15 Famous Co-Stars Who Totally HATED Each Other
James Bradley Quick Links
The history of Hollywood is littered with successful double acts, co-stars who have made dozens of high-grossing movies together and who still managed to remain friends when the cameras stopped rolling.
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were the stars of the popular Road to… series of films, along with their glamorous side-kick, Dorothy Lamour. Hope and Crosby made seven Road to… movies between 1940 and 1962, ad-libbing a lot of the comedic dialogue themselves during filming.
The golden couple of Hollywood’s golden age was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, who made ten musicals together between 1933 and 1949. Their iconic dance routines choreographed to iconic tunes composed by Irving Berlin and George Gershwin are among the best moments in Hollywood history.
Comedians Lou Abbot and Bud Costello were the most prolific Hollywood double act, making 36 movies together in just 16 years between 1940 and 1956. Their quick-fire comedy patter made them a huge success with TV and movie audiences, and their routines have inspired generations of comedians since.
But for every double act who have made magic on the silver screen, there is another who had to endure working with an actor they loathed being around. It’s not easy to create onscreen chemistry with someone you hate, but did any of these co-stars manage to do it?
Ryan Gosling And Rachel McAdams
The romance between Noah and Ally had fans swooning when The Notebook was released in 2007. However, those old romantics who fell in love with the duo’s love affair probably didn’t realize just how much acting went into both of their performances. During filming, Gosling apparently hated his co-star so much that he repeatedly called for her to be removed from the set and even begged the director to find someone else to play the role of Ally. Ironically, Gosling and McAdams actually ended up dating for four years after filming wrapped up. But I doubt they will be working alongside each other any time soon.
Claire Danes And Leonardo DiCaprio
Playing Juliet to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo was probably the dream of most teenage girls in the 1990’s. But not for 16-year-old Claire Danes, who reportedly found her heartthrob co-star “immature” at the time. The lavish Baz Luhrmann adaptation of the Shakespearean classic was a huge hit with movie-goers in 1996, but Danes found DiCaprio’s constant on-set pranks and jokes to be annoying and childish, while he complained about her being too reserved and uptight. The result was that the star-crossed lovers ended up barely speaking to each on the set, except when the cameras were rolling!
Bill Murray And Lucy Liu
In the 2000 reboot of Charlie’s Angels, Lucy Liu played one of the infamous Angels, while comedian Bill Murray took the role of their handler, Bosley. When Murray was replaced by Bernie Mac for the 2003 sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, there was much media speculation as to why the previously successful team had been broken up. Rumors started to surface of a blazing on-set row between Murray and Liu, when he supposedly criticized her acting, although he maintains that his criticism was actually aimed at the ridiculous lines all the actors were being asked to say.
William Shatner And George Takei
Where would Captain James T. Kirk have been without his trusty pilot Lieutenant Sulu? Well, if the rumors of their off-screen relationship are anything to go by, then he would probably have been a lot happier! Their frosty relationship only really came to light when Shatner was the only member of original Star Trek cast not to be invited to George Takei’s wedding in 2008. It turns out that there was no big bust-up between the two stars. Shatner admitted later that he simply made no effort to get to know Takei while filming, insisting that he was focused on learning roles and working on his iconic role. We think that is a fair answer.
Sarah Jessica Parker And Kim Cattrall
Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall may have been one half of the most iconic girl squad ever in the popular HBO show Sex and the City, but when the cameras weren’t rolling, the two were far from being the BFFs they appeared to be on screen. Their feud began back in 2004 when negotiations were underway for a seventh season of Sex and the City, a season which never materialized as Cattrall had asked for more money to ensure the she and her other co-stars were paid as much as SJP. Even the girls’ return in a big-screen version of the TV show was actually delayed because of salary negotiations.
Harrison Ford And Josh Hartnett
Hollywood Homicide was one of Harrison Ford’s less-than-successful films. The 2003 cop buddy movie co-starred Josh Hartnett as the young officer taken under Ford’s more experienced wing. Perhaps part of the reason the film bombed so badly at the box office was because of the fact that the two leads had zero on screen chemistry. The two apparently fell out so violently while making the movie that they even refused to maintain eye contact even while they were filming! Ford referred to Hartnett as a “punk” while the younger man didn't hold back either, calling the iconic actor “an old fart.”
