!"
"To Blade, yeah."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,
Goyer neither confirmed nor denied Oswalt's claims, but said that "Blade:
Trinity" had a troubled production. Wesley Snipes spoke to The Guardian in 2020 and denied Oswalt's
allegations while wondering why people were so inclined to believe Oswalt in the first place.
Ryan Reynolds — who also starred in the film — told IGN in 2012 that the rumors
about tension on set were "overblown" and that he respects Snipes' method process. Regardless,
"Blade: Trinity" was panned by critics,
and is mostly remembered for solidifying Snipes' reputation as a difficult actor.
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston announced their separation in 2005,
but both parties insisted that the split had nothing to do with the tabloid reports
of his relationship with Angelina Jolie. When Pitt and Jolie were photographed on vacation
together just a month after the divorce was finalized, the Hollywood heartthrob
found himself at the center of one of the biggest Hollywood scandals of the 2000s.
It all started with 2005's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," a decent enough action flick that stars Pitt and
Jolie as married undercover spies tasked with killing each other. Pitt and Jolie met on set,
and rumors that they were having an affair immediately began to swirl. Jolie spoke to
Vogue in 2006, claiming that she and Pitt didn't consider a relationship
until the end of the shoot in 2004, but the damage of the rumors was already done.
Every celebrity tabloid on the newsstands was covered in paparazzi photos of Jolie and
Pitt. According to Entertainment Weekly, the public obsession with the high-profile love
triangle was so huge that Doug Liman, the director of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," needed to
hire extra security units to block the paparazzi from interrupting the shoot.
Despite Pitt's efforts to deny that his relationship with Jolie had led to his
divorce from Aniston, tabloids spent the better part of the next ten years looking
for ways to resurrect the drama. The film itself, despite bringing in nearly half
a billion dollars at the box office, hasn't had the same lasting impact as the scandal.
While 2016's "Suicide Squad" was a commercial hit, it didn't fare so well with the critics. For many,
the drama surrounding the film's cast has easily become the most memorable thing
about the movie. Jared Leto is famous for his intense style of method acting,
and boy did he go for it while in character as The Joker for "Suicide Squad."
Some of the film's stars revealed that Leto — or "The Joker," rather — had given
them some rather upsetting gifts. Adam Beach, who played Slipknot in the film,
told E! News that Leto sent a live rat to Margot Robbie and bullets to Will Smith,
while Viola Davis confirmed to Vanity Fair that he also sent the cast a dead pig.
In 2017, Leto told Entertainment Weekly that he didn't actually give these gifts,
and lamented how the rumors got out of hand. However, he had already bragged
about his inappropriate presents in an interview with E! Entertainment in 2016.
"The Joker is somebody who doesn't really respect things like personal space or boundaries."
David Ayers' final cut of the film never ended up being shown in theaters, and the
vast majority of Leto's performance as The Joker was cut from the film. At the end of the day,
Leto traumatized his co-stars for the sake of about seven minutes of total screen time.
"Jared has gone full Joker. Jared,
he went— he went full Joker, you know. And the rule generally is never go full Joker."
Award-winning director David O. Russell has a reputation for being difficult on
set — especially with his actors. During his time in the industry,
he's become notorious for his alleged physical and verbal abuse of cast and crew members.
One of the most infamous instances of this behavior occurred on the set of Russell's
2004 film "I Heart Huckabees," a dark comedy centering on existential detectives played by
Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin. Russell got at least two massive screaming matches with Tomlin,
one of which was captured on a profanity-laden video.
Tomlin expressed her frustration that Russell kept contradicting himself with his actor notes,
which made it hard to know what to do in the scene. Russell responded by exploding with anger,
throwing around props, and screaming misogynistic insults at Tomlin. The video
went viral and became the first thing that many people came to associate with the film.
Tomlin, like many other actors who have worked with Russell, has since claimed that there's
no bad blood between them — but she also hasn't worked with him again since "I Heart Huckabees."
Ah, "Fifty Shades of Grey." Originally written as "Twilight" fan-fiction, the steamy book was
a sweeping sensation that turned author E.L. James into the highest-paid writer of 2013.
