On-screen relationships aren’t always the same off-screen. In fact, some actors said no to a role
just because of a grudge. So, who has bad blood? Maybe Dom and Hobbs? Keep watching to find out.
From the "X-Men" to "The Lord of the Rings," Ian McKellen has done it
all in show business. His versatile filmography and
endless list of accolades offer a dizzying array of reasons why he's considered one of
the greatest thespians of our time. McKellen doesn't ask for roles — the roles come to him.
"You shall not pass!"
Yet there is one iconic part he declined based purely on a comment made by a fellow British
actor. As McKellen recalled in a BBC HARDtalk interview, the late Richard Harris lumped McKellen
in the same category as Kenneth Branagh [BRA-nuh] and Derek Jacobi. What is that category, you ask?
Not a very nice one, despite those actors' prominence: Harris referred to them as,
"Technically brilliant, but passionless [actors]."
Ouch! When Harris passed away, the "Harry Potter" producers reached out
to McKellen to take over the role of Professor Dumbledore.
However, McKellen couldn't quite forget Harris' opinion of him. McKellen revealed,
"When they called me up and said, would I be interested in being in the 'Harry Potter' films,
they didn't say what part. I worked out what they were thinking ... and
I couldn't. I couldn't take over the part from an actor who I'd known didn't approve of me."
Cheekily, he added that he still played the, quote,
"real wizard," referring to Gandalf of "The Lord of the Rings." Ultimately,
Michael Gambon ended up replacing Harris as Dumbledore for the rest of the films.
Bill Murray is a true original. From the fact that he refuses to have a manager or agent field
his scripts to his overall detachment from the movie biz, he dances to the beat of his own drum.
However, Murray's laid-back demeanor hasn't stopped him from being labeled
"The Murricane" by Dan Aykroyd or feuding with other talents. That latter trait has
even resulted in a rift between Murray and a collaborator he used to call a close friend.
Harold Ramis and Murray were practically joined at the hip for most of the '70s and '80s:
They teamed up on everything from "Caddyshack" to "Ghostbusters."
But during the filming of "Groundhog Day," their relationship took a turn for the worse.
The two men disagreed about the tone of the film: Murray wanted something more
existential while Ramis was looking for pure comedy. Their argument grew so heated,
they refused to speak to each other and only communicated through assistants.
"Don’t mess with me pork chop."
Unfortunately, this disagreement caused a rift that lasted for years. Efforts were made to bridge
the gap with variable results: Ramis extended an olive branch by offering Murray a role in
2005's "The Ice Harvest," but he declined. Respect remained between the two talents,
however — Ramis praised Murray's work in 2009 and expressed gratitude for what they'd done together.
Fortunately, the two old friends reconciled in 2014, shortly before Ramis passed away.
When one looks back at "Batman Forever," it's almost impossible to believe the production
actually happened considering all the beef on set. Joel Schumacher told Entertainment Weekly that
he'd heard horror stories about Val but decided to hire him anyway. This sort of decision had
worked out for him in the past, after all. But Kilmer was different. Schumacher said,
"[They] had a physical pushing match. He was being irrational and ballistic with the first AD,
the cameraman, the costume people. He was badly behaved, he was rude and inappropriate.
I was forced to tell him that this would not be tolerated for one more second.
Then we had two weeks where he did not speak to me, but it was bliss."
In Kilmer's memoir, "Val Kilmer: I'm Your Huckleberry," the actor reveals
he struggled to act because of the confining and heavy Batsuit. This,
he claims, led to the tension between him and Schumacher. As a result, he decided not
to return for "Batman and Robin." Schumacher, though, sees things differently. As he told EW,
"He sort of quit, we sort of fired him. It probably depends on who's telling the story."
Regardless, one truth emerges: George Clooney became the one bearing the burden of the Batsuit.
When a film pulls off a character named Dirk Diggler, it deserves all the accolades
possible — and a heaping helping of "shut up and take my money" memes to boot. Fortunately,
Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 classic, "Boogie Nights," received all that and more,
including a best supporting actor nomination for Burt Reynolds, who portrayed Jack Horner.
