"We despised each other so much that it read as love!"
Things may seem picture perfect in the movies and on TV, but what goes on when the camera stops rolling can be a completely different story. While some actors treat their co-stars like family, other times their relationships don't come quite as easy. And when actors end up spending almost all of their time on set, for months on end, getting along can sometimes be impossible.
From Julia Roberts to Miley Cyrus, stars have clashed with their castmates and had their professional relationships tested. Thankfully, a lot of former feuds have since been settled but it definitely took some time and space after filming wrapped.
Read on to discover which co-stars didn't get along…
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View Story1. Kim Cattrall & Sarah Jessica Parker
Sex and the City co-stars Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker have found themselves in the middle of a longstanding, public feud for years. While Sarah says that there's no beef between the two, Kim has admitted to having issues with Sarah, starting with a pay discrepancy while the show was still on the air.
While things stayed quiet in the years following the release of Sex and the City 2, the rumors picked back up when it was reported that the third movie wouldn't be happening because Kim wouldn't sign on for the project. Comments about Kim and Sarah's relationship were made back and forth in the press but things came to a head when Sarah publicly sent condolences to Kim after the passing of her brother.
In response, Kim wrote on her Instagram, "My Mom asked me today 'When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?' Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven't already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I'm writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona."
Then when the SATC reboot And Just Like That… was announced in 2021, Kim confirmed that she would not be returning to the show ... though she did make a cameo in the Season 2 finale, without sharing the screens with any former costars.
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View Story2. Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams
While Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams dated for years after filming The Notebook, they reportedly had a hard time getting along in the early days of filming the movie. Director Nick Cassavetes says that at one point, Ryan even asked if he could work with a different actress instead.
"They were really not getting along one day on set. Really not...Ryan came to me, and there's 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, 'Nick come here.' And he's doing a scene with Rachel and he says, 'Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?' I said, 'What?' He says, 'I can't. I can't do it with her. I'm just not getting anything from this.' We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other," Nick told VH1.
He added that once the co-stars were able to let off some steam, things got back on track.
3. Lea Michele & Naya Rivera
The Glee cast has recently become more vocal about their turbulent relationship with their co-star Lea Michele, but it was the late Naya Rivera who first spoke out about what went on behind-the-scenes. In her memoir Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up, Naya says things became rocky when her character took on a bigger role in the show.
"I think Rachel — erm, I mean Lea — didn't like sharing the spotlight. Lea was a lot more sensitive, though, and it seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong. If I'd complained about anyone or anything, she'd assumed I was b---hing 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 six," she wrote.
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View Story4. Tyrese Gibson & Dwayne Johnson
It was clear that Fast and Furious 6 co-stars Tyrese Gibson and Dwayne Johnson didn't get along after Tyrese posted on Instagram blaming Dwayne for the postponement of an installment in the franchise. He even threatened to leave the movie if Dwayne was going to continue to be a part of it.
"Hello loyal fans and loved ones from OUR fast universe........I'm sorry to announce that if Dewayne is in Fast9 there will [be] no more Roman Peirce — You mess with family and my daughters survival I mess with yours," he wrote.
Although it was evident that something was going on behind the scenes, it seems as though the duo worked things out after a heart-to-heart conversation. Tyrese later expressed regret for bringing their issues to social media.
5. Miley Cyrus & Emily Osment
Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment may have played BFFs on Hannah Montana but that wasn't the case off screen. While the duo were friends at first, their relationship progressively dissolved, and in her autobiography Miles To Go, Miley says their interactions often "ended in a fight."
"The show felt real to me, and I wanted my relationship with Lilly to feel real too. I knew it didn't have to — show business is show business — but I was disappointed. There were times when I didn't think we could ever be friends. We just couldn't figure out how to get along," Miley wrote.
Miley and Emily later worked out their issues and last year, they reunited on Miley's Instagram live series Bright Minded: Live with Miley where Miley referred to Emily as her "badass best friend."
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View Story6. Tom Hardy & Charlize Theron
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron butted heads while working on Mad Max: Fury Road, which only makes sense considering their characters also went head-to-head. And on top of that, they were stuck together in the desert for a pretty long time.
"Maybe the movie is what it is because we struggled so much with each other, and those characters had to struggle so much with each other. If we were chum-chum, maybe the movie would have been 10 times worse," Charlize told WSJ Magazine.
Their co-star Zoë Kravitz later added that she thinks the duo "weren't vibing" because "everyone was tired, and confused, and homesick" on set.
