Hollywood Actors Who Had A Meltdown On-Set

Marilyn Monroe: Something’s Got to Give

If you’re wondering why you don’t remember a Marilyn Monroe movie called Something’s Got to Give, don’t worry: the film was never finished, with 20th Century Fox abandoning the 1962 production due to their troubled leading lady’s erratic behaviour. Monroe was frequently late to set or absent without leave (she made her famous appearance at John F Kennedy’s birthday bash when she should have been shooting), meaning the film’s cast and crew often had to shoot around her. After she called in sick for the umpteenth time, Monroe was fired from the movie in June 1962. Two months later, she passed away.

Johnny Depp: City of Lies

It’s no secret that the life of Hollywood megastar Johnny Depp has been somewhat turbulent in recent years. These off-camera troubles would seem to have bled through into the once-respected actor’s behaviour on set, as on 2018’s City of Lies Depp didn’t take kindly to being told by the film’s location manager, Greg ‘Rocky’ Brooks, that shooting on the streets of LA was going to run late one night. Brooks claims he was “repeatedly hit” and verbally abused by Depp, and later wrongfully dismissed from his job as a result.

Lindsay Lohan: The Canyons

Few actors in modern times embody the stereotype of the troubled former child star as perfectly as Lindsay Lohan, who went from teen star to persona non grata in Hollywood due to her diva-ish attitude and unreliability. 2013’s edgy drama The Canyons was intended to give her a comeback, but once production began it was clear the actress hadn’t reformed: she didn’t show up for the first day of shooting and was promptly fired. She then cried outside director Paul Schrader’s trailer until he agreed to rehire her.

Rip Torn: Maidstone

1970 American film Maidstone has gone down in history for its legendary on set brawl. With the cameras still rolling, Rip Torn completely lost the plot and began attacking his co-star Norman Mailer, hitting him in the head with a hammer while claiming he needed to “kill his character.” Torn proceeded to strangle Mailer and bit off part of Torn’s ear. The fight was eventually broken up when Mailer’s wife Beverly and their distressed young children intervened. Despite the brutality of the scene, it made the final cut and has gone down in cinematic history as one of the strangest, most brutal on set meltdowns ever.

Will Smith: Men in Black 3

When Will Smith starred alongside Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black back in 1997, it helped make him one of Hollywood’s most bankable and successful stars. By the time they made Men in Black 3 in 2012, Smith had a rather diva-esque request: the actor demanded a “a double decker $2 million trailer” on set. This was in spite of the fact that filming was happening just a few blocks away from his New York apartment. Smith continued to insist on staying in this ludicrous trailer despite complaints from local residents.

Tom Cruise: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

Tom Cruise has had a few public meltdowns over the years, but he seemed to have calmed down a lot more recently. However, in 2020 Cruise made headlines for having a meltdown on the set of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, as a recording of his outburst went viral. The actor and producer berated his colleagues for their lax approach to COVID-19 restrictions on set after witnessing two crew members standing too close to each other. In a leaked audio clip, the actor was clearly heard shouting: “If I see you do it again, you’re f***ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it, that’s it… don’t you ever f***ing do it again.”

Ian McKellen: The Hobbit trilogy

Sir Ian McKellen has a reputation for consummate professionalism, but his time reprising his Lord of the Rings role of Gandalf in the Hobbit trilogy pushed him to breaking point. The FX-oriented nature of the three films meant McKellen was left shooting many of his scenes alone against a green screen. McKellen found this hugely lonely and depressing, and “thought perhaps, has the time come for me to stop acting altogether if I can’t cope with these difficulties? I got absolutely miserable and had a little cry to myself. I didn’t realise that the microphone I was wearing was open so everybody could hear me muttering to myself about how I wanted to go home.”

Dennis Hopper: Super Mario Bros

1993’s Super Mario Bros, the first major video game movie based on a video game, was a very troubled production. The script was being rewritten daily, much to the disdain of the cast, particular seasoned screen star Dennis Hopper, cast as the villainous King Koopa. Presented with an entirely rewritten scene mere minutes before they were due to shoot, Hopper went ballistic, roaring, “You call this writing? This is s**t! It’s s**t! And the fact you’d do it without asking me?” It took over three hours to calm Hopper down, and they lost an entire morning of filming.

