Actors Who Took Things Too Far On Set

We understand how important it can be for an actor to stay in character on set, but every story that's come out about Jared Leto's Method acting while filming his scenes as the Joker for Suicide Squad has sounded less awe-inspiring than, well, simply gross. Case in point: his confession to E! News that he sent various cast members used condoms and anal beads. "I did a lot of things to create a dynamic to create an element of surprise, a spontaneity and to really break down any kind of walls that may be there," Leto said. "The Joker is somebody who doesn't really respect things like personal space or boundaries." Seriously, dude. What? Also, so what?

Fortunately for Leto, he didn't mess with Viola Davis, whose reaction to his on-set antics perfectly summed up the reaction of any rational human being. "I did not receive any personally or else I would have got my husband, who was called the Headache Ball back in the day when he played football," she told E! News. "I would have said, 'Take care of the Joker.'"

Katherine Heigl is one of those actresses who's reportedly so difficult to work with, entire lists are made about her alleged on-set behavior. Just how bad can things get? In the case of the 2010 movie Life as We Know It, it depends who you believe. While the film's director and executive producer praised Heigl's work on the movie to The Hollywood Reporter, some insiders claimed they witnessed "desperately difficult situations" involving the Emmy-winning star. "She can cost you time every single day of shooting," the insider revealed. "Wardrobe issues, not getting out of the trailer, questioning the script every single day. Even getting her deal closed at Warners was hard. She hit that point of 'no.'" When you start to remember that Heigl reportedly made $12 million for the movie, you can't help but roll your eyes. It's not a huge wonder, then, that Heigl has essentially disappeared from Hollywood. As fun as she was to watch, you still have to play nice at work.

He may be funny while the cameras are rolling, but in between takes, Mike Myers is reportedly incredibly difficult to work with. His ridiculous antics on the set of Wayne's World have been agonizingly detailed by the film's director, Penelope Spheeris, who later told Entertainment Weekly (via Gawker) that she "hated that bastard for years." "You should have heard him bitching when I was trying to do that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' scene," she vented. "'I can't move my neck like that! Why do we have to do this so many times? No one is going to laugh at that!'"

Even worse, Spheeris recalled a moment (via ABC News) when Myers spent hours on the phone with his manager threatening to quit because the set didn't provide margarine. A meltdown over margarine? That no amount of buttering up would cure? That's not funny — that's just sad.

If tabloid rumors are to be believed, Jennifer Lopez may have experienced her own "Julia Roberts moment" while filming the romantic comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting. According to the New York Daily News, Lopez—who had just split from her husband of 10 years, Marc Anthony—"wouldn't talk to anyone directly" on the film's Atlanta set. In fact, the only way she allegedly would communicate was "through her handler." So much for still being Jenny from the block.

The exact details of how and why Shia LaBeouf threw a punch at Tom Hardy while filming their 2012 movie Lawless are unclear. LaBeouf first alluded to it in an interview with Details (via Fandango); Hardy confirmed the altercation in a subsequent chat with Den of Geek. "He just attacked me," Hardy laughed. "He was drinking moonshine. I was wearing a cardigan, and er, went down."

The actual punch has since been downplayed. LaBeouf later told MTV News that it was brotherly love, not moonshine, that caused the fight. Meanwhile, director John Hillcoat told Reddit that, while the fight did happen, Hardy wasn't actually knocked out. Instead, the two of them simply had to be restrained. So what actually happened? Honestly, given LaBeouf's recent string of bizarre-o behavior, it's probably best not to ask.

If Patton Oswalt is to be believed, Wesley Snipes was a terror to work with on the set of Blade: Trinity. Speaking to The A.V. Club in 2012, Oswalt described Snipes as an off-the rails diva who only came to set to film his close-ups. "He wouldn't come out of his trailer, and he would smoke weed all day," Oswalt claimed. Even worse, Oswalt claims that Snipes at one point "tried to strangle" the film's director, David Goyer. Yeah, that's about 50 lines crossed right there.

LL Cool J's alleged improvising on the set of Oliver Stone's football drama Any Given Sunday reportedly got so violent, the Miami-Dade Police Department had to get involved. According to MTV News, Cool J pushed, then punched co-star Jamie Foxx—who was wearing a helmet—during an unscripted moment. Foxx reportedly tried to reason with LL, and when that didn't work, sources said Foxx threw a punch in his face. Both were said to have suffered minor injuries.

Cool J allegedly claimed he was trying to make the scene "more believable since they were acting." Whatever the case, Foxx told MTV News in 2006 that they ended their feud after running into each other at a Miami Heat game. By that point, he said, they had both grown up. "When you're grown, you don't really have time for all that [beefing]," he said. "When you're young, it's cool to have your emotions on your chest. But we're grown now."

