5 Directors Actors Absolutely Hated Working With

From Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson to Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst; from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks to Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, certain directors and actors have long gravitated toward each other in the entertainment industry.

From sharing similar artistic visions to having great creative chemistry with one another, these behind-the-scenes pair-ups have delivered wonderful movies over the years. But what about the actors and directors who didn't get along?

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Some actors and directors have butted heads creatively, unable to find a common ground in the script, while others have clashed on a personal level, ultimately resulting in professional falling outs, allegations of abuse and ruined reputations.

Some directors pushed their on-screen talent too far, even to the point of mental and emotional distress or injury, while others didn't give their actors enough feedback or direction at all, even when asked.

Below, discover five famous film directors who actors absolutely hated working with on set.

Alfred Hitchcock

As an auteur, Alfred Hitchcock has long been regarded as the "Master of Suspense." However, his reputation for allegedly terrorizing his female leads in real life precedes him. Tippi Hedren, star of 1963's The Birds, has been open about her troubling relationship with the late filmmaker, alleging that the director sexually assaulted her and was controlling toward her, even going so far as to command her co-stars not to socialize with her.

Hedren also claimed Hitchcock threatened to ruin her acting career as punishment for refusing his sexual advances, and that he would further punish her while on set by enforcing abusive, inhumane and dangerous working conditions.

"Studios were the power [back then]. And I was at the end of that, and there was absolutely nothing I could do legally whatsoever. There were no laws about this kind of a situation. If this had happened today, I would be a very rich woman," Hedren said in 2012 about why she waited so long to share her experience.

Stanley Kubrick

To this day, and to author Stephen King's chagrin, critically acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's 1980 version of The Shining remains its novel source material's preeminent adaptation. But just because a film is good doesn't mean everything was copacetic on set. While filming, the director infamously terrorized actress Shelley Duvall—who played Wendy—with draining takes, demanding expectations for her performance and psychological torture.

In an interview a few years prior to her July 2024 death, Duvall recounted how Kubrick pushed her to intense emotional extremes in an attempt to draw out authentic panic and distress in her portrayal of Wendy Torrance. Kubrick purposefully exhausted Duvall by demanding dozens of takes of her sobbing and screaming while carrying around the little boy who played Wendy and Jack's son; as well as the iconic baseball bat scene on the staircase, which was reportedly filmed a grueling 127 times and left Duvall with severe dehydration, a raw throat and wounded hands caused by her grip on the bat.

But Kubrick's alleged cruelty didn't end there. His daughter, Vivian, once reportedly recalled how her father instructed the crew to ignore Duvall and not her show any sympathy, pushing her even further into emotional torment and causing her to lose hair. Still, while Duvall was candid about her "difficult" filming experience, she also defended Kubrick, saying in an interview that off set he was "warm and friendly" toward her.

Michael Bay

Michael Bay is known for his big, glossy action flicks that celebrate machismo and all things that go boom—and he's good at it, having found success at the box office with movies such as Transformers, Armageddon and Bad Boys. He's also developed a reputation for apparently being sexist, especially with his oft-objectified and one-dimensional female characters on screen, as well as his alleged treatment of actresses on set.

In 2009, Transformers star Megan Fox sparked backlash following an interview with Wonderland magazine wherein she compared the director to Hitler, called him "a tyrant" and revealed the director told her to simply "be hot" when she asked for character motivation. "God, I really wish I could go loose on this one. He’s like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is," she said, adding: "So he’s a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he’s not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he’s so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all."

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The controversial comparison resulted in Fox losing work, as she was reportedly fired from the franchise not long after her comments. However, Fox later clarified that she didn't dislike Bay as a person or even as a director, but simply some of his directing style. The two eventually teamed back up for the 2014 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in which Fox plays April O'Neil.

Peter Bogdanovich

Paper Moon director Peter Bogdanovich had a complex reputation in the entertainment industry. Lauded for his early films and appreciation for Old Hollywood, the filmmaker developed a complicated relationship with the movie industry due to a number of personal failures and later box-office failures. He was also one of only two directors Cher didn't like working with.

"He was an a--hole. He was not nice to the girls in the film and he was so f---ing arrogant. I really, really disliked him," the Oscar-winning actress told The Times in 2024, two years after Bogdanovich's death at the age of 82.

Cher, who starred in Bogdanovich's film Mask in 1985, butted heads with the director on set. She also claimed he intentionally tried to make her look bad on one occasion. "He comes in and says, ‘Cher, where do you think we should film this scene?’ And I say, well, the kitchen is working pretty well, why don’t we do that again? The next morning he arrives on set, eating an egg sandwich, and starts screaming that he’s not going to let me direct this film; I’m a nobody; he can cut me out at any moment. Oh yeah, he was a pig," she shared.

Roman Polanski

Of all the directors on this list, Roman Polanski undoubtedly has the most controversial personal reputation. Though renowned artistically for his work on critically acclaimed films such as 1968's Rosemary's Baby and 2002's The Pianist, in 1977 the director was found guilty and charged with drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. Not long after, Polanski fled to France to avoid prison, and in the years since, a number of other woman have come forward alleging sexual assault, harassment and abuse at the hands of the filmmaker.

Outside of his personal life and legal matters, Polanski has also been cited as a difficult director to work with. He infamously clashed with actress Faye Dunaway on the set of 1974's Chinatown. While filming a scene for the movie, the director reportedly yanked out some a strand of the star's hair without her consent, and he also allegedly denied her bathroom breaks as well as her requests for additional takes while filming.

In one particularly volatile instance, when Dunaway asked the director to explain her character's motivation for a scene, Polanski curtly referred her to the script. "Just say the f---ing words! Your salary is your motivation!" he reportedly told the actress. Dunaway has since criticized the auteur for his "incessant cruelty" on set.