14 Actors Who Refused To Work Together

A film set can be tense and, sometimes, that tension boils over to the point the production is significantly damaged. And, when it comes to actors with big personalities, sometimes things become so volatile that the pair never work together again. Those are the actors that follow: pairs of stars who seemingly have no chance of ever collaborating again. We did however leave off the tumultuous working relationship between any two performers where one or both of them is no longer working due to health issues, e.g. Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis’ feud on the set of Cop Out. We also left off any two people who have made strides in repairing their relationship, e.g. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air‘s Will Smith and Janet Hubert. The same goes for Wesley Snipes and Ryan Reynolds, who didn’t get along on the set of Blade: Trinity but have since collaborated on Deadpool & Wolverine.

So, which pair of actors have worked together once and just once (or perhaps not even that much)? Is there any hope for a future collaboration? Let’s unpack a few examples.

7) Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel

The Fast & Furious saga will be ending at some point, and as the very end of Fast X revealed, Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs will be returning, but it very well could have gone a different way. On top of sitting out most of the tenth installment, Johnson skipped the entirety of the ninth and very noticeably did not share the screen with co-star Vin Diesel on The Fate of the Furious.

As to their not sharing the screen in that eighth film, this was because the two stars did not actually shoot their scenes together. Not even one. This was primarily due to a comment made by Johnson on his Instagram back in 2016, where he praised his female co-stars The Fate of the Furious‘ crew, but criticized some unnamed male co-stars for a perceived lack of work ethic. It’s great they got things patched up enough to join once more for the inevitable second half of the Fast X story, but one still gets the feeling they won’t go out of their way to work together on anything outside that final Fast film.

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6) George Clooney and Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe and George Clooney have never worked together, and it seems as though it’s going to stay that way. Yet even though they’ve never collaborated on a project that doesn’t mean they can’t have a feud.

The issue started when, in a 2005 interview with The Guardian, Russell Crowe publicly accused Clooney, Harrison Ford, and Robert De Niro of being “Sellouts” for their work in commercial acting. In 2013, Clooney told Esquire that Crowed “picked a fight” with him “for no reason at all.” In response, Clooney “put out a statement saying, ‘He’s probably right. And I’m glad he told us, ’cause Bob and Harrison and I were also thinking about starting a band, which would also fall under the heading of bad use of celebrity.’ And that’s when he really went off on me.” Of note is the fact that Crowe has also never worked with either De Niro or Ford.

5) Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte

In I Love Trouble, a mostly forgotten romantic comedy action movie, Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte play two Chicago-based reporters with a ton of ambition and little tolerance for one another getting in the way of their desired ascent. However, when they begin to suspect the government is behind the train crash they’re both covering, they gradually fall in love as they solve the case.

The problem, as many critics pointed out, is that Roberts and Nolte had zero chemistry. They believed their characters in the first act, when they hated each other, but not so much once their characters are supposed to be falling in love. That makes a lot of sense, as the two did not care for each other behind the scenes. Roberts said of their experience that “From the moment” they first met they ” sort of gave each other a hard time, and naturally we get on each other’s nerves.” Of Nolte she said he could be “charming and very nice” but also “completely disgusting.” On Nolte’s end, he said Roberts was “not a nice person.” They unsurprisingly have not worked together again throughout the three decades since I Love Trouble‘s release.

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4) Bill Murray and Lucy Liu

Ever since Elizabeth Banks’ reboot tanked, there has been at least some renewed interest in crafting a legacy sequel of McG’s two Charlie’s Angels movies. It likely won’t happen but, even if it did, Bill Murray wouldn’t be involved, just as he wasn’t involved with Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (he was replaced by the late Bernie Mac).

For one, McG once claimed that Bill Murray headbutted him during the shoot, which Murray denied. Furthermore, Murray and co-star Lucy Liu butted heads throughout production, including once when he provided unrequested additional pages to the script. Considering he wasn’t the screenwriter, she called this out, at which point Murray allegedly belittled her for being a TV star. And, according to a 2025 interview with The Guardian, Liu once more referenced their bitter dynamic, saying that the actor used language that “was inexcusable and unacceptable.”

3) Richard Gere and Sylvester Stallone

The Lords of Flatbush follows a quartet of leather jacket-clad teenagers who love to flirt with women, play pool, and get into fights. There’s not much plot here, and the film mostly relies on the chemistry between leads Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler, Paul Mace, and Perry King. Originally, though, King’s role was supposed to go to Pretty Woman‘s Richard Gere, but it didn’t take long for him and Stallone to go for one another’s throats.

In a 2006 interview, Stallone said they “never hit it off.” He then elaborated with an anecdote, saying Gere “would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table. One day, during an improv, he grabbed me and got a little carried away. I told him in a gentle fashion to lighten up, but he was completely in character and impossible to deal with.” Another day, during a lunch break, they sat in the backseat of a car, and the Rocky star warned Gere not to drip any of his hot dog’s mustard on Stallone’s pants. The mustard did indeed drip and a physical fight broke out. One or the other had to go, and it was Gere who was fired. According to Stallone, Gere has never forgiven him.

2) James Franco and Tyrese Gibson

Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel weren’t the only Fast & Furious stars who didn’t get along with a coworker. However, in the case of Tyrese Gibson, the feud didn’t happen with another member of the “Family” but rather with James Franco while filming the mostly forgotten Navy drama Annapolis.

Gibson took issue with Franco’s method acting technique, particularly when it came to a boxing scene. Considering it’s Hollywood and the two stars aren’t supposed to actually be whacking one another, Gibson requested that Franco stop hitting him, which didn’t happen. They haven’t worked together since.

1) Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones

Batman Forever may have been a big hit in 1995 and its villains, Two-Face and Riddler, were certainly written as having gleefully diabolical chemistry, but their actors did not get along behind-the-scenes. Well, Riddler’s Jim Carrey tried, but Two-Face’s Tommy Lee Jones simply did not like him.

According to director Joel Schumacher, “Jim Carrey was a gentleman, and Tommy Lee was threatened by him.” But more interesting was a 2014 anecdote from Carrey on The Howard Stern Show. Supposedly, he approached Jones at a restaurant the evening before shooting a big scene and Jones pulled Carrey close and whispered “I hate you. I really don’t like you…I cannot sanction your buffoonery.”

Stream Batman Forever on HBO Max.

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