What's a surefire way to tick people off in Hollywood? Air out your dirty laundry on social media. That's exactly what Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson did in August 2016 when he posted a message to Facebook calling out some of his male castmates on the latest movie in the Fast and the Furious series, Fast 8. "Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't," he wrote, without naming names. "The ones that don't are too chickens—- to do anything about it anyway ... When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I'm not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling—you're right."

TMZ later alleged that Johnson was directly referencing Vin Diesel, with whom Johnson was rumored to clash over Diesel's producing decisions, among other things. TMZ also claimed that many of Johnson's male costars felt he was "out of line" for posting the message. Whatever the case, their feud appears to have died down—at least according to this Facebook Live video from Diesel, anyway—leading some to wonder if the feud was really just a setup. Either way, for the amount of cash he's making for Fast 8, Johnson could probably stand to bite a few bullets.

The allegedly awful way in which Dustin Hoffman treated co-star Meryl Streep on the set of Kramer vs. Kramer was well documented in the 2016 biography Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep. According to excerpts obtained by Vanity Fair, Hoffman allegedly tortured Streep during the filming of the movie by slapping her just before a scene, bringing up the death of her former boyfriend, John Cazale, and improvising a scene by smashing a glass against a wall, leaving shards of it in her hair.

Although she didn't participate in the biography, Streep did imply that shooting Kramer vs. Kramer with Hoffman wasn't exactly the best of times in a 2011 interview with CBS News. "Dustin shocked me," Streep said, "Because we were shooting a scene ... My wine glass was sitting there and he just with his hand brushed it so that it whizzed by my nose and broke on the wall and little pieces of glass [shattered].

"And then, in another scene, he slapped me," she continued. "When I see the movie, I see the imprint of his hand—not in the take that he used—but I still see the hand from the previous take. So, that was like a trial by fire. I thought, 'Eww... Maybe this is the Method [acting] or something.' But I think he's very, very gifted. It wasn't the most fun I've ever had on a film." Pissing off Meryl Streep? Oh, Dustin. That's a big no-no.

It's hard to hear about an actor punching a director without immediately thinking about how actors are super prima donna crybabies. Even George Clooney. You hear he hit his director and you go, "Aw, man, I liked him." It's your gut reaction! Because we've all heard of actors going way too far on set for ridiculous reasons. In this case, though, we actually think the actor was in the right. See, David O. Russell was the director of Three Kings, and he doesn't have the best reputation. This is the movie where he earned that reputation. He attacked crew members, humiliated them, screamed at them, did just the worst things he could. Clooney stepped in because, well, he's the man. "You can't shove, push, or humiliate people," Clooney reportedly told him, and when Russell responded by trying to attack him, he allegedly attacked back. The movie somehow continued to get made despite the director and star trading blows. It's not over either. Years later, Clooney said that he would still punch Russell if he saw him. Because Clooney is the man.

Now, while a ton of actors take it too far by being horrible to their coworkers or assistants or directors or basically everyone they come across, some actors decide to take it too far on themselves. See, Billy Bob Thornton is who we're talking about, so you already know you're in for a trip. Back before he was a semi-famous actor, he created a short film: Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade. It was well-received, so he expanded it into a bigger film and cast himself as the lead. This was his big chance for fame. He needed to commit to it entirely. His character had a minor limp, so Billy Bob obviously just practiced limping, right? No. He put glass in his shoes. He stuck glass in his own shoes, so while he was being filmed he would be forced to walk with a weird limp. We've heard about bleeding for your art, but literally shoving shards of broken glass in your boots and thinking, "Yes, yes, this is how I shall achieve acting genius" is something only a man named Billy Bob would think to do.

During The Last Tango in Paris, there's a scene where Marlon Brando's geriatric character basically rapes his younger girlfriend, played by Maria Schneider. Now, normally when sex scenes — especially violent sex scenes — are performed, it's done with a lot of caution and discussion about how it's going to be filmed. It usually isn't done by surprising the actress (who doesn't know it's going to happen) and forcing yourself on her. Yet, that's what Marlon Brando — with the director's consent, because who cares about the woman's — did to Schneider. Oh, but surely she's exaggerating right? You know how women are always saying all sorts of things that didn't happen. And it isn't like the director openly stated that he wanted Schneider to be distressed. Surely, the director wouldn't have said something awful like, "I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress. I wanted her to react humiliated."

Oh. He really did say that? While the director is terrible for suggesting this, Marlon Brando is also a terrible person for going along with it. We've already mentioned about nine billion times he ignored the director entirely when it came to, you know, simple things like helping the film get made. But pseudo-rape a girl? He was all for that! We hope he got hit by a streetcar. (Get it? Because that's our desire and he was in A Streetcar Named Desire?) Anyway, Brando's the worst.