Wesley Snipes: Blade: Trinity

1998’s Blade and its 2002 sequel gave Wesley Snipes arguably the biggest role of his career, but 2004’s third instalment Blade: Trinity proved the beginning of the end of his time as a superstar. During production, Snipes was on very bad terms with writer-director David S. Goyer, whom the actor is reported to have chased and physically threatened on set. At other times Snipes wouldn’t turn up for scenes, remaining in his trailer and forcing the crew to shoot with his stand-in. Things got so bad that by the end of the shoot the actor would only communicate with his colleagues via post-it notes.

Bill Murray: What About Bob?

Bill Murray is infamous for clashing with his co-stars, and this happened in a big way with Richard Dreyfuss in a big way whilst filming the 1991 comedy What About Bob? Dreyfuss told Yahoo in 2019 that Murray was “an Irish drunken bully,” claiming an intoxicated Murray “put his face next to me, nose-to-nose. And he screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘Everyone hates you! You are tolerated!'” before throwing a glass ashtray at his co-star. Nor was Dreyfuss the only object of Murray’s rage on What About Bob? as producer Laura Ziskin claims that Murray threw her into a lake after an argument.

Martin Sheen: Apocalypse Now

Martin Sheen joined the troubled production of Vietnam war epic Apocalypse Now as a last-minute replacement for Harvey Keitel, who director Francis Ford Coppola fired early on. Unfortunately, Sheen was in a very bad place personally, struggling with alcoholism, and the on-set pressures didn’t help. In the infamous Saigon hotel room scene, Sheen really was as drunk as he appears, and unwittingly punched through a genuine mirror and bled all over the place for real. Later in production, Sheen suffered a heart attack. Miraculously, he survived and went on to finish the film.

Tom Hardy – The Reckoning

Back when Tom Hardy was an unknown, he made an early appearance in 2002’s The Reckoning alongside Paul Bettany and came to blows with his then-more-famous co-star. Hardy was questioned about the incident years later in an interview with fellow actor Vincent Cassel, who jokingly asked him, “would you advise someone who’s shooting their first movie, to take a swing at the lead actor because he’s saying bad things about you?” Hardy responded, “I didn’t hit [Bettany], I slapped him. I didn’t want to leave a mark on his face.”

George Clooney: Three Kings

George Clooney isn’t usually a troublemaker, but he did get in some trouble on the set of 1999’s Three Kings – although Clooney doesn’t come out of it looking the bad guy. Three Kings director David O. Russell is notorious for his on-set volatility, and at one point on the film he became physically violent with an extra. Clooney was having none of this and attacked Russell himself, resulting in a full-on brawl between the actor and the director. Clooney quickly swore he would never work with Russell again.

Christian Bale: Terminator Salvation

On the set of Terminator Salvation, Christian Bale launched into an expletive-filled tirade at director of photography Shane Hurlbut after the cinematographer walked into Bale’s line of sight during filming. As Bale raged on for almost four minutes, Hurlbut and the film’s director McG failed to calm the actor down. The whole incident was made all the more bizarre by the British actor continuing to speak in the American accent he was using for the role of John Connor. Caught on tape, the recording went viral, and Bale later apologised, saying that he and Hurlbut had resolved their differences.

Lucy Liu: Charlie’s Angels

Joining Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in 2000’s Charlie’s Angels was a major career step for Lucy Liu, but her performance was quickly overshadowed by a well-publicised spat with co-star Bill Murray. Accounts vary as to just what went down, but it’s widely reported that Murray upset Liu by telling her she couldn’t act. Liu is said to have physically attacked the actor whilst screaming at him. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the incident led to Murray being replaced by Bernie Mac for sequel Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

Lawrence Tierney: Reservoir Dogs

Over the years, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has reunited with many actors from his 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs, including Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi. However, one Reservoir Dogs actor Tarantino never worked with again was Lawrence Tierney, who reportedly attempted to undermine everything that the director did on set. The pair ultimately got in a fistfight, which prompted Tarantino to fire Tierney, who the director later called “a complete lunatic who just needed to be sedated.” During production, Tierney (who died in 2002) was arrested after drunkenly attempting to shoot his own nephew.

