"You'll never work in this town again." It's a popular saying in Hollywood...where egos
routinely clash. These A-list stars seriously upset their directors for one reason or another.
Let's take a peek.
The 1991 movie Hook was a new take on the Peter Pan story. Directed by Steven Spielberg,
it starred Robin Williams as Peter Pan and Julia Roberts as mischievous fairy Tinkerbell.
Well, America's Sweetheart was reportedly so difficult to work with, the crew nicknamed
her "Tinkerhell."
"Every time someone says they do not believe in fairies, somewhere there's a fairy that
falls down dead."
"I do not believe in fairies!"
According to Premiere magazine, Roberts acted rather strangely on set. The article alleges
that,
"[She was] sometimes somber, sometimes at the near edge of hysteria."
People magazine reports that she'd lock herself in her trailer for hours. According to Steven
Spielberg: A Biography, Roberts indulged in some truly diva-licious behavior, too. One
day, she reportedly showed up late and grandly announced,
"I'm ready now."
Spielberg reportedly replied,
"We're ready when I say we're ready, Julia."
The director later told 60 Minutes that
"It was an unfortunate time for us to work together."
And, it's worth noting, they have not worked together since.
Any future Roman Polanski film is unlikely to star Faye Dunaway, the Oscar-nominated
star of his 1974 film Chinatown. According to the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Dunaway
once asked Polanski to help her figure out her character, and he replied,
"Say the f---ing words. Your salary is your motivation."
On another occasion, Polanski was reportedly so annoyed by a stray hair on Dunaway's head
that he yanked it out. Dunaway screamed in protest and walked off the set…and Polanski
did the same.
"I don't know what you're talking about. This is the craziest, the most insane…"
"Stop it!"
Those are minor spats compared to what allegedly came next. While filming an emotionally-charged
scene, Polanski reportedly wouldn't let Dunaway run off to use the bathroom, so she reportedly
peed into a cup and threw it at him. In Five Easy Decades, a biography of Chinatown co-star
Jack Nicholson, the actor quipped that
"[Dunaway] demonstrated certifiable proof of insanity."
The 2010 action-comedy Cop Out centers around two mismatched police officers played by Bruce
Willis and Tracy Morgan, and this unlikely duo bands together to solve a crime. Hilarity
theoretically ensues.
"Whose car is this?"
"Your momma's! What?"
"You are an angry young man."
Veteran filmmaker Kevin Smith was hired to direct, and the shoot was evidently a rough
one. Willis reportedly considered Smith a rookie director who wasn't worthy of respect.
At MacWorld 2010, Smith revealed that Willis constantly questioned his decisions. And during
an appearance on WTF with Marc Maron, Smith said of the shoot,
"Yeah, it was tough. It was difficult, dude."
He also said that
"Look, I had no f---ing help from this dude whatsoever."
In his memoir Tough Sh*t, Smith wrote that
"He turned out to be the unhappiest, most bitter, and meanest emo-b---- I've ever met
at any job I've held down. And mind you, I've worked at Domino's Pizza."
According to the National Enquirer, Willis chose to skip the Cop Out wrap party. Perhaps
that's for the best, since he missed a poisonous toast from Smith, who reportedly said,
"I want to thank everyone who worked on the film, except for Bruce Willis, who is a f---ing
d---."
It seems like everyone loves George Clooney... but David O. Russell, the director of the
1998 film Three Kings, wasn't always the biggest fan. Clooney was reportedly cast in the film
thanks to a development deal with Warner Bros. This was evidently against Russell's wishes,
who just didn't think he was right for the part.
The director and actor reportedly quarreled on the regular. On one occasion, Clooney thought
Russell was being rude to the assistant director in charge of extras, and things came to a
head. Producer Charles Roven told The Hollywood Reporter,
"It looks like he's yelling at him. But he's yelling to be heard. And George comes running
over and goes, 'I told you, motherf---er, if you're going to pick on somebody, pick
on me.' And David goes, 'Why don't you just f---ing remember your lines for once?' And
boom! They grab each other, and they're tussling. And so I pulled George away. That was it."
