Despite our desire to think that everyone in Hollywood is the best of friends, sometimes that’s just not true. In fact, there are a ton of celebrities who don’t get along or simply don’t have any chemistry. Some couldn’t even bear to be on set at the same time because their mutual antagonism had gotten so intense.
Most of these co-stars who hated each other were able to make it through the original production, but then one was not asked back for the film’s sequel. For example, Channing Tatum may have put up with Alex Pettyfer’s “diva” antics on the set of the first Magic Mike movie. However, when it came time to shoot the sequel, Magic Mike XXL, the British actor was not offered the opportunity to reprise his role as “The Kid.”
Usually, actors are professional enough to get through a production. But that doesn’t mean that there are not actors who filmed scenes separately. This may be tough to stomach for die-hard The Good Wife fans, but it just looked like Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi shot that long-awaited series finale reunion scene in the same location. In fact, it was Hollywood smoke and mirrors that created the illusion that the two actresses were in the same location. Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss, especially when it comes to beloved actor pairings.
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Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, And The Fate Of The Furious
Photo: Universal Pictures
This is a case of art imitating life. It’s no secret that, just like their characters Dominic Toretto and Luke Hobbs, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson do not like each other in real life. Their hatred of one another is so strong that the macho men refused to appear together in the same scene during the franchise’s 2017 installment, The Fate of the Furious.
Their feud makes for clumsy storytelling; instead of actually seeing Hobbs and Toretto battle onscreen, we have to hear about it. It’s a big deal when Dom betrays his Furious family, and it’s unfortunate the spectator doesn’t see the friends turned onscreen enemies duke it out. Even during action scenes in the film, the actors do not share a single shot together.
The bad blood between the A-listers was made public last year when Johnson took to his Instagram account to berate a “candy ass” co-star, whom he didn’t name but was later revealed by TMZ to be Diesel, for his “bad attitude and habitual lateness.” Additionally, it appears that Johnson was not happy with some of the decisions that Diesel made as a producer of the film.
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Sylvester Stallone, Richard Gere, And Lords Of Flatbush
Video: YouTube
Here’s the thing about rumors: they have to start somewhere. One of the most mythic, long-standing Hollywood urban legends is the one that claims Richard Gere had to go to the hospital and have emergency surgery because of complications due to stuffing a gerbil up his behind. It’s a tall tale that has lasted for decades and still has legs even today. But where did it originate?
Another rumor to the rumor is that Sylvester Stallone hated Richard Gere so much while the pair were filming the 1974 movie Lords of Flatbush that he was the one who started the scandal (Gere was ultimately fired from the production at the behest of Stallone and replaced by Perry King.) Sly denies igniting the hoax and in 2006 discussed his falling out with Gere during an interview with Ain’t It Cool News:
“Yeah, the original part of Chico, which was played by Perry King, was originally supposed to be played by Richard Gere, but we never hit it off. He would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table. One day, during an improv, he grabbed me (we were simulating a fight scene) and got a little carried away. I told him in a gentle fashion to lighten up, but he was completely in character and impossible to deal with. Then we were rehearsing at Coney Island and it was lunchtime, so we decided to take a break, and the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota. I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper. I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘If it gets on my pants you’re gonna know about it.’ He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me. He even thinks I’m the individual responsible for the gerbil rumor. Not true… but that’s the rumor.”
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Julianna Margulies, Archie Panjabi, And The Good Wife
Photo: CBS
Both Margulies and Panjabi deny that there was ever a feud between the actresses. They were both asked several times about it, and they both denied any bad blood. But, if we look at the facts, it appears that there must have been something going on.
For several seasons, The Good Wife characters were close friends (although there was tension between Alicia and Kalinda after the former found out that the latter slept with her husband, Peter) and worked together in the same law firm. However starting in Season 4, the actresses did not appear together in a scene for the remainder of the series, which ran for seven seasons. When the characters needed to talk about business, they would call each other or go through a third party.
If that’s not enough evidence of a real feud, Panjabi, who won an Emmy for her The Good Wife performance in 2010, was an extremely well-liked and integral character on the legal drama. However, she did not come back for the series final season. Additionally, it was discovered – to the extreme disappointment of The Good Wife fans – that the long-anticipated reunion between Alicia and Kalinda during the show’s series finale was nothing than smoke and mirrors. The actresses filmed the scene in different locations on a green screen, and it was then edited together to make it look like they were in the same location.
The rumor is that it was Margulies, the titular “good wife” and one of the show’s producers, who requested that the pair not shoot a scene together. However, even after the series ended, Margulies still vehemently denied the feud rumors:
Right, I’ve heard about [the feud]. Who says that? It’s totally gossip… I heard that question had been asked to Robert King. There’s no story there, sorry … I actually had heard [that rumor] and I feel that it has been talked about and answered. I feel people just like to have gossip or make something into something that isn’t there.
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Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, And Iron Man
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Terrence Howard played Lt. Colonel James Rhodes in the first Iron Man film. However, the Hustle & Flow actor said during a 2013 interview that Robert Downey Jr. “pushed him out” and “took his money,” which prevented him from scoring a big payday for the second installment of the franchise. His part was recast with actor Don Cheadle, who also appeared in Iron Man 3.
Howard singled out Downey exclusively (not Marvel or other producers) for sabotaging his chance to return as Rhodey. “It turns out that the person that I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to […] re-up for the second one took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out.”
The Empire star also claimed that he originally signed a three-picture deal but his pay was drastically cut when negotiating for the franchise’s sequel. “They came to me [for] the second and said, ‘We will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.'”
As far as an actual onset feud is concerned, there is no concrete evidence that one occurred between Howard and Downey. However, there have been claims that Howard exhibited “difficult behavior” during production. Howard has asserted that he will not work with Downey again in the future.
