Charlize Theron said that , on theMad Max : Fury Roadset , she had a very contentious relationship with costar Tom Hardy . She say , " It bring forth to a place where it was kind of out of hand , and there was a sense that perhaps sending a woman producer down could maybe equalise some of it . A lot of what I felt was add up my mode from Doug [ Mitchell , another manufacturer ] was … oh , [ screw ] it . I ’ll just say it . It was a man forgive another man for really sorry behavior , and I did n’t find secure . "
Faking theiremotionsis basically the core of an actor’s job. Sometimes, they’re so good at it that audiences don’t even realize they were actually having a horrible time. Other times, actors purposefully put themselves into a challenging emotional state through method acting.
Here are 15 times actors were secretly miserable on set (and why):
1.In 2024,Anya Taylor-Joytold theNew York Times, “I’ve never been more alone than making [Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga]. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.”
2.Charlize Theronreportedly had a contentious working relationship with costarTom HardyonMad Max: Fury Road. According to Mark Goellnicht, a camera operator who was interviewed for the bookBlood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, the actors argued after Tom was three hours late while Charlize had been waiting on set in costume the entire time. Mark said, “[Tom] was quite aggressive. She really felt threatened, and that was the turning point because then she said, ‘I want someone as protection.’ She then had a producer that was assigned to be with her all the time.”
3.Likewise,Charlize Therontried out method acting forThe Devil’s Advocatebecause director Taylor Hackford wanted her to. In 2022, Charlize told theSmartlesspodcast, “I realized on that film that that was definitely not a process that was gonna work for me. There was something so exhausting about it. My life was miserable. I wasn’t happy.”
4.Zoë Saldaña hated working onPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In 2014, she told theHollywood Reporter, “Those weren’t the right people for me. I’m not talking about the cast. The cast was great. I’m talking about the political stuff that went on behind closed doors. It was a lot of above-the-line versus below-the-line, extras versus actors, producers versus PAs. It was very elitist. I almost quit the business.”
5.In 2016, Amy Hill told theAV Clubthat she didn’t like working onThe Cat in the Hatbecause of her costar Mike Meyers’s behavior. She said, “He had his handlers dress his trailer, and his area was all covered with tenting because he didn’t want anybody seeing him. It was so weird. It was just the worst. It was like I was there forever, and my daughter was 2 and a half, and I felt like I was missing her first everything. I was miserable. I just thought it was really rude for him to not take all of us into consideration.”
6.According to herThe Devil Wears Pradacostar Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep was “miserable” playing Miranda Priestly. In 2023, Emily toldVariety’sActors on Actors, “She said it was one of the first times she’s tried Method acting. But it made her so miserable.”
7.In 2019, Sanaa Lathan toldCBS Local, “I was miserable [filmingLove & Basketball]. I can laugh about it now. I got the job, and I think Gina [Prince-Bythewood, the writer/director] finally got to the point where she had to hire somebody. It’s almost like she hired me because she couldn’t find somebody else. There wasn’t a lot of joy, and there wasn’t a lot of trust in me.”
8.In 2018, Christopher Eccleston told theGuardian, “Working on something like [G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra] was horrendous. I just wanted to cut my throat every day.”
9.Christopher Eccleston also told theGuardian, “And [Thor: The Dark World]? Just a gun in your mouth.”
10.Michael B. Jordan allowed himself to get to a difficult emotional place for hisBlack Pantherrole. In 2023, he toldRolling Stone, “Killmonger allowed me to access the pain. And the unapologetic frustration that I had. But then, obviously, there’s a sadness that comes along with that. I dove into that for a lot longer than I ever had before. So coming out of that [role] it was hard to want love. Because during shooting I kept myself from family and children, and away from everything that Killmonger never had.”
11.In 2015, Brie Larson toldVarietythat playing Ma inRoomwas an “emotional marathon.” She said, “It hit a point near the end of shooting that there was so much intensity with every scene — tears you want to come out, you don’t have the hydration for them.”
12.In 2023, Freddie Prinze Jr. toldTooFabthat he had a challenging time on theI Know What You Did Last Summerset because director Jim Gillespie didn’t want him there. He said, “It’s not that we weren’t on the same page. I knew what the correct choices were for the Ray character. He wanted a different actor, areallygood actor named Jeremy Sisto, who I know and I like and respect very very much…There was no passive aggressiveness — which I hate — he was very direct in the fact that ‘I don’t want you in this movie.’ So when that’s your first job, and you hear those words, it just wrecks you, man. It just wrecks you.”
13.Then-17-year-old Nicolas Cagereportedlyhad a miserable time filmingFast Times at Ridgemont Highbecause some of the other actors made fun of him. In 1996, he toldEntertainment Weekly, “I was pretty much the nerd to everybody — people would ask me to be removed from their eye line.”
14.InBatman Returns, Michelle Pfeiffer was so miserable in her Catwoman suit that, once filming wrapped, she burned them all. In 2007, she told theOklahoman, “I hated wearing that catsuit so much. By the end, we had a bonfire, and I was just so happy. There were a zillion of them because they’d break, and you’d have to throw one on.”
15.And finally, David Cross only appeared in all threeAlvin & the Chipmunksmovies out of contractual obligation. In 2011, he toldIndieWire, “This last film [Chipwrecked] was literally, without question, the most unpleasant experience I’ve ever had in my professional life.”
