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Home / Entertainment

Actors that directors hated working with

news.com.au
29 Jun, 2016 05:00 AM6 mins to read

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Directors weren't happy working with Val Kilmer, Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis. Photo / Supplied, AFP

Directors weren't happy working with Val Kilmer, Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis. Photo / Supplied, AFP

It's no secret that some actors are "difficult" to work with.

But a handful of stars are such pains in the bum that directors have publicly confirmed that they'll never, ever work with them again.

Here are the actors who directors really hated working with:

Julia Roberts

Steven Spielberg was asked on 60 Minutes if he'd ever work with Julia Roberts again after 1991's Hook.

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In a soft voice, the director said, "No".

From all reports, Roberts was an emotional wreck on the set of the fantasy film.

Julia Roberts starred as Tinkerbell in the movie Hook.
Julia Roberts starred as Tinkerbell in the movie Hook.

The actor, who played Tinkerbell in the film, was struggling when filming began having just called off her engagement to Kiefer Sutherland four days before their wedding.

Roberts was such a nightmare on set that the crew nicknamed her "Tinkerhell".

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According to Steven Spielberg: A Biography, Roberts once rocked up to the set late and when she finally arrived, said, "I'm ready now".

Spielberg responded with, "We're ready when I say we're ready, Julia".

After filming had wrapped, the legendary director admitted to 60 Minutes that "It was not a great time for Julia and I to be working together".

Roberts responded to Spielberg's comments years later in Vanity Fair, saying, "I saw that and my eyes popped out of my head".

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"I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that this person that I knew and trusted was actually hesitating to come to my defence. It was a hard lesson to learn. It was the first time that I felt I had a turncoat in my midst."

Bruce Willis

According to director Kevin Smith, working with Bruce Willis on 2010 flop Cop Out was "f**kin' soul crushing".

"I've never been involved in a situation like that where one component is not in the box at all," said Smith on Marc Maron's podcast.

"It was f**kin' soul crushing. I mean, a lot of people are gonna be like, 'Oh, you're just trying to blame the movie on him.'

"No, but I had no f**king help from this dude whatsoever."

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan a scene from the movie Cop Out.
Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan a scene from the movie Cop Out.

In his book Tough S**t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good, Smith again sunk the boot into Willis, writing, "He turned out to be the unhappiest, most bitter and meanest emo-bitch I ever met at any job I've held. And mind you, I worked at Domino's".

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The intimidating action star responded to Smith's harsh words by calling the director "a whiner".

Great comeback, Bruce ... not.

Sean Young

The actor was cast as Kate Gekko (Michael Douglas' character's wife) in the 1987 movie, Wall Street, but it's not the role she wanted.

Even after filming had started, Young kept pleading with director Oliver Stone to give her the much larger role of Gekko's girlfriend, which was played by Daryl Hannah.

The director was so frustrated by her unprofessional behaviour that he changed the script and cut most of Young's lines.

"Sean Young kept saying, 'I should play the girl Charlie Sheen is chasing'," Stone said to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Sean Young (second from the left) as Kate Gekko in Wall Street.
Sean Young (second from the left) as Kate Gekko in Wall Street.

"And Daryl Hannah, meanwhile, was rejecting the concept of the character for being materialistic, and Sean felt more and more encouraged to lobby for the role, even though we were already shooting.

"It got to a place where I said, 'I've had enough!' We were at a stable - and the horse standing next to Sean was having an erection - and she just wouldn't rehearse correctly.

So we let her go.

"She tried to leave with some of the clothes from the movie, and we had a very tough producer who got the clothes back, and I heard she was in the streets of East Hampton, furious, and walking around half-naked."

Surprise, surprise ... Sean Young never appeared in one of Oliver Stone's movies ever again.

Val Kilmer

There seems to be quite a few directors who refuse to work with Val Kilmer again.

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The notoriously difficult star bullied director Richard Stanley on the set of 1994's The Island of Dr. Moreau.

In a desperate attempt to keep the actor happy, the studio fired Stanley after just three days.

"Val would arrive, and an argument would happen," Stanley said to Entertainment Weekly.

The director told Vice that Kilmer apologised to him at the wrap party, "I told him it was a little too late".

Stanley was replaced by fellow director John Frankenheimer, who also clashed with the diva actor.

Val Kilmer in the rather forgettable, The Island of Dr Moreau.
Val Kilmer in the rather forgettable, The Island of Dr Moreau.

"I don't like Val Kilmer, I don't like his work ethic, and I don't want to be associated with him ever again," Frankenheimer said to EW.

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In 1995 Joel Schumacher directed Kilmer in Batman Forever, and although he thinks Kilmer has been the best actor to play Batman so far, he also admitted that star is quite a handful.

"Val is the most psychologically troubled human being I've ever worked with," Schumacher said to Premiere Magazine.

"The tools I used working with him - tools of communication, of patience and understanding - were the tools I use on my five-year-old godson. Val is not just high-strung. I think he needs help."

Faye Dunaway

Director Roman Polanski and actor Faye Dunaway had several heated clashes when making Chinatown in 1974.

When a stray hair of Dunaway's was catching the light, the director walked up to her and plucked it from her head.

The actor reportedly screamed, "I don't believe it. That motherf**ker pulled my hair out!" and stormed off set.

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According to a 1999 book called Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, Dunaway also lashed out at the director when he refused to let her take a toilet break.

The author, Peter Biskind, claims that Dunaway decided to pee in a cup instead and then threw it in the director's face.

Faye Dunaway, shown here in Chinatown, won an Oscar for her role in Network.
Faye Dunaway, shown here in Chinatown, won an Oscar for her role in Network.

A journalist from The Guardian asked Dunaway in 2008 if the story is true ... and promptly got thrown out of the room.

"I don't believe it!" Dunaway said in response.

"It is insulting that you would even bring it up! I can't go on with this. I think you've brought up something that is so distasteful. I am a lady and you were completely insulting."

As Polanski revealed to Rolling Stone, his "difficult" experience with Dunaway almost made him question how he goes about his work ... almost.

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"Working with Faye, I might eventually have actually questioned my own methods had I not known that she has had the same confrontations with all her directors, and gained the reputation as a gigantic pain-in-the-ass," he said.

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