Gillian Anderson And David Duchovny
You’d have a hard time naming a more iconic TV duo than Mulder and Scully from the X-Files, yet the actors who played the roles, David Duchovny and Gillian Mulder, actually had a notoriously difficult working relationship. However, was this because the two genuinely disliked each other or because of the stresses involved in 16-hour-a-day film shoots with the same person? Certainly, Anderson’s description of the relationship as being like a “marriage” suggests that they got on most of the time, while also having their difficult moments. Duchovny has described Anderson as a “perfectionist” while Anderson was even more blunt, describing her co-star as a “pain in the arse.”
Shia LaBeouf And Tom Hardy
Once a sweet and innocent child star, Shia LaBeouf is now more famous for his eccentric antics and bad behavior than his movie roles. One notable exception was the critically-acclaimed movie Lawless, co-starring Jessica Chastain and Tom Hardy. While filming, LaBeouf and Hardy got into an argument, which became physical, leading to the two having to be restrained. Hardy himself later told reporters that LaBeouf had managed to knock him out—though given their relative size and strength, the chances are that Hardy might have been having a little fun at his co-star’s expense.
Sophia Bush And Chad Michael Murray
If you were a fan of One Tree Hill, then the love triangle between Brooke (Sophia Bush) and Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Peyton (Hilarie Burton) was probably the highlight of your 90’s. Murray and Bush may have struggled with their onscreen romance, but offscreen, the young actors actually married in 2005. Until, that is, he cheated on her with Paris Hilton, leading to their separation after just five months. What complicated matters was that the now-divorced couple had to carry on working together on One Tree Hill and had to pretend that they were still an item in front of the cameras. Did anyone say awkward?
Lea Michele And Naya Rivera
The Glee co-stars started out as friends, but as Rivera’s character, Santana, began to enjoy a more prominent role in the series, it seems that Michele began to resent the competition. Rivera revealed the extent of their feud in her memoirs. It apparently started out with Michele taking any criticism Rivera made of the show personally and ended with the two girls not speaking at all while they were filming Season 6 of the popular dramedy. Rivera pulled no punches in her book though, saying that she believed “Rachel (erm, I mean Lea) didn’t like sharing the spotlight.” We smell a little jealousy...
Kiefer Sutherland And Freddie Prinze Jr.
Freddie Prinze Jr. may be better known for the teen movies he starred in during the late 90’s and early noughties, but in 2010, he took on a major role in the TV series 24, alongside Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland. Unfortunately, the experience was far from a positive one for Prinze, who described Sutherland as “unprofessional,” adding that he hated every moment he was involved in making the hit TV show. Prinze even alleged that he had been made to take his shoes off to do scenes with Sutherland so he didn’t look too tall next to the star of the show.
Teri Hatcher And The Desperate Housewives
If you wanted to see women talking trash about their so-called friends, then Wisteria Lane, the setting for the popular TV show Desperate Housewives, was the place to be—on and off the set, apparently. Teri Hatcher apparently had run-ins with all her co-stars in the successful show, which led to her being excluded when the rest of the cast bought gifts for the crew to mark the end of the program. The rest of the girls bought the crew branded luggage, but the card was only signed by Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross, and Vanessa Williams, with Teri’s name conspicuous by its absence.
Jamie Dornan And Dakota Johnson
The relationship between Mr. Grey and Anastasia Steele is notoriously tempestuous. In real life, however, stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson had a stormy time for a very different reason when the cameras stopped rolling. According to reports from the set, Dornan and others thought that Johnson was behaving like a diva on set, and there was even a rumor that one of the producers had called her mother, fellow star Melanie Griffith, to see if she could rein in her daughter’s demanding behavior. Ouch! The situation obviously didn’t improve, as Dornan hasn’t spoken to his co-star since filming wrapped up.
Sharon Stone And Billy Baldwin
Sharon Stone starred with the second-youngest of the Baldwin brothers, Billy, in the steamy thriller Sliver, released in 1993 on the back of her success in Basic Instinct. The two actors just never hit it off, and Stone even spent her time coming up with ways in which to torture he co-star, even biting his tongue so hard during one scene in which they kissed that he was unable to speak for a few days afterwards. Given the fact that the movie bombed on its release, perhaps Stone was actually trying to save them both from the embarrassment of finishing the film? Yeah, we'll go with that.
R2D2 And C3PO
The robotic stars of the Star Wars universe may have spent most of their time onscreen bickering, but it turns out that the actors who brought these characters to life also had a difficult relationship behind the scenes. Anthony Daniels, who brought C3PO to life, and Kenny Baker, the man inside R2D2, actually hated each other in real life. Although, the fact that they spent hours trapped inside of their metal suits during filming didn’t exactly make it easy to make friends! Apparently, Baker once suggested to Daniels that they tour the sci-fi conventions in character in order to make extra cash and was dismissed outright.