That's why it was hardly a surprise when the rights were optioned for a screen adaptation.
Rumors swirled about who would play the leads of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey until
it was finally announced that Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam had been cast. However,
Hunnam soon backed out due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced by Jamie Dornan.
Once the movie's press tour began, it became clear that Johnson and Dornan
had no sexual chemistry — or even much affection for each other at all. Any film
would suffer if its two leads didn't have on-screen chemistry, but it was a special
kind of disaster for a movie completely centered on such an intimate relationship.
"You're up for it if there are two more films?"
"I… yeah." "Yeah, are you up for it?"
"No… bye…" "Gotta go!"
The film was critically panned, but Johnson and Dornan stuck it
out to make two more sequels based on the books. Johnson told Vanity Fair in 2022 —
"Death on the Nile '' is the second film in Kenneth Branagh's on-screen revival of Agatha
Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot. Like his first Poirot film — 2017's "Murder
on the Orient Express" — Branagh's "Death on the Nile" also relied on an all-star
ensemble cast featuring Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, and Letitia Wright, among others.
Unfortunately, the film was in post-production when Hammer — who plays a prominent character
in the film — was accused by several women of sexual violence, adultery,
and having a cannibalism fetish. Other stars of "Death on the Nile" also found themselves
in hot water: Wright faced scrutiny after re-tweeting an anti-COVID vaccine video,
while Gadot received backlash for leading the tone-deaf effort of celebrities singing
John Lennon's "Imagine" at the start of COVID. Gadot also came under fire for
her controversial statements about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2021.
It's tough to sell a movie that depends on the appeal of its ensemble cast when
many of the members of that cast are not looking so great in the public eye. Maybe the studio
will get lucky with a less controversial ensemble the next time Kenneth Branagh
adapts a Poirot story for the screen. That is if the series isn't already dead in the water.
Kristen Stewart was at the height of her "Twilight" popularity when she
filmed 2012's "Snow White and the Huntsman," a gritty live-action interpretation of the Snow
White fairy tale. While the film made it through production and premiered without any major issues,
things took a turn during the press tour in the summer of 2012. That was when US
Weekly published photos of Stewart and the film's director Rupert Sanders passionately embracing.
A director and his leading lady stepping out for a smooch isn't too terribly shocking — even if
he is 19 years her senior — but at the time, Sanders was married with kids,
and Stewart was still involved with her "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson.
"Snow White and the Huntsman" was released in between the last two installments of the
"Twilight" film saga, and thousands of fans who had been so excited to
see Bella and Edward fall in love in real life were devastated by the revelation.
Both Sanders and Stewart apologized and referred to it as a momentary lapse in
judgment, but the damage was already done. Sanders and his wife divorced, Stewart and
Pattinson called it quits for good just a few months after the photos went public, and one
of the biggest Hollywood scandals of the year overshadowed yet another mediocre action flick.
Neither Sanders nor Stewart was invited back to work on the sequel.
"They didn't put me in that movie because I went through, you know, such a highly publicized
scandal, so they were, like, scared of touching— yeah, they were scared of touching that."
It's difficult to understand exactly what Fox executives were thinking when
they signed off on Bryan Singer as the director for their Freddy Mercury biopic,
"Bohemian Rhapsody," back in 2016. By the time the movie began shooting,
Singer had not only found himself accused of knowing about and facilitating Kevin
Spacey's sex crimes but was also accused of committing sexual assault against several minors.
Despite Spacey's public accusations and subsequent exile from Hollywood's elite,
Bryan Singer managed to avoid the same level of scrutiny for some time,
despite being implicated in and accused of many similar crimes.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Singer's attendance on the "Bohemian Rhapsody" set was
erratic at best, and he allegedly was in frequent conflict with the star of the film, Rami Malek.
Fox decided to fire Singer with just two weeks left of filming, but even though he wasn't there
to wrap up the film, "Bohemian Rhapsody" will forever be tainted by his involvement.
Malek won an Academy Award for his role as Freddy Mercury,
and the film enjoyed massive financial success. For many, however, "Bohemian Rhapsody" will be
remembered as having been mostly directed by an unreliable, unprofessional director,
who had been accused of sexual assault by several men long before he was hired.