We all like to imagine that our favorite actors and actresses are great people in real life.
But if their co-stars are to be believed, some of Hollywood's finest actors can be downright
jerks.
Val Kilmer For a while, Val Kilmer's reputation tended
to show up in a room way before he did.
Starting all the way back in 1995 with Batman Forever, Kilmer has been known for his attitude
behind the scenes.
After filming for Batman Forever wrapped, director Joel Schumacher said in an interview
that Val Kilmer was "childish and impossible."
But The Island of Dr. Moreau was allegedly where Val Kilmer really hit his stride, according
to those who worked with him.
After making that film, the director, John Frankenheimer, said:
"I will never climb Mount Everest, and I will never work with Val Kilmer again."
Shia LaBeouf From becoming Disney's wunderkind in Even
Stevens to snagging minor roles in major blockbusters like Constantine and I, Robot, Shia LaBeouf
seemed set for success, even before he landed the starring role in Transformers in 2007.
That movie and its sequels kicked his career into the stratosphere.
And then .... nobody's really sure what happened.
"...it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.
Thank you very much."
He started taking more avant garde roles.
He staged strange publicity stunts, like wearing a paper bag that said "I am not famous anymore"
and running around an art gallery ... 144 times.
Even before that, his penchant for over-the-top method acting rubbed people the wrong way.
He got into a fist fight with Brad Pitt on the set of 2014's war epic Fury, although
to be fair, the director allegedly told them to get into fights as a bonding experience.
While filming 2012's Lawless, Shia LaBeouf tried to get into his character who runs illegal
moonshine during Prohibition by guzzling bottles of actual moonshine.
And he didn't stop there.
He carved his name into co-star Mia Wasikowska's dressing room door and followed Tom Hardy
around the set fawning like his younger brother.
From an acting standpoint, Shia LaBeouf's craziness seems to be working.
Both of those roles brought him praise from critics.
But it can't make working with the guy any easier.
Alec Baldwin There's no doubting that Alec Baldwin is an
outspoken man.
Whether he's fighting paparazzi or shouting slurs, his private life is usually shoved
into the limelight on a weekly basis.
And then he apologizes and we're all okay with that, because, well, he's Alec Baldwin.
As a number of his co-stars have said, that's just who he is.
Does being that way make him a pleasure to work with?
Not always.
Baldwin was allegedly part of the reason Shia LaBeouf left the Broadway show Orphans in
2013, as the two actors had reportedly clashed at rehearsals.
On 30 Rock, his co-star Cheyenne Jackson had one thing to say about Baldwin:
"What I learned from him was really good comedic timing and don't get in his light."
Steven Seagal Love him, hate him, or just sort of put up
with him, Steven Seagal was born to raise hell.
Somewhere between Marked for Death and Out for Justice, he must have made an executive
decision to go from churning out low-budget action films in the '90s to churning out low-budget
action films all the way through the next two decades.
The truth is, Steven Seagal has been hard to kill for a long time now, which is surprising,
because he doesn't have a reputation for being a good man.
Countless allegations of assault, and trafficking have been leveled against
him over the years.
That includes one by Playboy model and actress Jenny McCarthy, who said in an interview that
Seagal told her to take off her dress during a private audition for Under Siege 2, despite
the absence of nudity in the film.
Then there was the incident in which John Leguizamo claims that Seagal elbowed him up
against a wall on the set of 1996's Executive Decision, all because Leguizamo laughed at
something Seagal had said, thinking it was a joke.
"And he Aikido-ed me against a brick wall POW. knocked all the air out of me and I was
like, WHY?"
Mike Myers It's almost a cliche now that comedians often
have darker sides.
And Mike Myers isn't immune to the pressures of being a full-time funnyman.
Between Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and The Love Guru, Myers' whole brand is over-the-top,
outrageously colorful characters, most of whom he's meticulously crafted himself.
He's been called a perfectionist on his good days, and on his worst he's been dubbed "emotionally
needy" and "difficult."
That last quote comes from none other than Penelope Spheeris, who directed Mike Myers
in 1992's Wayne's World.
Spheeris also told the story of how Mike Myers stormed off the set once because the caterers
didn't provide margarine for his bagel.
Chevy Chase With something of a reputation as the meanest
man in show business, Chevy Chase's notoriety has followed him all the way from his rock
star beginnings on Saturday Night Live in the '70s up to a recurring gig on NBC's hit
show Community.
Highlights, or lowlights as it were, include getting into a fist fight with Bill Murray
and suggesting that SNL co-star Terry Sweeney, who was openly gay, do a weekly segment where
he would get weighed to see if he had contracted AIDS yet.
It certainly seems like Chevy Chase has a penchant for rubbing people the wrong way.
He even came clean about it in 2012, when he said:
"Nobody prepares you for what happens when you get famous, and I didn't handle it well."
That may be the understatement of the decade, but really, it doesn't matter, because he's
Chevy Chase and you're not.
Katherine Heigl Few people have become the target of tabloid
fodder as completely as Katherine Heigl.
In 2008, she publicly bashed the Judd Apatow comedy Knocked Up as "sexist," despite or
perhaps because of her starring role in the film.
She later went on The Howard Stern Show to clarify her comments, saying:
"I liked the movie a lot.
I just didn't like me."