Clooney gave a slightly different account of events during a Playboy interview, where
he also claimed that,
"[Filming Three Kings] was truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life."
"Orders from President Bush. A ceasefire agreement."
It sounds like Clooney and Russell have since made amends. In 2012, Russell told The New
York Times,
"George and I had a friendly rapport last year. I don't know if we would be working
together. I don't think we would rule it out."
Edward Norton and first-time feature director Tony Kaye had a prickly relationship while
shooting the 1998 drama American History X...but they really started fighting during post-production.
"Keep your head up, alright. Things are going to be fine. It's gonna be fine. Go turn that
paper in."
After turning in a rough cut of the movie, Kaye wanted to keep editing the film until
it was just under 90 minutes. But Norton thought he cut too much and effectively ruined the
movie…so he lobbied the studio to let him re-cut the film.
The rough cut was sent to film festivals, angering Kaye. As he writes in The Guardian,
"I was shooting a commercial in Germany when I heard American History X had been accepted,
so I jumped on a plane to Canada, marched into the office of the festival organiser
and demanded that the film be withdrawn because I wasn't happy with it. New Line went nuts."
Kaye subsequently asked the Director's Guild to remove his name from American History X
and instead credit the film to Humpty Dumpty. They did not oblige his request.
Norton and editor Jerry Greenbert were ultimately allowed to re-cut the film, and that's the
version that was ultimately released to theatres. Norton basically got his way, prompting Kaye
to take out several ads in Hollywood trade papers that sharply criticized the actor.
Kaye has also claimed that
"[Norton is a] narcissistic dilettante...obsessed with his image, obsessed with screen time."
Wes Anderson's films have a very specific style, full of whimsy, '60s British rock,
and a troupe of unofficial regulars. Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, Owen Wilson, and
Jason Schwartzman are just a few of the performers who often show up in Anderson productions.
And then there's Gene Hackman, who only appeared in one Anderson movie: The Royal Tenenbaums.
"Are you trying to steal my woman?"
"I beg your pardon?"
So far, he's also the only actor who's ever won a major award for starring in an Anderson
film: In 2002, he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor For A Musical or Comedy. It's rather
ironic when you consider the fact that Anderson and Hackman were reportedly at odds while
making the movie.
At a 10th anniversary celebration of The Royal Tenenbaums at the 2011 New York Film Festival,
Anderson said he was "scared" of Hackman. Meanwhile, Huston quipped,
"I was...scared but I was more concerned with protecting Wes."
She revealed that none of the cast had seen Hackman since making the film, and claimed
that the actor once told Anderson,
"Pull up your pants and act like a man."
Anderson did make a point to say,
"[Hackman is] a huge force and I really enjoyed working with him. Even though he was very
challenging with me, it was very exciting seeing him launch into these scenes."
Anderson and Hackman would never work together again, and the latter retired from acting
in 2004.
Marlon Brando reportedly refused to learn his lines for The Island of Dr. Moreau. Instead,
a crew member fed him his dialogue through a radio earpiece. Meanwhile, his co-star Val
Kilmer was reportedly also causing plenty of headaches behind the scenes.
He allegedly didn't like Richard Stanley's creative vision and consistently undermined
the director. According to The Telegraph,
"On the rare occasions any filming took place, Kilmer was rude and abrasive: during one scene,
he reportedly sat on the ground and refused to stand up."
His input certainly contributed to Stanley being fired early on in the shoot. Stanley
subsequently told The Telegraph,
"Val would have never acted up if the people around him hadn't kept saying yes to him.
All he had to do was make a demand, and the company would give it to him."
Stanley's replacement, John Frankenheimer, was hired partly because his tough reputation
made him a good candidate to control Kilmer and Brando…but it didn't work. He was so
busy trying to control Brando and Kilmer that he passed off directing duties to the film's
animal behavior consultant for a bit. Frankenheimer later told Entertainment Weekly,
"I don't like Val Kilmer…and I don't want to be associated with him ever again."
