Top 20 Actors Who REFUSED to Shoot Scenes Together
#20: Bill Murray & Lucy Liu
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“Charlie's Angels” (2000) Ironically, the biggest fight in this action flick happened behind the scenes. Rumor has it that Bill Murray was not impressed with co-star Lucy Liu’s acting, and made sure she knew it. Whether it was supposed to be a joke or not, Liu wasn’t laughing. She retaliated with her fists, and allegedly, the two had to be contained to opposite sides of the room. Judging by the way Liu recounts the events, it doesn’t sound like the two have patched things up. In fact, some say that Murray didn’t return for the sequel because he refused to work with Liu ever again. Though, something tells us that feeling is mutual.
#19: Leonard Roberts & Ali Larter
“Heroes” (2006-10) Evidently, co-stars can be scarier than villains. It’s not quite right to call this a feud, though, since that implies there were two opposing sides. Instead, Roberts claimed in a first-person article for Variety that his in-universe wife was incredibly cold and difficult to work with, especially during intimacy scenes. Oddly enough, he points out that Larter apparently had no issue doing similar work with her white co-stars. Later, Roberts was informed that his character would be killed off early in season two, all to handle the “Ali Larter” situation. The actress seemingly was not comfortable sharing scenes with him under any circumstances. The biggest shame is that, even though Larter was supposedly the one with the problem, it’s Roberts who ended up losing his job.
#18: Reese Witherspoon & Vince Vaughn
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“Four Christmases” (2008) Things were decidedly not holly and jolly onset of this holiday rom-com. While neither have outright confirmed it, numerous reports claim that Vince Vaughn’s penchant for improv majorly clashed with Reese Witherspoon’s detail-oriented approach. Inevitably, that bad blood spilled over into the film itself. Or, rather, it's production. The only reason there’s no signs of their quarrel in the finished product is reportedly because they kept each other at arm's length behind the scenes. Allegedly, Witherspoon even nixed a planned sex-scene because she didn’t want to get intimate with her co-star. If they can’t stomach any romantic scenes together, then odds are they won’t be reuniting for a fifth Christmas anytime soon.
#17: Nathan Fillion & Stana Katic
“Castle” (2009-16) They may have played one on screen, but off it, these two were anything but a happy couple. A source close to the production claimed that Fillion and Katic’s relationship deteriorated as the series went on, to the point that they completely avoided each other onset. Considering they played romantic partners, that kind of feud spelled doom for the show’s central premise. The tipping point of this rumor came at the end of season eight, when Katic was abruptly fired from “Castle.” A month later, the series itself got the ax. There’s no way of knowing if Fillion and Katic’s rivalry played a part in the show’s cancellation, but the timing implies that it certainly didn't help.
#16: Helen Hunt & Bill Paxton
“Twister...Ride it Out” (1998) By some miracle, most of “Twister’s” disastrous production stayed out of the finished film. That even includes its leads, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, who rose above their rumored spat and completed the movie as planned. However, when the two came back to shoot scenes for the theme park ride, it was a different story. Despite the fact that their characters were conversing, Hunt and Paxton never once appeared together in the new footage. That’s because, as insiders claim, neither was willing to share the screen with the other. If speaking through monitors was the best Hunt and Paxton could do, it’s a good thing they finished “Twister” when they did.
#15: Martin Lawrence & Tisha Campbell
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“Martin” (1992-97) It may not bear her name, but Gina was just as much a part of this show’s success as her husband. So, it raised more than a few eyebrows when she suddenly vanished from several episodes of the fifth season. At the time, actress Tisha Campbell was actually suing both the production and her co-star for harassment. The case was eventually settled, but that didn’t smooth things over between the “Martin” leads. Later, when Campbell returned for the show’s finale, it was under the condition that she not share any scenes with Lawrence. True to her word, the show ends without Gina and Martin so much as acknowledging one another.