She used the same interview to apologize for complaining about not getting enough dramatic
material on Grey's Anatomy.
She's also been accused of being a prima donna on set, with an unnamed source who allegedly
worked with her on 2010's Life As We Know It claiming that Heigl caused problems during
the entire production.
On the flip side, Life As We Know It's director, Greg Berlanti, had nothing but praise for
the actress and said that he'd definitely work with her again.
Patrick Dempsey The set of Grey's Anatomy must be the most
chaotic, stressful place for an actor to work, because there's apparently no end to the drama
between cast members.
Much like Katherine Heigl, it turns out Patrick Dempsey has his own bone to pick with the
cast of the critically acclaimed medical drama.
Dempsey, who played Dr. Derek Shepherd, was apparently suspended once for acting "like
a diva," and was killed off on the show not long after that.
The report, which originated at celebrity gossip mag Page Six, also said that Dempsey
had clashed with the show's creator and executive producer, Shonda Rhimes.
Dempsey later denied that there was anything but goodwill between him and the cast and
crew of Grey's Anatomy, so in the end it's impossible to say exactly what went on behind
the scenes at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital.
Bruce Willis You may remember the time Kevin Smith described
Bruce Willis as "soul crushing" to work with during an interview about 2010's Cop Out,
which Smith directed.
Smith went on to say that Bruce Willis was pretty much his hero until he actually worked
with the guy.
To be fair, Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis seem to be complete opposites in Hollywood, with
Smith famous for off-beat comedies like Chasing Amy, and Willis for gritty action films.
So maybe it was just a one-off disagreement, but then again, maybe not.
Director Antoine Fuqua also called Bruce Willis a major "pain in the ass" to work with, and
Sylvester Stallone similarly seemed to have issues with Bruce Willis during the Expendables
series, calling him "greedy and lazy".
Mandy Patinkin You certainly know Mandy Patinkin's work,
even if you don't know his name, probably from his unforgettable role as Inigo Montoya
in 1987's The Princess Bride.
"My name is Inigo Montoya.
You killed my father.
Prepare to die."
More recently, you may have seen him in CBS's Criminal Minds and the Golden Globe-winning
Showtime series Homeland.
With such success in film and television, you probably have Patinkin pegged as a pretty
nice guy, if perhaps a little intense.
But by his own admission, Patinkin can be extremely difficult to work with.
Before nearly destroying his television career in 2007 by suddenly walking away from Criminal
Minds and never coming back, Patinkin was already behaving like a stuck-up starlet.
Talking about the hospital drama Chicago Hope, Patinkin revealed in a 2013 interview:
"I never let directors talk to me, because I was so spoiled.
[...] I was saying, 'Don't talk to me, I don't want your opinion.'
I behaved abominably."
Hopefully he's turned it around since then.
Teri Hatcher From 2004 to 2012, Desperate Housewives was
one of the hottest shows on ABC's primetime lineup.
But behind the scenes, trouble was brewing almost from day one.
Teri Hatcher apparently took the brunt of the criticism from her cast mates, who felt
she acted like a diva off-camera.
Hatcher's co-star Nicollette Sheridan went so far as to call Hatcher the "meanest woman
in the world," according to Marc Cherry, the show's creator.
Now that the show is off the air, we'll probably never know the true extent of the problems
the rest of the cast had with Teri Hatcher.
After the final episode of Desperate Housewives, Hatcher reportedly stated:
"I will never disclose the true and complicated journey of us all."
It's probably just as well.
Some questions are best left unanswered.
Jared Leto There's no denying that Jared Leto has lived
a lot of lives.
His career began in earnest with his role as teen dream Jordan Catalano on My So-Called
Life in 1994, plus he fronts the pop-punk band 30 Seconds to Mars, and won an Oscar
for Dallas Buyers Club.
But it was when he landed a role as a legendary villain in a comic book movie that he earned
a reputation as an extremely intense if dedicated actor.
Leto took his role as an especially nihilistic version of the Joker in Suicide Squad so seriously
that in the name of getting into character, he reportedly played sick jokes on the film's
other actors, and sent them disgusting gifts.
Co-star Viola Davis told Vanity Fair: "He had a tech man who would come into the
rehearsal room, and the henchman came in with a dead pig and plopped it on the table, and
then he walked out.
And that was our introduction into Jared Leto."
He also sent along previously used prophylactics and adult toys to cast members because, as
he told E! News: "The Joker is somebody who doesn't really
respect things like personal space or boundaries."
Lea Michele Singer and actress Lea Michele is well aware
of the gossip that she's a "diva."
Despite the word's negative connotation as someone difficult to work with in modern Hollywood,
Michele told Allure in 2011: "I came from the theater world where the word
'diva' was awesome."
Awesome or not, one example of Lea Michele's diva behavior occurred on the set of Glee
when technical problems delayed shooting and she reportedly snapped her fingers and shouted,
"Let's go.
I have plans!"
She also apparently developed a nasty feud with her Glee co-star Naya Rivera.
In her 2016 memoir Sorry Not Sorry, Rivera says that they were once friends, but that
their relationship buckled under the weight of her evolution from supporting character
to one with bigger plot lines and more screen time.
Rivera wrote that Michele was very sensitive to any criticism or notes about her work,
and revealed: "[She] blamed me for anything and everything
that went wrong [on set]."