14 Times Actors Held Nothing Back And Name-Dropped The Worst Directors They've Ever Worked With

This post contains mention of sexual assault.

On set, a director is essentially an actor's boss. However, unlike most other jobs, actors often have to tap into their emotions in a big way. They should be able to trust their director to help guide them, but unfortunately, directors don't always treat their actors with the care they should.

Here are 14 times actors called out their worst experiences with directors:

1. In 2024, George Clooney told British GQ, "The older you get, time allotment is very different. Five months out of your life is a lot. And so it's not just like, 'Oh, I'm going to go do a really good film, like Three Kings, and I'm going to have a miserable fuck like David O. Russell making my life hell. Making every person in the crew's life hell.'"

2. In 2016, Amy Adams told British GQ that David O. Russell made her cry on the set of American Hustle. She said, "He did. He was hard on me, that's for sure. It was a lot. I was really just devastated on set. I mean, not every day, but most."

3. In 2024, Sally Field told Vulture that Steel Magnolias director Herbert Ross "was very, very, very hard on Julia [Roberts]." She said, "If you ever talk to Julia, she’ll tell you. We would all rally around Julia, because she was the baby. She was sort of the newcomer. And she was wonderful, and he just picked on her. It was awful."

4. In a since-deleted 2017 Facebook post, Elliot Page alleged that, when he was 18, X-Men: The Last Stand Brett Ratner outed him and made a sexual comment about him to someone else during a cast and crew "meet and greet."

5. In 2020, Ray Fisher tweeted, "Joss [Whedon]'s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable. He was enabled, in many ways, by [producers] Geoff Johns and Jon Berg. Accountability>Entertainment."

6. In 2016, Tippi Hendren told NPR that The Birds and Marnie director Alfred Hitchcock's treatment of her "became such a problem for [her] that [she] demanded to get out of the contract."

7. In 2007, Jake Gyllenhaal told the New York Times that Zodiac director David Fincher "paints with people." He said, "It's tough to be a color."

8. In 2015, Burt Reynolds told GQ that he likely wouldn't work with Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson again because "personality-wise, [they] didn't fit."

9. In 2009, Megan Fox called out Transformers franchise director Michael Bay. She told Wonderland magazine, "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."

10. On a 2024 episode of Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, Hannah Waddingham recalled calling out the Les Misérables director over how he treated the background and ensemble performers, who mostly came from the theater world, differently than the leading talent, who were mainly Hollywood A-listers. She said, "Tom Hooper and I had a gentle falling out because he asked somebody else to get all us musical theater people to bring it down, and I heard it, and I'd had enough. And because I was just doing one scene, I thought: 'I'm just gonna have to say something,' and I said: 'Can I just stop you there?'"

11. In 2020, Olivia Munn told Variety that Bryan Singer left in the middle of filming X-Men. She said, "I never shot a huge movie like that before. I didn't know what was right or wrong, but I did know that it seems strange that Bryan Singer could check out and say he had a thyroid issue. Instead of going to a doctor in Montreal, which is a very high-level, working city, he said he had to go to LA. And he was gone for about 10 days is my recollection. And he said, 'Continue. Keep filming.' We'd be on set, I remember there's a big scene that we'd have, and we'd come back from lunch and then one of Bryan's assistants would come up and show us a cellphone with a text message on it."

12. In 2019, Rami Malek, who worked with Bryan Singer on Bohemian Rhapsody before the director was reportedly fired, told The Hollywood Reporter, "In my situation with Bryan, it was not pleasant, not at all. And that's about what I can say about it at this point."

13. In 2020, Halle Berry, who worked with Bryan Singer in the X-Men franchise, told Variety, "Bryan's not the easiest dude to work with. I mean, everybody's heard the stories — I don't have to repeat them — and heard of his challenges and what he struggles with. I would sometimes be very angry with him," she continues. I got into a few fights with him, said a few cuss words out of sheer frustration. When I work, I'm serious about that. And when that gets compromised, I get a little nutty. But at the same time, I have a lot of compassion for people who are struggling with whatever they're struggling with, and Bryan struggles."

14. And finally, appearing on The Hollywood Reporter's 2022 Actress Roundtable, Jennifer Lawrence talked about how working with female directors differed from working with male directors. She said, "It was incredible to not be around toxic masculinity — to get a little break from it. And it did always just make us laugh about how we ended up with, 'Women shouldn't be in roles like this because we're so emotional.' I mean, I've worked with Bryan Singer [on four X-Men films]. I've seen emotional men. I've seen the biggest hissy fits thrown on set."

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.