Gene Hackman: The Royal Tenenbaums

Gene Hackman was never known for being the most easygoing actor. Writer-director Wes Anderson found this out the hard way when he cast Hackman in the lead role of his 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums. Having taken a huge amount of persuasion to sign on, the cantankerous Hackman didn’t make it any easier for Anderson once he was on set. By all accounts Hackman was frequently argumentative and dismissive of the director and engaged in some abusive name-calling.

Richard Pryor: Blue Collar

On his 1978 directorial debut Blue Collar, writer-director Paul Schrader played some ill-advised mind games by telling all three of his leading men – Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto – that they alone were the film’s lead. Schrader hoped this would inspire rivalry which would show up on screen, but unsurprisingly it backfired, particularly when it came to Pryor. The troubled comedy legend was suffering from serious drug addiction and was prone to paranoia. Fights regularly broke out between the cast, and Pryor is said to have brought a gun to set which he pointed at his director, furiously declaring that he wouldn’t shoot more than three takes of any scene.

Shia LaBeouf: Lawless

Shia LaBeouf co-starred with Tom Hardy in the 2012 film Lawless. Rumours swirled that the two actors had constantly been at loggerheads throughout filming and got into a physical fight at least once. It was widely claimed that LaBeouf once knocked Hardy out: Hardy himself was quoted as saying LaBeouf “knocked me out sparko.” This, however, is one instance when the reality and the rumour don’t quite line up, as Hardy and LaBeouf have both refuted claims of a mutual hatred, with the pair claiming they were simply engaging in rough play-fighting.

LL Cool J: Any Given Sunday

After rising to fame in the 80s as a rapper, LL Cool J enjoyed a fairly successful film career, but he butted heads with some notable people along the wrong way. This was the case when LL joined future Ray Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx in Oliver Stone’s 1999 sports drama Any Given Sunday. The film sees LL and Foxx play members of rival football teams, and the two actors may have gotten a little too into in the conflict. One unscripted moment saw LL punch Foxx in the face, which unsurprisingly Foxx didn’t take kindly to. Just when things seemed to have calmed down between the two, LL proceeded to elbow Foxx in the head whilst walking away.

Bette Davis: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford had one of the most infamous, bitter rivalries in Hollywood history. Nonetheless, they agreed to co-star in a film that played on their intense animosity: 1962’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Unsurprisingly, the shoot proved tense, with both actresses frequently antagonising one another. Davis took it to the greatest extreme, striking her co-star in the face for real in one scene (accounts vary, but some claim Crawford needed stitches afterwards). Crawford got the last laugh, though: when Davis lost out on the Best Actress Oscar to Anne Bancroft, Crawford arranged to accept the award on the absent Bancroft’s behalf.

George Lazenby: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

One-and-done James Bond actor George Lazenby was a 29-year-old Australian model with almost no acting experience, who bluffed his way to becoming the first actor to take over from Sean Connery as 007. As well as being as great a womaniser as Bond, Lazenby also had as much of a fondness for alcohol. By all accounts he was very often drunk on set and often threw empty vodka bottles at crew members. Despite this, Lazenby was still expected to play Bond again – but he infamously refused, believing (incorrectly) that playing the famous spy a single time would be enough to establish him as a major movie star.

Val Kilmer: The Island of Dr. Moreau AND Batman Forever

It’s hard to pick just one example of losing the plot on-set when it comes to Val Kilmer. The talented actor’s career has been largely over-shadowed by crazy on-set antics and controversies. He clashed (sometimes physically) with director Joel Schumacher on the set of Batman Forever, and also struggled with extreme claustrophobia in the Bat-suit. Then on 1996’s notoriously troubled The Island of Dr. Moreau, Kilmer (going through a divorce at the time) essentially held the production to ransom with his diva-ish demands and selfish behaviour, clashing with his co-stars and burning a crew member with a cigarette.

Marlon Brando: The Island of Dr Moreau

Marlon Brando was one of the most acclaimed, successful actors of the 20th century, yet for all the great performances of his 60-year career, there were even more crazy stories of his erratic behaviour on set. Notably, Brando’s actions on the set of 1996 film The Island of Dr Moreau were enough to make the screenwriter, Ron Hutchinson, want to pull his hair out. Hutchinson was shocked when Brando turned up to shoot in bad shape. While ad-libbing is part and parcel of making a film, Brando also refused to read any of his written lines: “he wanted to improvise it all,” Hutchinson recalled. He also refused to take an ice bucket off his head for some scenes due to the heat.

