It seems vital that directors and actors at the very least respect each other while making a movie, but Hollywood history is littered with instances where this simply hasn't happened. One of the most famous disagreements almost turned fatal when Werner Herzog threatened to shoot (with a gun) the notoriously volatile star Klaus Kinski during the filming of Aguirre, The Wrath of God. No guns were brandished on the set of Hook, but Steven Spielberg famously didn't enjoy his time working with Julia Roberts (they haven't worked together since). And then there's David O. Russellwho fought and/or terrorized stars like Amy Adams, Lily Tomlin and George Clooney; If there is justice, O. Russell, a once formidable talent who hasn't made a watchable film since 2010's The Fighter , won't be allowed back behind the camera until he learns how to behave like a decent human being.

One actor who had a reputation for clashing with his directors was Bruce Willis. The sadly retired performer (diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023) had a terrible time filming the awful Cop Out with Kevin Smith and was so unhappy with Lee Grant's direction of the Broadway Brawler that Disney Studios shut down the entire scaled-down production (thus forcing Willis to make a film called The Sixth Sense).

Willis also teamed up with director Antoine Fuqua while filming the 2003 Nigerian war film Tears of the Sun. This was Fuqua's first film since the commercial and critical triumph of Training Day, which earned Denzel Washington his first Oscar for Best Actor, so the timing of Willis' displeasure was somewhat surprising. Fuqua was one of the hottest directors in town, and this was supposed to be a prestigious action film. What could possibly go wrong?

In an interview with the BBC in 2004 timed to the release of Fuqua's King Arthur (not to be confused with Guy Ritchie's Arthur the Movie: Legend of the Sword), the director opened up about his contentious experience with Willis on the set of Tears of the Sun. When asked which actor was the "biggest pain in the throat" he's ever worked with, Fuqua replied:

"Bruce Willis. A pain in the butt, no problem with that. We just didn't get along. We got along off camera, but when we were shooting ('Tears of the Sun') we just didn't get along. "Some men we don't get along." t gel when it comes to work — you have different work ethics, different opinions, different points of view, different methods of filmmaking — and we didn't get along off camera — Bruce is great — but we just don't get along when it comes to work , and that's pretty much it."

For his part, Willis had every right to be hostile. During the filming of the film, he was knocked unconscious when a projectile from an improvised explosive device hit him in the head. He subsequently sued the revolutionary studio for damages. Fuqua continued to emphasize that his off-camera relationship with Willis was amicable, though he hinted at it lost a power struggle with the star above the last cut of the film.