The film collaborations of Harold Ramis and Bill Murray defined comedy for a generation.
Ramis helped create classic Murray comedies like Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, and Ghostbusters.
Unfortunately, shooting the 1993 classic comedy Groundhog Day reportedly destroyed the duo's
professional and personal relationship.
"What do you say, what do you say? What do you say? You little brat, you have never thanked
me."
According to the book Ghostbuter's Daughter: Life With My Dad, Harold Ramis by Violet Ramis
Stiel, Murray was having some problems in his personal life at the time. She writes
that,
"[He and my dad] were not seeing eye to eye on the tone of the film."
During one argument, Ramis reportedly grabbed Murray by the collar and threw him against
the wall. After production on Groundhog Day ended, Murray and Ramis didn't speak for more
than 20 years. Ramis told The A.V. Club in 2009,
"I've had many dreams about him, that we're friends again."
The filmmaker reportedly tried to get in touch with Murray over the years, but to no avail.
Fortunately, it sounds like Murray ultimately made amends. Shortly before Ramis's death
in 2014, Murray showed up at his house. Stiel writes that:
"[Murray arrived] unannounced at seven a.m., with a police escort and a dozen doughnuts...They
spent a couple hours together, laughed a little, and made their peace."
In 1989 and 1990, John Hughes wrote back-to-back Christmas comedies: National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation and Home Alone. Hughes produced Christmas Vacation, offering directing duties to Chris
Columbus. In 2015, Columbus told Chicago magazine:
"I love Christmas, so to do a Christmas comedy had been a dream."
Before production began, Columbus reportedly went out to dinner with Chevy Chase, the actor
who played Clark Griswold in the first two Vacation films, a role he would reprise for
Christmas Vacation.
"It's a one-year membership in the Jelly of the Month Club."
"Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year."
The meeting didn't go well. As Columbus tells Chicago,
"To be completely honest, Chevy treated me like dirt."
But Columbus really wanted that directing job. He put up with the actor's hostility
long enough to film some shots of downtown Chicago. That footage made it into the final
cut of the film…but Columbus didn't wind up directing Christmas Vacation. He tells
Chicago,
"I had another meeting with Chevy, and it was worse. I called John and said, 'There's
no way I can do this movie. I know I need to work but I can't do it with this guy."
Hughes allowed Columbus to back out of Christmas Vacation. Two weeks later, Hughes sent Columbus
the script for Home Alone, and he directed that instead.
John Carney's 2013 film Begin Again stars Mark Ruffalo as a down-on-his-luck music executive
who launches the career of a budding singer-songwriter, played by Keira Knightley. In 2016, Carney
told the Independent,
"Mark Ruffalo is a fantastic actor."
Alas, his praise didn't extend to Knightley. In fact, his comments about the actress were
downright rude. At one point, he says,
"I learned that I'll never make a film with supermodels again...Keira's thing is to hide
who you are and I don't think you can be an actor and do that."
He goes on to say,
"I don't want to rubbish Keira, but you know it's hard being a film actor and it requires
a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don't think she's ready for yet and
I certainly don't think she was ready for on that film."
Elsewhere in the interview, he says,
"Keira has an entourage that [follows] her everywhere so it's very hard to get any real
work done...I think the real problem was that Keira wasn't a singer and wasn't a guitar
player and it's very hard to make music seem real if it's not with musicians."
"You're not a samurai. You're a songwriter."
"Well, I'm kind of like a samurai."
A couple days later, Carney apologized to Knightley in a statement that read in part:
"I said a number of things about Keira which were petty, mean and hurtful...Keira was nothing
but professional and dedicated during that film and she contributed hugely to its success.
I wrote to Keira personally to apologize, but I wanted to publicly, and unreservedly
apologise to her fans and friends."
That said, Carney hasn't worked with the actress ever since.
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