Adam Rose/FOXThey don't call it acting for nothing.
Things are not always as shiny and seamless in Hollywood as they seem, particularly when it comes to the relationships between co-stars. While some duos may appear to be chums on the big or small screen, behind the scenes, they could easily be on each other's last nerve.
Though many manage to settle their differences and continue with the job at hand, others' rifts have wreaked havoc on sets, where production had to be rearranged in one way or another to accommodate the feuding stars.
As Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson told E!'s Maria Menounos, "In life, it happens where you have fundamental differences and philosophies from other people." However, how you handle those differences can make all the difference. Here's how a few sets of stars handled their rifts.
While her rep fiercely denied the allegations, Nia Long found herself in the headlines not too long ago when reports claimed that she and her Empire co-star Taraji P. Henson were at "each other's throats" on set.
A source attributed the mounting tensions to "the fact that they both have been in the industry for so long and both want to be the star," as the insider explained to E! News. "Unfortunately for Nia, Taraji is the star of Empire and no one and nothing will ever change that. Nia came with her own ideas, and they weren't having it."
According to the source, producers even looked into ways to film their joint scenes separately. However, it all came to a bowling point on the last day of filming when allegedly "Nia made a big scene and claimed to 'file a lawsuit' against the crew after they rewrapped her trailer for a girl in the Make-a-Wish Foundation whose wish was to come to Empire," the source said. "Nia had finished filming and left so they changed her trailer into the Make-a-Wish girl's trailer. Then Nia popped back up and threw a giant fit when she saw it."
According to the account, the women ended up arguing in front of everyone. However, Long's rep called the story "complete nonsense."
"Throughout her long, established career, Nia has been nothing but a consummate professional treating all members of productions with respect. This is nothing but another complete fabrication about a series that has been plagued by constant rumors of drama and misconduct."
Arguably the most famous case of feuding on set involved Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Fueled by years of competition and mounting jealousy, the women famously just could not get along. The divide reached a boiling point when they were cast opposite each other on the set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, their antics so long discussed that they inspired the current FX series, Feud.
The animosity between the two women, particularly after Davis nabbed an Oscar nomination for her performance and Crawford didn't, allegedly led the latter to campaign against her and ultimately accept the Academy Award on behalf of winner Anne Bancroft, mostly out of spite for her own co-star.
"When Anne Bancroft's name was announced, I am sure I turned white. Moments later, Crawford floated down the hall, past my door," Davis told The Los Angeles Times. "I will never forget the look she gave me. It was triumphant. The look clearly said, ‘you didn't win and I am elated!'"
"There were never two more opposed actresses working together in the world—just totally different people and systems—but I will say this for Miss Crawford: she's a professional, she's always on time, she knows her lines," she later said. "I have great respect for her as a professional, that she is and I wish I were half as beautiful…now if you want to meet me privately some time…"
They rose up in the ranks of Hollywood together as young stars on Fox's hit series, Glee, but art seemed to imitate life for Lea Michele and Naya Rivera. While they portrayed frenemies on the show, they apparently continued to clash behind the scenes.
As Rivera claimed in her memoir, Sorry Not Sorry, that clashing escalated to silence.
"One of the Glee writers once said that Lea and I were like two sides of the same battery and that about sums us up. We are both strong willed and competitive—not just with each other but with everyone—and that's not a good mixture," the author began. "As the show progressed, though, that friendship started to break down, especially as Santana moved from a background character to one with bigger plot lines and more screen time. I think Rachel—erm, I mean Lea—didn't like sharing the spotlight."
"If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was bitching about her. Soon, she started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn't say a word to me for all of Season 6," the actress claimed. "Lea and I definitely weren't the best of friends, and I doubt we'll ever sit on her couch and eat kale together again, but the rumors of our 'feud' were blown out of proportion."
When E! News caught up with the series' creator, Ryan Murphy, he addressed the longtime allegations, blaming the nature of the show and the massive fame surrounding them at such a young age for inciting a divide. He also pointed out that a rift between women is typically the only kind you hear about.
"There were many boys on our show that didn't get along. And you never hear about that. You never hear about that in our culture," he said.
Michele echoed the point when she called the claims "absolutely untrue" and told David Letterman in 2014, "It's really unbelievable, the amount of things that can be just completely made up...People like to pit women against each other and it's really annoying and really sad."
However, there were problems with the boys on the set of Fate of the Furious last summer and Dwayne Johnson had no fears about calling out his co-stars in front of the entire Internet.
"There's no other franchise that gets my blood boiling more than this one," he began on Facebook. "An incredibly hard working crew. Universal Studios Entertainment has been great partners as well. My female co-stars are always amazing and I love ‘em."
However, there was a catch. "My male co-workers however are a different story," he continued. "Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't. The ones that don't are too chicken s--t to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses."
As a source told E! News at the time, "Some of the guys did some small things that pissed him off, so he snapped. He called them out and then they were [too] silent to man up and say what they wanted to say."
However, signs started pointing to Vin Diesel as the mystery co-star Johnson was particularly odds with, especially after several of their other colleagues came to Diesel's defense.
While the specifics of what transpired remain a mystery to this day, it sounds like the men have moved beyond their differences.
"I think everything's fine. We had a good chat long ago and everything is the way it should be," Johnson told E! News. "I believe in doing things a certain way. He believes in doing things another way and that's just the way it is."
This one is far from a fresh feud. While they may have played aunt and nephew for of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith and Janet Hubert's relationship was far from familial.
Instead, Hubert blamed him for allegedly having a say in her departure (she was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid after three seasons) and didn't mince words about anything in the process.
"Janet Hubert was never difficult on that set. Janet Hubert was so professional, it wasn't even funny," she said on The Real, referring to herself in the third person. "I think Will simply needed to win and I think sometimes when you get caught up in a lie and those things never happened. She never left the set. I never left the set. We got along great."
According to Hubert, part of the reason for their strained relationship included alleged racial jokes Smith would tell the audience before the show.
"I was a dark-skinned, African-American mother, and Will used to tell the 'you're-so-black' jokes to the audience before the show," she told BlackAmerica Web, per The Huffington Post. "And at one point, I came out and stopped him, and the audience went 'Woooo!' He didn't understand how unbelievably disrespectful that was to women like me...'Yo mama's so black, when she looks at her shoes, she thinks she's looking in the mirror. Ha, ha!'"
While she repeatedly resists any possible reunion with the cast, Smith responded to the claims years ago, telling an Atlanta radio station, "I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be ‘The Aunt Viv of Bel Air Show' because I know she is going to dog me in the press."
"She has basically gone from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing. She's mad now but she's been mad all along. She said once, 'I've been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.' No matter what, to her I'm just the Antichrist."