Actors Who Were Reportedly Difficult To Work With

Most actors can stay calm and focused, allowing them to give believable performances during filming. However, the on-set behaviors of certain actors have undeniably complicated the filming process for their co-stars and others involved.

Here are some actors who were reportedly difficult to work with.

Vicky Krieps called working with Daniel Day-Lewis a 'traumatizing train wreck' of an experience

Vicky Krieps found her experience on Phantom Thread with Daniel Day-Lewis unenjoyable, citing his method acting and the other actors' tendency to tiptoe around him and whisper about his greatness, “He’s here! My God! It’s him”.

The actress from Luxembourg, who was unaware of Day-Lewis' method acting prior to filming, revealed that it was totally baffling.

Krieps described her lack of infatuation with the Gangs of New York actor to The Telegraph:

I never watch the films of ­people I’m going to work with, I don’t Google them… So I didn’t know so much about [Day-Lewis’s] method acting… I am a person who thinks we are all equal. We all sit on the toilet. I could see it all like a circus. I just didn’t get afraid…

 

But after half the movie, I was just really tired of it. Like: OK, I get it. It’s a game. I’ve played it. But can we just talk normally now, please?…

 

In the scene where Alma (played by Krieps) complains about “you and your people and your walls and your rules…”, that was really me talking to a famous actor, saying: “Do you really need everyone around you to behave so strangely and talk in a whisper?” I decided I wasn’t going to look at him in a ­special way just because he’s Daniel Day-Lewis. He reacted to my feeling and played with that well. That dance became the movie, and in the end it was a wonderful thing… [But it was also a] traumatizing train wreck [of an experience].

Jane Fonda said Lindsay Lohan mocked her on the set of 'Georgia Rule'

Jane Fonda claimed Lindsay Lohan behaved unprofessional on the set of Georgia Rule and revealed Lohan mocked her after she confronted her.

Only a couple of times when she was working with me, she was late. I remember one time I went in the make-up trailer and got mad at her and I said, "Get on to the set, c'mon we're waiting for you." Apparently she turned to her make-up person and said, “Barbarella just yelled at me.”

The Parent Trap star would later later explained that she has nothing but admiration for Jane Fonda and was “intimidated” by the thought of working with her in Georgia Rule.

In Vogue's Life in Looks video series, Lohan shared that Fonda was displeased when she arrived late on set and made her disapproval clear.

“I loved working with Jane but I was nervous to work with her because she’s Jane Fonda,” she said. “I remember, I was like three minutes late to set – and it was out (made public) that I was three hours late, it was three minutes – and she was waiting for me, tapping her foot, being like, ‘Lindsay, we’re all waiting!’ I was so embarrassed, it never happened again.”

James G. Robinson, CEO of Morgan Creek Productions, also criticized Lohan's absences from the set as "irresponsible and unprofessional" in a stern letter threatening legal action.

You and your representatives have told us that your various late arrivals and absences from the set have been the result of illness; today we were told it was 'heat exhaustion,'" Robinson wrote. "We are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.

Christian Bale yelled at a cinematography

In February 2009, just before Terminator Salvation was released, an audio recording of Christian Bale's infamous rant surfaced. The recording, made without his knowledge, captured his angry outburst during filming in New Mexico in July 2008.

In the audio, Bale is heard yelling at Hurlbut, who supposedly distracted the actor during a scene: "You are trashing my scene. You do it one more f***ing time, and I ain't working on this set if you're still hired. You're a nice guy, but that don't f***ing cut it," he says during part of the clip.

Bale later apologized for the outburst during an interview on the Kevin and Bean radio show on KROQ: "I was out of order beyond belief," he said. "I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that."

Mia Wasikowska could have quit 'Lawless’ because of Shia LaBoeuf's on-set behavior

Shia LaBoeuf's antics on the set of Lawless including drinking moonshine while filming proved somewhat problematic for his co-stars Mia Waskikowska, who played his love interest and shared many scenes with him.

While Wasikowska shied away from talking about the experience in the press, LaBoeuf explained his behavior on the set of Lawless to Fox411 and said "I scared her because I was just so eager."

