20 Actors That Hated Their On-Screen Partner's Guts While Filming
Why Can’t We Be Friends?
Hollywood legends know how to pull the wool over our eyes—incredible performances transform them into completely different people, and we sometimes wonder how they even pull it off. But they also know how to act like they get along with their co-stars, which isn’t always the case! Let’s dive into which actors absolutely hated each other on set.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America on Wikimedia
1. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni
If you haven’t heard by now, there’s seemingly endless drama surrounding the cast of It Ends With Us. From persistent legal battles to nasty accusations and text receipts, these co-workers not only feuded on set, but they’ve been pretty vocal about their animosity afterward.
2. Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron
Hardy and Theron may have had an unbreakable bond in Mad Max: Fury Road, but the pair actually butted heads quite a bit on set. The good news is that tensions melted pretty quickly; they’ve since come out to admit that their inexperience and fear about such big parts got in the way of a good connection at first.
3. Casey Wilson and Tim Allen
Tim Allen has had no shortage of trouble with his co-stars, but Santa Clause star Casey Wilson really called him out in 2023. She said he was rude, claimed that he complained about her (while she was literally in front of him), and was overall standoffish.
4. Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte
In a perfect world, such big stars would get along when worlds collide—but Roberts and Nolte had one of Hollywood’s most notorious feuds. In a ‘93 interview, she called him “charming [...] and also completely disgusting.” Regardless of whether or not she was kidding, Nolte took it personally and retaliated in his own interview by saying he didn’t expect much else from her. “She’s not a nice person. Everyone knows that.”
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5. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny
Who knew such an iconic duo butted heads so often? Though Anderson never went into much detail, she did state in several interviews that they got on each other’s nerves and sometimes went a long time without talking to each other.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America on Wikimedia
6. Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker
This beloved quad charmed audiences for years, but things weren’t always cozy behind the scenes. Cattrall was the most vocal about everything: she admitted the ladies were never really friends and had public blowouts with Parker, especially after the death of her brother.
7. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams
Maybe a little hatred was what it took to deliver such memorable performances. We all know about this one, and it’s a tale as old as time in Hollywood. Rumors flew that these two struggled to get along—only for them to start dating shortly after!
8. Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi
Benanti didn’t pull any punches when she spoke about her Broadway co-star, Levi. Things really took a turn for the worse after Gavin Creel’s untimely passing, which Levi then discussed on social media; his post implied that Creel’s passing was because of the COVID vaccine and was the final straw for Benanti and several other actors.
9. Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley
Say it ain’t so! This beloved duo had us glued to our screens in the early days of Vampire Diaries, but they didn’t actually get along very well. In 2019, Dobrev admitted that while she respected Wesley, she never liked him. Though it’s all water under the bridge now, Dobrev also admitted, “We really just didn’t get along the first five months of shooting.”
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10. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland
Sutherland is a notorious problem on set, as Prinze Jr. found out firsthand while shooting 24. He blatantly called Sutherland “the most unprofessional dude in the world” and added that he thought everyone who’d ever worked with him thought the same. The experience was so bad that he, “[...] just wanted to quit the business after that. So, I just sort of stopped."
11. Jerome Flynn and Lena Headey
Game of Thrones had some pretty iconic characters—and equally memorable feuds. If you ever wondered why Cersei and Bronn hardly had scenes together, it’s because sources claimed Heady couldn’t stand to be in the same room as Flynn.
12. Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep
Stick two legends in a room and they’ll either get along great or tear each other’s throats. Unfortunately, for this pair, it was the latter. According to Streep, the biggest issue was that Hoffman overstepped during Kramer vs. Kramer, where he actually slapped her in the face. At the time, Hoffman admitted that he was in the throes of his own divorce and may have taken out some of his problems on Streep.
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13. Lucy Liu and Bill Murray
Well-known funny man Bill Murray also crossed some lines with Liu on the set of Charlie’s Angels. Liu has never shied away from saying, “I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it” after undisclosed comments he made towards her. All Murray’s ever said about it is, “I will dismiss you completely if you are unprofessional and working with me. When our relationship is professional, and you’re not getting that done, forget it.”
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14. Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio
DiCaprio’s been around the industry for a while, but he wasn’t always a focused workhorse. He and Danes actually weren’t on good terms while filming Romeo + Juliet. Reports claim that Danes found him far too immature and grew pretty tired of his relentless pranks. However, they’ve both gone on to praise each other’s work.
15. Lea Michele and Naya Rivera
Michele encountered several run-ins with the cast of Glee, and the late Rivera was no exception. In her 2016 book, Rivera admitted that their personalities just didn’t clash. Why? “We are both strong-willed and competitive—not just with each other but with everyone—and that’s not a good mixture.”
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16. Will Smith and Janet Hubert
For you ‘90s kids out there, we all remember the confusing switch in Fresh Prince. One minute, Aunt Viv was Janet Hubert, and the next she was Daphne Maxwell Reid. But it’s easy to see why: Hubert and Smith were at each other’s throats for a long time before they finally reconciled in 2021.
17. Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey
It’s hard to believe that Jones had beef with Carrey, especially after such campy performances from both of them in Batman Forever. But in 2017, Carrey said that he saw Jones in a restaurant during filming. He went to hug him, and Jones allegedly told him, “I hate you. I really don't like you. [...] I cannot sanction your buffoonery.”
18. Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah
Maybe those fight scenes were a little more authentic than we thought. Thurman not only had issues with Hannah, but she also had a falling out with Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino after a stunt left her in the hospital. Things were allegedly so bad between her and Hannah that both actresses asked to be separated during the press tour.
19. Will Ferrell and James Caan
It would appear James Caan wasn’t acting very hard as Buddy the Elf’s dad. According to Ferrell, he “drove [Caan] nuts on set” and remembered the late actor saying things like, “I don’t get you,” and, “You’re not funny.” However, Caan changed his tune when the movie actually premiered! He may not have liked the bits at first, but Caan admitted, “Now that I see it in the movie, it’s brilliant.”
20. Tyrese Gibson and James Franco
Method acting isn’t for everyone, least of all Gibson, who allegedly had serious problems with Franco on the set of Annapolis. In an interview, Gibson said, “Whenever we’d have to get in the ring for boxing scenes, and even during practice, the dude was full-on hitting me.” He later went on to say, “I never want to work with him again, and I’m sure he feels the same way. It felt very personal.” Franco said he never meant to be cruel, but “[...] was probably so wrapped up in my performance that I was not as friendly as I could have been.”
