Workplace tension is something most of us have dealt with. Honestly, I can’t think of a single job I’ve had —except BuzzFeed— where there wasn’t at least one person I absolutely couldn’t stand. Maybe that says more about me than anything else, but the truth is, we’re often forced to work alongside people we don’t get along with. And that can be tough—sometimes even anxiety-inducing.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the check, so it’s imperative that we don’t get caught up in what we want but rather, what we need collectively.
For many thespians in Hollywood, this type of friction can lead to some significant tension that manages to escape the workplace. It’s not hard to think about Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, who are currently embroiled in litigation surrounding declarations of sexual harassment and defamation, among other claims.
This is perhaps an extreme example, but historically, there have been many moments where co-stars, despite how much chemistry they share on screen, despise each other’s guts. Most times, we only find out about it after the fact.
Below are 14 instances where Hollywood co-stars who played lovers or friends on-screen disliked each other when the cameras went off.
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The box office success of Magic Mike aside, Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer found themselves butting heads off-set, which ultimately led to Pettyfer’s non-appearance in Magic Mike XXL.
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Perhaps one of the most interesting conflicts on a movie set belongs to Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. In a VH1 interview, The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes revealed in 2014 that the two had extreme tension with one another when they started filming the 2004 movie.
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Julia Roberts’ feud with Nick Nolte on the set of I Love Trouble seemingly impacted how the film was received by critics. According to an interview she gave the New York Times in the 90s, she revealed how the two had shared blame for some of their on-set troubles. “From the moment I met him we sort of gave each other a hard time, and naturally we get on each other’s nerves,” Roberts revealed after she was asked about the reputation Nolte developed for being crude on set. “[While he can be] completely charming and very nice, he’s also completely disgusting. He’s going to hate me for saying this, but he seems to go out of his way to repel people. He’s a kick.”
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Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze’s chemistry was unmatched in Dirty Dancing. However, their previous encounters on the set of Red Dawn created friction that extended to their on-set attitudes with each other. Grey explained that Swayze often pulled juvenile pranks that rubbed her the wrong way, though she revealed he later tearfully apologized. Then, when they filmed Dirty Dancing, Swayze became frustrated with what he deemed a lack of professionalism, which actually helped make the movie what it was.
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It Ends With Us is probably the best example of on-set feuds between two on-screen lovers. Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, the film’s director and her co-star, alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign during production. In response, Baldoni countersued and denied the allegations. His countersuit targeted Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist for $400M for defamation, civil extortion, and attempting to take over the film’s creative direction, per CBS.
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On-screen besties Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall apparently weren’t quite close on the set of Sex And The City. Though there were reports that the two had their issues, Cattrall made her feelings about Parker clear after the latter expressed condolences for the loss of the former’s brother. “I don’t need your love and support at this tragic time @sarahjessicaparker,” she wrote on Instagram. “My Mom asked me today ‘When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?’ Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona,” she added in the post.
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Tyrese Gibson, while an eccentric in his own right, has expressed immense disdain for James Franco in the past (although it feels like more of a collective feeling these days). On the set of Annapolis, there was a lot of tension, largely because of Franco’s acting methods during the fight scenes, which apparently resulted in actual physical contact. “I never want to work with him again, and I’m sure he feels the same way. It felt very personal. It was f**ked-up,” Gibson stated. Meanwhile, Franco’s explained that he’s tried to bury the hatchet, though acknowledged that he probably wasn’t the easiest to work with either.
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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his feud with Vin Diesel have become part of the Fast & Furious franchise lore. It began when Diesel talked about the “tough love” he showed Johnson in an attempt to improve his acting chops, leading to on-set tension. Johnson also responded on Instagram, calling his co-star “chicken sh*t” and “candy a**.” However, the two have seemingly ended their beef as Diesel shared a photo of the two on Instagram with the caption reading, “All love… Always…”
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Despite co-starring together on one of the most celebrated series on television, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had a touch of tension on the set of The X-Files. Though it was primarily rumors that the two had issues with each other, they’ve both separately acknowledged a “strained” relationship, largely due to lengthy work hours. “I mean, yes, there were definitely periods when we hated each other,” she told the Guardian when asked about rumors of tension on set. “Hate is too strong a word. We didn’t talk for long periods of time. It was intense, and we were both pains in the arse for the other at various times.” She noted that the two have a much healthier relationship these days. “But we are closer today than we ever have been.”
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Outside of Chris Rock, there are very few people that Will Smith has engaged in public feuds with. However, when it came to Janet Hubert, who played the original Aunt Viv in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the on-set tension led to her being replaced entirely. During the 2020 Fresh Prince reunion, Smith and Hubert hashed out their differences with Will admitting that he made the set difficult for Janet.
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Hollywood harbors plenty of creeps that are only now getting exposed. But in the case of Marlon Brando, who is still considered one of the greatest actors of all time, his on-set behavior earned him a horrible reputation, especially due to the fallouts with close collaborators, acquaintances, and co-stars. Sophie Loren revealed in her 1963 memoir how inappropriate Brando was on the set of A Countess from Hong Kong. “All of a sudden, he put his hands on me. I turned in all tranquillity and blew in his face, like a cat stroked the wrong way and said, ‘Don’t you ever dare to do that again. Never again!’” she said. “As I pulverised him with my eyes he seemed small, defenceless, almost a victim of his own notoriety. He never did it again, but it was very difficult working with him after that.”
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Issues between William Shatner and George Takei began bubbling in the public eye after Takei revealed just how difficult Shatner was to work with. “It’s difficult working with someone who is not a team player. The rest of the cast all understand what makes a scene work—it’s everybody contributing to it,” Takei said about Shatner in 2015. “But Bill is a wonderful actor, and he knows it, and he likes to have the camera on him all the time.”
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The feud between Sacha Baron Cohen and Rebel Wilson began on the set of The Brothers Grimsby, where Wilson alleged that Cohen asked her to engage in unscripted, lewd acts for the film. Before she released her memoir, Rebel Rising, which included a chapter dedicated to the “a*sholes” she worked with in Hollywood, specifically Cohen, who allegedly got a team of lawyers and PR crisis managers to suppress her memoir.