#14: Leonardo DiCaprio & Mark Wahlberg
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“The Basketball Diaries” (1995) As the star of this 90s flick, Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have had some serious sway on who filled out the rest of the cast. Though, if it were totally up to him, Mark Wahlberg wouldn’t have even gotten an audition. Long before “The Basketball Diaries” came along, the two got off on the wrong foot at, amusingly, a charity basketball game. Apparently, DiCaprio holds a grudge, and he later straight-up refused to read with Wahlberg at his audition for the sports film. However, Marky-Mark eventually got his foot in the door, and even won over DiCaprio, too. By the time “The Basketball Diaries” wrapped, the two were good buds.
#13: Mark Harmon & Pauley Perrette
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“NCIS” (2003-) A lot can go wrong in fifteen years, especially in show business. For “NCIS,” that came in the form of a bitter rivalry between co-stars. Supposedly, an incident involving a dog bite stirred up a whole lot of drama between Harmon and Perrette, causing them to start filming on different days of the week. Given Perrette’s character, Abby’s role in the show, the shift wasn’t so noticeable. That is, until her final episode. It’s all-too-obvious that Harmon’s Gibbs is the one individual Abby doesn’t give an in-person goodbye to. While Perrette claims that Harmon isn’t the sole reason she left the show, it’s clear that they didn’t end things on particularly good terms, either.
#12: Orson Welles & Peter Sellers
“Casino Royale” (1967) It’s never a good thing when a movie is more remembered for its scandals than its quality. But, that’s certainly the case with this parodical take on “Casino Royale.” Although, even if the movie wasn’t universally panned, the legendary bickering between Welles and Sellers would still probably eclipse it. See, the two thespians didn’t just refuse to film together, they avoided even being onset at the same time. In fact, their rivalry went so deep, Sellers allegedly left the production altogether for fear of running into Welles. There’s plenty of rumored explanations behind their petty squabble, but either way, there’s no salvaging the mess of a film they left behind.
#11: Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams
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“The Notebook” (2004) It’s a badge of honor when the leads of a romance movie actually end up dating in real life. While that was the case with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, it certainly didn’t start out that way. The two apparently had a very fraught time on set, with neither having a particularly high opinion of the other. At one point, Gosling even straight-up asked the director if he could do a scene opposite someone else. Luckily, a quick scream-session hashed out all their problems, and the two completed production without another hitch. If anything, their impeccable chemistry throughout the film just proves that they really are great actors.
#10: Wesley Snipes & the Supporting Cast
“Blade: Trinity” (2004) When you’ve got a successful franchise to your name, it can go to your head. For “Blade: Trinity”, Snipes was given support in the form of Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds as Nightstalkers Abigail Whistler and Hannibal King. It would appear however, that Snipes wasn’t too keen on these additions – or, for that matter, the script, the director or the overall story. Horror stories from set abound, but most notable is the fact that Snipes often had his stand-in do everything but the close-ups, leaving the supporting cast to pick up the slack. He also allegedly referred to Reynolds simply as “that cracker.”
#9: Lindsay Lohan & Charlie Sheen
“Scary Movie 5” (2013) Considering the man’s well-documented sexual history and self-professed drug use, we can’t really blame Lindsay Lohan for not wanting to film a kiss with her co-star, Charlie Sheen. Although, it’s not like her personal history is without cause for concern. Apparently the driving fear that had Lohan nervous about puckering up was cold sores, and even a legal notice from her and Sheen declaring themselves to respectively be cold-sore free wasn’t enough to put her mind at ease. In the end, the scene was reworked. Considering the wild antics of their in-film sex tape, the kiss wasn’t exactly missed.
#8: Alyssa Milano & Shannen Doherty
“Charmed” (1998-2006) They might have played siblings on TV for years, but by the end of the third season, their working relationship had soured. That's when Doherty’s Prue Halliwell was killed off to be replaced by a new half-sister, played by Rose McGowan. Doherty had a reputation for being difficult to work with from her time on “ Beverly Hills, 90210”, and this reputation seemingly followed her on to this supernatural series. Reportedly, the two often wouldn’t talk unless the cameras were rolling. A mediator was even brought in, but to no avail; it got to the point where one of them had to go.
