Movies Where The Director Went ‘Dictator Mode’ & The Actors Revolted
Every successful film is a result of hardships and most importantly is based on the bond that the actor and director share. Hollywood has introduced us to some great ideal Actor-Director duos but we cannot overlook the ones who have created history for the feuds. No matter how successful the film was, there were some duos who couldn’t really keep their calm when around each other.
Even though the process of movie-making must result in a great experience, it isn’t that merry for everybody. Whether it’s the actor or the director, some people really add to the difficulties. Here are some of the renowned instances of such feuds.
Faye Dunaway and Roman Polanski
Polanski was irritated by a stray strand of Dunaway’s hair that was disturbing his shot on the set of 1975’s “Chinatown,” so he approached her and ripped it out of her head. Polanski’s unwillingness to give the actress toilet breaks allegedly led to her throwing a cup of her own pee at the director, according to urban legend. Dunaway however, has denied the urine incident but has stated that “The friction between Roman and me began from the start” of filming.
George Clooney and David O Russell
Despite his positive reputation in the industry, Clooney was a pain to work with throughout the filming of Three Kings. He was constantly defending the crew and disagreeing with Russell when he insisted on another take or pushed too hard. As the ending of production approached, he wrote a harsh handwritten note to the production director, claiming that Three Kings was “the most havoc-ridden, anxiety-ridden, angry set that I have ever witnessed.” The note sparked a physical confrontation onset between the two guys, in which Russell head-butted Clooney and Clooney grabbed Russell by the neck.
Bruce Willis and Kevin Smith
Willis and Smith’s mutual hatred for one another is, oddly, much more well-known than the film ‘Cop Out,’ on which they collaborated. Smith states in his book “Tough Sh*t” that Willis refused to follow instructions and was generally uninterested in being there. When Willis was asked about it, he answered, “Poor Kevin. He’s just a whiner, you know? We had some personal issues about how we approached work. I don’t have an answer for him. I’m never going to call him out and lay him out in public. Sometimes you just don’t get along.”
Shelley Duvall and Stanley Kubrick
The treatment of actress Shelley Duvall by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has become a Hollywood horror story, nearly as terrifying as the picture they were working on, The Shining. Kubrick was nasty and demanding toward Duvall and her performance, as proven by a video made by Kubrick’s daughter Vivian, and often humiliated her in front of the crew. After “The Shining” was released in 1980, Duvall told critic Roger Ebert, “Going through day after day of excruciating work. Almost unbearable … in my character I had to cry 12 hours a day, all day long, the last nine months straight, five or six days a week.”
Megan Fox and Michael Bay
Pro tip: Say whatever you wish to about Bay’s film and him but never on his face. Onset, Bay is renowned for being temperamental and aggressive, frequently scolding the staff and getting angry over arguments. In a 2009 interview, Fox said of her director, “[Michael] wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is … He has no social skills at all. It’s endearing to watch him. He’s so vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set, he’s a tyrant.” Later Fox was fired from the “Transformers” franchise and replaced with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