Nicolas Cage: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Nicolas Cage is known for going to extremes in his performances, but he went particularly far on Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Cage took what he calls a “Nouveau Shamanic” approach to the film, donning black and white face paint and sewed Ancient Egyptian symbols into his costumes – despite the fact that most of this was lost when the character’s CGI head was added in post-production. Cage told Empire Online back in 2012. “I wouldn’t say a word to my co-stars or crew or directors. I saw the fear in their eyes… I believed I was the Ghost Rider.”

Al Pacino: The Godfather II and Dog Day Afternoon

Al Pacino is inarguably one of the greatest actors of his generation, but sometimes he may have been a bit too dedicated. Pacino went direct from working on The Godfather Part II to Dog Day Afternoon, and it soon became clear he was exhausted. Dog Day Afternoon director Sidney Lumet shot the scenes where Sonny calls his wife back-to-back, with Pacino’s performance getting increasingly intense. When filming wrapped for the scene, Pacino burst into tears. Lumet subsequently called the experience “as good a moment of directing as I’ve ever had in my life.”

Lily Tomlin: I Heart Huckabees

George Clooney isn’t the only actor to butt heads with bullish director David O. Russell. Things got similarly tense between Russell and Lily Tomlin on the set of 2004’s I Heart Huckabees. Tomlin was dismayed by Russell’s direction and said “let’s just take it one f**king line at a time, instead of changing everything” in an audio clip leaked by TMZ. Things got heated, with Russell hitting back: “‘F**k you! I’m just trying to f**king help, you understand me?” Unlike Clooney, Tomlin has since insisted she no hard feelings with Russell.

Klaus Kinski: Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Actor Klaus Kinski and director Werner Herzog were a notoriously volatile combination. While filming Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Herzog threatened to shoot Kinski after he tried to walk away from the project. Happily, Herzog did not make good on this threat, but Kinski came close to killing someone on the film. One night when cast and crew members were keeping Kinski awake with their noise, the enraged actor took a Winchester rifle and essentially opened fire into the hut. Thankfully, no one was killed, but one bullet took the tip of an extra’s finger off. Herzog immediately confiscated Kinski’s gun and still has it to this day.

Tom Sizemore: Red Planet

Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer were friends when shooting for Red Planet began, but less so when it wrapped. Apparently, Sizemore responded harshly after Kilmer made some insensitive remarks about how much more money he was earning from the film. Sizemore had reached breaking point with Kilmer’s insensitivity and retaliated by launching a 50-pound weight at Kilmer. Thankfully, Sizemore missed, and Kilmer escaped uninjured. However, this all changed after the pair were instructed to film a fight scene together, in which Sizemore punched Kilmer in the chest for real.

Ewan McGregor: Halston

The incessant invasiveness of the paparazzi sometimes proves too much for celebs. Ewan McGregor reached his limit in November 2020 while shooting the Netflix series Halston in New York’s Central Park. In a leaked clip, McGregor could be seen storming up to paparazzo Steve Sands, shouting “stop talking to me.” An inside source claimed that Sands was causing trouble and McGregor was merely standing up for himself and the show’s cast and crew. Sands, 64, said himself: “I got into a tit for tat on the set. Then Ewan yells at me. That was the end. I don’t hold anything against him.”

Joaquin Phoenix: The Joker

In October 2019, Joaquin Phoenix was put in a tough spot after footage of him ranting at a crew member on the set of Joker was aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the clip, Phoenix can be heard talking about a cinematographer, saying: “The constant whispering, just shut the f**k up, dude,” and complaining about having been nicknamed “Cher” on set. Phoenix said on the show that he was “embarrassed” by his behaviour. However, it was later claimed by Phoenix’s publicist that the clip was a hoax intended to boost publicity for the movie.

Marilyn Monroe: Some Like It Hot

By the time Marilyn Monroe made 1959’s Some Like It Hot, she was the most bankable female movie star in Hollywood. However, she was eager to be taken more seriously as an actress and hired Paula Strasberg from New York’s Actor’s Studio as her acting coach. Unfortunately, this meant she trusted Strasberg’s word more than that of director Billy Wilder, which caused major problems. It reportedly took Monroe 60 takes to deliver the three-word line, “It’s me, sugar!” Also, despite attempting to go method, Monroe failed to remember her dialogue. Wilder grew so fed up that he taped her script onto the backs of set furniture just so she could read her lines correctly.