Despite positive reception from both critics and audiences, Reynolds wasn't a fan of the film or
the director. According to The Guardian, he admitted that he'd never even watched
the entire movie. He told GQ that he didn't want to work with Anderson ever again, adding,
"Personality-wise, we didn't fit. I think mostly because he was young and full of himself. Every
shot we did, it was like the first time [that shot had ever been done]. I remember the first
shot we did in 'Boogie Nights,' where I drive the car to Grauman's Theater. After he said, 'Isn't
that amazing?' And I named five pictures that had the same kind of shot. It wasn't original."
Anderson tried to mend fences by offering Reynolds a role in his next project, "Magnolia," but
the storied actor turned it down. He told The Guardian that he hated Anderson, before adding,
"I'd done my picture with Paul Thomas Anderson, that was enough for me."
While "Sex and the City" is all about the unbreakable bond between four New York women,
making it wasn't quite a stroll through Central Park. In particular,
stars Kim Cattrall [kuh-TRAHL], who played bold Samantha Jones,
and Sarah Jessica Parker, who played open-hearted Carrie Bradshaw, had some major differences.
For years, there were rumblings that the two actors didn't get along. But for just as long,
they seemed to be able to put their personal feelings aside for the sake of the show and
two subsequent movies. In 2017, however, tensions escalated to new heights after
Cattrall failed to sign on for the proposed "Sex and the City 3." Not long after this,
her brother passed away and Parker reached out to offer her condolences. Cattrall didn't appreciate
this gesture. She took to her Instagram account where she addressed Parker directly:
"Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel
you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven't already)
You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I'm writing to tell you one
last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona."
Unsurprisingly, Cattrall decided not to join the 2021
HBO Max "Sex and the City" revival series, "And Just Like That."
Imagine this for a second:
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Vin Diesel having a heated disagreement on set.
Can't you practically smell all the testosterone in the air? Perhaps this didn't help matters,
as Johnson possibly blasted his co-star in a now-deleted 2016 post to his Instagram account.
He didn't name names, but his feelings were clear: Of his male "Fast and Furious" co-stars, he said,
"Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals,
while others don't ... Candy a--es."
While the actors were quick to downplay the feud, a 2021 Vanity Fair interview with Johnson revealed
the full extent of it. Turns out, Johnson only returned for "The Fate of the Furious" under
the strict rule that he and Diesel not share any scenes together. Johnson said,
"I wanted to forgo drama. I thought that that was the best thing to do. For everybody."
Since then, the two have taken subtle digs at one another in a variety of ways,
leading many to speculate that Johnson's absence from "F9" was due to the continued hostility
between him and Diesel. There's no irrefutable confirmation that this was the case, however,
and the stars have gone out of their way to show each other respect.
Does that mean the feud is over? No one knows. The future could hold anything for these two and
the franchise they share — especially if The Rock decides it's octane that he wants to be cookin'.
The real reason behind Charlie Sheen's exit from "Two and a Half
Men" is one of the most complicated entertainment stories of the 2010s.
In 2011, the show went on a hiatus in an effort to help the actor deal with his
personal problems. However, Sheen refused to enter a rehab facility and proceeded to
start a bizarre public fight with showrunner Chuck Lorre. Eventually, the actor was fired
from the sitcom. He responded by penning a letter that was published on TMZ. He wrote,
"I wish [Lorre] nothing but pain in his silly travels
especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with
my words — imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists."
"Two and a Half Men" continued without Sheen. However, the producers offered him an opportunity
to return for the series finale. As Lorre explained, Sheen declined because he wanted
the ending to spin off into another sitcom called "The Harpers." According to Yahoo,
in the years since the incident, Sheen has admitted that he could've handled the whole
situation better. Maybe the grudge between him and Lorre is well and truly over now.
The show might've been called "Charmed," but it probably should've been named "Cursed," judging
by all the drama that happened on set. For Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano, their beef got so bad,
the former decided she'd had enough and left the show altogether after Season 3.
Chatting about her decision to Entertainment Tonight, Doherty said,
"There was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work. You know,
I'm 30 years old and I don't have time for drama in my life anymore [...] [I want]
to work with actors who really, really care and that want to be there every single day."
Yikes! Years later, Milano and Doherty reconnected and repaired their relationship.
Speaking on E!'s Daily Pop in 2017, Milano said that they made amends via Twitter DMs.
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