She was calling her attorney, like, “Get me the f**k out of here”… Mia was ready to walk away from the movie. I was really pretty aggressive about it, and not in any kind of weird, strange way, but I don’t think she had ever experienced anything like that…

Mia Wasikowska opened up about the experience, telling The Huffington Post:

"He's a very method actor, and so I was on the receiving end of the method,"

"You meet so many different people, and sometimes you connect with them and you share that you have a similar approach and sometimes you don't, and you just have to let them do their thing and hope it doesn't affect you too deeply."

'Shakespeare In Love' producer Edward Zwick said Julia Roberts refused to work with anyone other than Daniel Day-Lewis

Before Gwyneth Paltrow dazzled audiences in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love, Julia Roberts was the star originally set to take the lead. Producer Edward Zwick revealed that Roberts’ involvement was crucial in securing the funding needed to bring this enchanting story to life.

The mere possibility of having the Pretty Woman wearing a corseted gown got the studio excited enough to cough up the dough. Ten weeks later I was back in London, where a xeroxed copy of Stoppard’s first draft was waiting in my fancy hotel room.

However, casting her counterpart didn't go as smoothly. Zwick claimed Roberts only wanted to cast Daniel Day-Lewis in the role of Shakespeare even though the actor had already turned down the role, because he was working on another film.

When Roberts eventually gave in by attending the rescheduled chemistry tests, Zwick recalled the Duplicity star's treatment of Ralph Fiennes and the other actors vying for the role:

Even as Ralph did his best to elicit the famous smile, Julia barely acknowledged him… I’m not suggesting she was deliberately sabotaging, but it was a disaster nonetheless. I tried to catch Ralph’s eye to apologize as he left but he couldn’t get out of there fast enough. After he was gone, I turned to Julia, awaiting her reaction. “He isn’t funny” is all she said…

 

The rest of that day and every day of the week that followed went just as badly… I no longer have my cast lists, but among the yet-to-be-discovered young actors, I remember: Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Colin Firth, Sean Bean, Jeremy Northam. Julia found fault with all of them: one was stiff, another wasn’t romantic, and so on…
On the morning of the test (with Paul McGann), Julia emerged from makeup, looking radiant in full period costume… But once she began to say the words, something was wrong. There was no magic. The problem wasn’t the script. Or Paul McGann. It was Julia. From the moment she began to speak it was clear she hadn’t been working on the accent…

 

Sensing Julia’s discomfort, I tried to be encouraging, but she must have intuited my unease, and I made the tragic mistake of underestimating her insecurity… Having only recently been catapulted to the dizzying heights atop the Hollywood food chain, she must have been terrified to fail. But I would never get to talk her off the ledge. The next morning when I called her room, I was told she had checked out..

Terrence Howard says he found Gwyneth Paltrow's looks too distracting

Terrence Howard made quite a splash as James Rhodes in the first Iron Man film, but then decided to step away from the Marvel universe. While he didn't list Gwyneth Paltrow's beauty as the reason he chose not to return (he felt he wasn't paid enough for the role), he claimed that the Goop founder's beauty was a distraction:

We’ve had a couple scenes but Gwyneth is hard to work with because she’s so beautiful. You try not to flirt with her. You don’t want to flirt but you’re hoping somewhere in your heart, “I’m hoping she likes me. I’m hoping that she likes me and that she’ll leave Coldplay to come and hang out with me.” I’ve got two more pictures to work on her. Let him mess up.

Shia LaBeouf drove everyone mad on the set of 'Fury'

Shia LaBeouf delivered a standout performance in David Ayer's intense WWII thriller, Fury. LaBeouf's method of getting into character as a troubled soldier was quite disturbing and got on everyone's nerves.

According to The Daily Mail, the cast and crew didn't love working with the actor. A source said, “Shia drove everyone mad on set trying to prove that he was the most dedicated star. He pulled out his own tooth during the first few weeks of filming.”

In addition to hurting himself on set, he also angered the crew by refusing to wash, which led to him being placed in a bed and breakfast away from other cast and crew members.

According to the source, "Shia was warned about his behavior by several people on set, including Brad Pitt and director David Ayer."