#7: Emma Watson & Channing Tatum
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“This Is the End” (2013) Emma Watson and Channing Tatum both have relatively small cameo roles in this film, but it seems, however, that we could’ve gotten more Watson. After making a notable in-film exit from the house she was sharing with the film’s stars, Watson apparently made another all too real departure - this time from the set – when she got a glimpse of the film’s climactic scene, which involved Tatum being on a leash in nothing but a thong, dancing. In the context of the scene, which discussed cannibalism and sexual slavery, it all proved too much for Watson to film as originally intended.
#6: Julianna Margulies & Archie Panjabi
“The Good Wife” (2009-16) This hit CBS series was blessed with some serious talent. Unfortunately, it seems that their off-camera personalities were no less formidable, and that series lead Julianna Margulies did not play well with Archie Panjabi. The latter’s in-house investigator, Kalinda Sharma was eventually written out of the show in season 6, but even before that, despite Panjabi’s prominent role, the two hadn’t shared a scene together since the middle of season 4. The specifics remain unclear, but apparently the two actors simply could not work together. Their final scene together was actually filmed separately using a split screen. Yikes.
#5: Naya Rivera & Lea Michele
“Glee” (2009-15) This long-running hit musical series had its fair share of dramatic storylines, but they usually had a happy ending. Unfortunately, it seems that for the drama taking place behind the scenes, no amount of singing could bring about a peaceful resolution between these two young stars. The characters that Naya Rivera and Lea Michele played might have been friends, and the actors might have started off the same, but their relationship soured to the point that they stopped speaking. Eventually, Rivera’s character, Santana Lopez, despite having gone from supporting cast to series regular, began to get written out of episodes.
#4: Dwayne Johnson & Vin Diesel
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“The Fate of the Furious” (2017) Did you notice anything strange about the eighth Fast and the Furious movie? Like a lack of interaction between Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, perhaps? Considering these two were the top billed actors and easily the franchise’s heaviest hitters… that’s a bit of an odd creative choice. But Johnson and Diesel apparently do not work well together – in fact, they’ve gone on record acknowledging that they can’t stand each other. According to the Rock, they managed to avoid filming so much as a single scene together, and unfortunately, the onset beef shows in the finished product.
#3: Denzel Washington & Julia Roberts
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“The Pelican Brief” (1993) Denzel Washington is a man of principles – when he says he’s not willing to shoot a particular scene… he means it. Despite being an A-lister with countless roles to his name, he’s managed to rarely, if ever, kiss a white woman on-screen. The reasoning? He’s apparently incredibly devoted to his black female fanbase, who he feels are far too rarely represented as the subject of sexual desire. Doing his own small part to combat this injustice of representation, when the script for “the Pelican Brief” called for him to kiss co-star Julia Roberts, he flat out refused and had the scene cut.
#2: Lena Headey & Jerome Flynn
“Game of Thrones” (2011-19) Considering how many plot lines are playing out simultaneously and the jaw-dropping number of notable characters who populated the world of George R.R. Martin, chances are you didn’t even notice that these two never share scenes. It could have been a simple coincidence, but in reality, this is an intentional production choice. It seems that the talents behind Queen Cersei and the ambitious sellsword, Bronn, Lena Headey and Jerome Flynn, had an off-camera romance years back. According to insiders, it clearly didn’t end on good terms, as the two apparently are not on speaking terms, and won’t even appear in the same room together.
#1: Julia Roberts & Nick Nolte
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“I Love Trouble” (1994) Julia Roberts might have been the one to get turned down while shooting “The Pelican Brief”, but this time it was her turn to express disinterest in her co-star. While filming this ill-received romcom, Roberts and Nolte, the romantic leads, seemingly couldn’t stand each other. Roberts famously called Nolte “disgusting” and the worst actor she’d ever worked with. Nolte, for his part, said that Roberts was “not a nice person.” As a result of their dislike for one another, stand-ins were used as often as possible, with various scenes being filmed separately. Unsurprisingly, the lack of chemistry translated to the big screen.