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Alec Baldwin, Shia LaBeouf, And Orphans
Photo: Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
Alec Baldwin penned a telling first-person article in New York Magazine in 2014. One of the items that he discussed was his feud with former Broadway co-star Shia LaBeouf. In the article, Baldwin made it clear that he was heavily involved with the canning of the Transformers star from the revival production of Lyle Kessler’s play Orphans.
Baldwin wrote that LaBeouf appeared “scattered” when he showed up for rehearsal, adding, “LaBeouf seems to carry with him, to put it mildly, a jailhouse mentality wherever he goes.” Baldwin went on to write that the actor did have all of his lines memorized for rehearsal but was frustrated while waiting for his co-stars to catch up with him. According to Baldwin, LaBeouf attacked him in front of the rest of the cast and allegedly said, “If you don’t say your lines. I’m just going to keep saying my lines.”
Baldwin wrote that he requested a rehearsal break and informed the show’s director Dan Sullivan that one of them had to leave the show, Baldwin offered to quit but instead the production chose to fire LaBeouf. “He was shocked,” says Baldwin. “He had that card, that card you get when you make films that make a lot of money that gives you a certain kind of entitlement. I think he was surprised that it didn’t work in the theater.” LaBeouf’s character Treat was replaced by actor Ben Foster.
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Bill Murray, Lucy Liu, And Charlie’s Angels
Photo: Columbia Pictures
The feud between Bill Murray and Lucy Liu on the set of the original Charlie’s Angels film is a well-told Internet tale. The story goes that Murray said something pretty darn mean to Liu while filming one of the scenes in the movie. He allegedly stopped the scene and pointed to Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu, saying in order, “I get why you’re here, and you’ve got talent… but what in the hell are you doing here. You can’t act!”
At that point, Liu allegedly got extremely upset and started throwing punches to the point where the two had to be separated. Despite that wide spread rumor, Murray has a completely different take on the story, stating that he and Liu simply had a 20-minute blowup, and their argument was blown out of proportion.
He explained: “We began rehearsing this scene and I said, ‘Lucy, how can you want to say these lines? These are so crazy.'” He continues “She got furious with me because she thought it was a personal assault, but the reality is she hated these lines as much as I did. But for 15 or 20 minutes there, we went to our separate corners and threw hand-grenades and sky rockets at each other.”
Murray insists that there is no bad blood between the fiery actors. But, if that’s the case, then why was Murray replaced with Bernie Mac for the film’s sequel? According to the Groundhog Day star, he decided not to re-sign because of a different member of the cast, not Liu, was going to be in the sequel. “That same person was going to be involved in the second one, so I wasn’t going to show up again.”
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Charlie Sheen, Selma Blair, And Anger Management
Photo: FX
After Selma Blair’s sudden departure from the FX sitcom Anger Management, the rumor was that Charlie Sheen fired his onscreen love interest via text message in which he called the actress the dreaded c-word. It was reported that the co-stars had an onset feud because Blair questioned Sheen’s work ethic.
However, the actor with tiger blood told Jay Leno a different story on The Tonight Show. Sheen said:
One of our primary characters, Selma Blair, who played Kate, was written out because [the show] was not about our relationship, and the problem was too many people were still excited about the Two and a Half Men character and thought the Anger Management character was a little dull.
Blair responded to getting fired by threatening a lawsuit. The actress believed that she was canned from the show because she criticized Sheen for being a slacker. Sheen then reportedly got upset and had her fired. Sheen’s claim that the show was planning to write the actress’s character off, according to TMZ, may actually be true. However, that plan was going to take place over eight episodes but was sped up after Sheen heard Blair bashing him.
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Julia Roberts, Nick Nolte, And I Love Trouble
Photo: Buena Vista Pictures
It was the mid-1990s, and both Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte were at the height of their Hollywood fame. The duo joined forces in the forgettable romantic comedy I Love Trouble in 1994. However, Roberts and Nolte reportedly hated each other so much that they had to film their scenes separately and then use stand-ins in order to try and create on-screen chemistry.
Roberts told The New York Times that her co-star could be “charming and nice, [but] he’s also completely disgusting.” Nolte, not one to let bygones be bygones, retorted, “It’s not nice to call someone ‘disgusting.’ But she’s not a nice person. Everyone knows that.”
15 years, several lead roles, and one Academy Award later, Roberts still hadn’t forgotten about the bad experience of working with Nolte. In 2009, she went on the Late Show With David Letterman and told a story about an actor she worked with that was not very nice. She then did her best profanity-laced Nick Nolte imitation for Dave. “What the f*** is that? Did you not f***ing hear me? You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
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Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, And Magic Mike
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Magic Mike was a surprise box office smash. After the sexy film wrapped, Alex Pettyfer, who played “The Kid,” went on author Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast and admitted that Tatum did not like him. Pettyfer took responsibility for the feud. The British actor explained that he had a previous bad reputation for being difficult to work with, and Tatum did not want to hire him for the lead role. He was talked into it by the film’s director Steven Soderbergh. Pettyfer went on to explain that his team told him to be on his best behavior, so he stayed quiet onset in fear of causing any tension.
I actually did my work and I sat in the corner and listened to music because I had been told anything I did was wrong by my reps. I was very insecure as a human being. That also gave me a bad rep because everyone was like, “Alex doesn’t speak because he thinks he’s better than everyone else.
Tatum felt the the In Time actor’s behavior made him look like a “jerk for no reason” and a “diva.” Tatum and Pettyfer were able to finish filming Magic Mike without complication. However, Pettyfer was not asked to be in the film’s sequel Magic Mike XXL.