Gene Kelly: Singin’ in the Rain

1952’s Singin’ in the Rain is considered a classic musical, but production was far from a breeze. Leading man and co-director Gene Kelly prompted much tension on set, given his demands for perfection. He regularly insulted Debbie Reynolds for her inability to dance as perfectly as he wanted. On one occasion, Fred Astaire found Reynolds cowering under a piano in floods of tears after enduring another tirade from Kelly. Thankfully, Kelly later apologised to Reynolds and admitted that he had been unbearable to work with.

Sean Connery: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Sean Connery was 73 when he was effectively driven into retirement by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The original Bond actor clashed heavily with director Stephen Norrington during production, on one occasion losing a whole day of shooting because Norrington thought an elephant gun prop ‘did not look quite right,’ which drove Connery up the wall. Connery had such a bad time he never made another film, and the actor told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 that Norrington should’ve been “arrested for insanity” for his behaviour.

Shelley Duvall: The Shining

If you think Shelley Duvall’s unhinged portrayal of Wendy in The Shining was a little too convincing, you’d be absolutely right. Director Stanley Kubrick literally pushed Duvall to the brink of madness while making the film. Duvall was forced to cry for hours on end for weeks at a time, doing as many 127 takes for one scene where she hits Jack Nicholson with a baseball bat. Duvall was so stressed that her hair began to fall out. In a 1980 interview with esteemed critic Roger Ebert, Duvall described the experience as “almost unbearable.”

Heath Ledger: The Dark Knight

A role as intense as the Joker can have an adverse effect on any actors who play the role. This was certainly the case for Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight. Throwing himself into the role, Ledger locked himself in a hotel room and slept for two hours a night for a whole month, as well keeping a diary written in character. He told Empire in a 2007 interview: “I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath – someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts.” Ledger sadly died of an accidental prescription drugs overdose before The Dark Knight hit screens and was posthumously awarded the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his efforts.

Ashton Kutcher: Jobs

Ashton Kutcher’s approach to getting into the mind of Steve Jobs was another instance where method acting went too far. On learning the Apple CEO that Jobs followed an unorthodox fruit-only diet, Kutcher tried this himself and wound up hospitalised for severe vitamin deficiencies. Furthermore, doctors noted a significant reduction in his bone density and even diagnosed him with pancreatitis. Suffice to say, Kutcher learnt his lesson and went back to eating a more balanced diet afterwards – plus 2013’s Jobs proved a critical and commercial failure.

Dustin Hoffman: Kramer vs Kramer

Dustin Hoffman was going through a divorce himself while shooting 1979 divorce drama Kramer vs Kramer. In some ways, he productively channelled his feelings into his performance, but he overstepped the mark by slapping co-star Meryl Streep across the face while filming one scene in the film. Hoffman also psychologically bullied his co-star, questioning her performance and talking to her about her recently deceased partner John Cazale. The film won both Hoffman and Streep Oscars, but they’ve never worked together again.

Jared Leto: Suicide Squad

Jared Leto is another actor who took things a bit far with his approach to getting into the mind of the Joker. In 2016’s Suicide Squad. Actress Viola Davis revealed that Leto gifted every cast member a dead pig, personally delivered by a ‘henchman.’ As if this wasn’t bad enough, Leto also gifted co-star Will Smith used contraceptives and a sex toy. “I did a lot of things to create a dynamic, to create an element of surprise, of spontaneity, and to really break down any kind of walls that may be there,” Leto told Entertainment Weekly. The negative reaction to his performance left many questioning whether any of it was worthwhile.

Russell Crowe: Gladiator

Gladiator famously finds Russell Crowe in a vengeful mood, and this wasn’t only on camera. Angered by the producer’s refusal to pay his assistants a fair wage (as per Crowe’s judgement), the actor threatened to kill him, reportedly saying “You motherf***er. I will kill you with my bare hands,” during a 3am phone call. The producer subsequently quit, but Crowe didn’t stop there; he also butted heads with director Ridley Scott over the line “And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next,” which Crowe hated but eventually agreed to say. It became the one of Gladiator’s most celebrated lines, and helped Crowe win the Best Actor Oscar.