10 Co-Stars Who Loathed Each Other While Working on Film and TV Projects

Movie Lists by Joey Paur

There’s been a lot talk recently regarding the feud between Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel while shooting Fast 8. Johnson had some harsh words for his co-star calling him a "chicken shit" and a ”candy ass.” The two actors have since buried the hatchet and are getting along again. A studio source told THR:

"What happened is over, and no one expects there to be any lingering effects. When it comes time to promote the movie, this will have no bearing."

These two actors aren’t the only ones that have had issues while shooting a film or TV project. There are several others, and I thought I’d look up a few of them. I’ve come up with seven feuds between actors, and a few of them were pretty surprising.


Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams - The Notebook

These two actors actually dated for awhile after they made this movie, but it wasn’t smooth sailing at first. Gosling hated working with McAdams, and one point he wanted her kicked off the set. In an interview with VHI, director Nick Cassavetes recalled the story:

“Maybe I’m not supposed to tell this story, but they were really not getting along one day on set. Really not. And Ryan came to me, and there’s 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, ‘Nick come here.’ And he’s doing a scene with Rachel and he says, ‘Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?’ I said, ‘What?’ He says, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it with her. I’m just not getting anything from this.’
“We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out. At that point I was smoking cigarettes. I smoked a cigarette and everybody came out like, ‘All right let’s do this.’ And it got better after that, you know? They had it out… I think Ryan respected her for standing up for her character and Rachel was happy to get that out in the open. The rest of the film wasn’t smooth sailing, but it was smoother sailing.”

Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker - Star Wars

As most of you already know, Kenny Baker recently passed away. This is the man who brought R2-D2 to life in the Star Wars films, and he will be missed. R2-D2 and C-3PO kind of had a love hate relationship with each other, not only in the movies but in real life as well. Baker thought Daniels was kind of rude. In an interview with Hollywood.com Baker said: 

“Anthony doesn’t mix at all—he keeps himself to himself. He never wants to have a drink with any of us. Once when I said hello to him he just turned his back on me and said, ‘Can’t you see I’m having a conversation?’ I was blazing with rage. It was the rudest thing anyone had ever done to me. I was furious. It was unbelievable.”

In a separate interview with UK’s The Mirror, Daniels was asked about this experience and he said:

“I never saw him. I mean, R2-D2 doesn’t even speak. He might as well be a bucket.”

Whoa! They obviously had a frosty relationship. In case you’re wondering what Daniels had to say about Baker after he passed away, he posted this on Twitter:

"Sad to hear of Kenny’s passing.1 of the truly original cast, so famed for his iconic role as R2. He'll always be remembered by so many fans."

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson - The X-Files

These two actors has amazing chemistry together on screen in The X-Files, but off screen, after spending so much time together, it seemed they started to get annoyed with each other. In an interview with Metro, Duchovny said:

“Familiarity breeds contempt. It’s nothing to do with the other person. All that fades away and you’re just left with the appreciation and love for the people you’ve worked with for so long. We used to argue about nothing. We couldn’t stand the sight of each other.” 

Anderson wasn’t a big fan of Duchovny either, especially when she found out he was getting paid twice as much as she was. When talking to The Telegraph she said:

“Was it sexism? Maybe. It’s like the way we were directed by the studios, I was to walk behind him, never side by side. I mean, that is fucking priceless when I think about it now. When we would get out the car and walk towards the house I would have to be behind him, even though I had equal dialogue.” 

The two have obviously made up since they gave these interviews and enjoy working together. They recently did six new episodes of The X-Files, and it’s looking like they’ll be back for more!


Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy - Lawless

LaBeouf tends to go a little nuts while getting into character in the films that he stars in. With Lawless the actor said he had a rough time bonding with Hardy. Things got so heated that LaBeouf straight up punched Hardy out. When talking to SF Gate, LaBeouf said after that Hardy “never did that roughhouse stuff with me again.”

Hardy even admitted it during an interview with Den of Geek. When talking about the incident he told them:

“I got knocked out by Shia LaBeouf, actually. [It was] behind the scenes. No, he did. He knocked me out sparko. Out cold. He’s a bad, bad boy. He is. He’s quite intimidating as well. He’s a scary dude… He just attacked me. He was drinking moonshine. I was wearing a cardigan, and er, went down. I woke up in Pnut’s [Hardy’s trainer’s] arms.”  

So LaBeouf is obviously an actor you don’t want to screw with.


James Franco and Tyrese Gibson - Annapolis

James Franco went full on method acting when he worked on director Justin Lin’s Annapolis. The movie told the story of a young cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy, played by Franco, who doesn’t get along company commanding officer, who was played by Gibson. Real life wasn’t much different. 

Apparently while they were shooting, Gibson wasn’t a big fan of Franco’s method acting. Franco went all out on him while they were shooting the boxing match scenes, and he was allegedly really punching Gibson. He told Franco to calm down and back off, but that didn’t help. Franco just kept wailing on him. During an interview with Elle, Gibson was asked whose house he’d blow up, and this was Gibson’s answer: 

“James Franco. James Franco is a method actor. I respect method actors, but he never snapped out of character. Whenever we'd have to get in the ring for boxing scenes, and even during practice, the dude was full-on hitting me. I was always like, ‘James, lighten up, man. We're just practicing.’ He never lightened up.” 

Franco later apologized to Gibson, telling GQ in a separate interview: 

“I take full blame for any problems on that film. If he had a bad experience working with me, I was probably a jerk. I was not purposely cruel to him, but I was probably so wrapped up in my performance that I was not as friendly as I could have been.”

It seems like method acting turns everyone who practices it into a jerk. 

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