7. Alex Pettyfer & Channing Tatum
Alex Pettyfer and Channing Tatum clashed on the set of Magic Mike but Alex admits that a lot of it might have been his fault. Although their feud wasn't as bad as it was rumored in the media, Alex said that Channing "does not like" him. He explained that after some prior bad behavior on movie sets, Channing probably thought he would be a big liability if he was cast. When he got the role anyway, Alex tried to keep to himself on set as to not cause trouble.
"I didn't speak on the movie [set]. I was scared to speak. I did my work and then I sat in the corner and listened to music because I’d been told that anything I do was wrong by my reps and I was very insecure as a human being. That also gave me a bad rep because they said, 'Oh Alex thinks he’s f--king better than everybody else because he doesn't speak to anyone.’ And that's not true. I was genuinely nervous and scared to be myself," Alex told THR.
To make matters worse, Channing later found himself in the middle of a landlord dispute between a friend of his and Alex, who was refusing to pay rent. Now, Alex admits that he probably should have just paid instead of causing more issues.
7. Jennifer Aniston & Jay Mohr
Jennifer Aniston and Jay Mohr were co-stars in their 1997 flick Picture Perfect but things apparently weren't picture perfect off screen. In an interview Jay once alluded that Jennifer allegedly wasn’t very kind to him on the set of the movie.
"Being on the set of a movie where the leading woman was unhappy with my presence and made it clear from day one. I hadn't done that many movies, and even though they screen-tested some pretty famous guys, I somehow snaked into the leading role. The actress said, 'No way! You've got to be kidding me!' Loudly. Between takes. To other actors on set. I would literally go to my mom's house and cry," Jay told Elle.
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View Story8. Nina Dobrev & Paul Wesley
Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley may be close friends now but it wasn't always that way. Both Nina and Paul have admitted that they really didn’t like each other when Vampire Diaries began filming.
"Paul and I didn't get along at the beginning of the show. I respected Paul Wesley, I didn't like Paul Wesley...Everyone thought that we had such good chemistry. I realize now that there's a fine line between love and hate and we despised each other so much that it read as love but...we really just didn't get along the first five months of shooting," Nina said on the Directionally Challenged podcast.
Paul later agreed, explaining, "We totally clashed [the] first couple years in terms of just getting on each other's nerves...I think sometimes when people work together nonstop, do press nonstop for years and years on end, you're just — you don't appreciate the person that's in front of you. You're like, 'Oh, you know, I'm exhausted and tired.' And I think now, it's such a nice sort of story because we're such good friends now."
9. Ashley Tisdale & Lucas Grabeel
High School Musical co-stars Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel were tight as can be on screen but it turns out they didn’t get off on the best foot.
"We were not close. We were not good friends—let's be honest...We hated each other. Like, I'm not kidding....I think we just didn't know each other. And I think I was a lot like Sharpay, and Lucas was like, 'Who Is this person?' And I was like, 'Who is this person?' But after we wrapped, I don't know. I've always had a love for you. You're literally like my twin brother," Ashley said in a YouTube video.
10. Julia Roberts & Nick Nolte
Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte starred in I Love Trouble and there definitely was some trouble on set. After filming, Julia confessed that there was a rift between the actors that began when they met for the first time.
"From the moment I met him we sort of gave each other a hard time, and naturally we get on each other's nerves," she told The New York Times, adding that while he could be "completely charming and very nice, he's also completely disgusting. He's going to hate me for saying this, but he seems to go out of his way to repel people."
While Nick reportedly said Julia was not a nice person, she later admitted that she knows she used to be a "selfish brat" on sets.
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View Story11. Shannen Doherty & Jennie Garth
Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth admittedly had a hard time getting along while starring on Beverly Hills, 90210 when they were young. Although they've seemingly put their past behind them, Jennie says it was hard not to butt heads with co-stars when they were forced to spend so much time together.
"We were locked in this sound stage for 14 to 16 hours every day. There were times when we loved each other and there were times when we wanted to claw each other's eyes out...It was more of just young girls finding their way and finding their individual voices. Shannen and I are both Aries women, we're both very strong, independent women, so we butt heads a lot. Now, as grown women, we happen to get along as well," Jennie told E! News.
12. Rebel Wilson & Sacha Baron Cohen
After teasing out the identity of an unnamed "a--hole" she claims to have worked with in the past, Rebel Wilson then revealed who it was ahead of the release of her upcoming memoir.
"I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers," Wilson wrote on her Instagram Stories. "The 'a--hole' that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my books is: Sacha Baron Cohen."
The comedian, best known for portraying the fictional characters Borat and and Ali G, worked together on the 2016 Grimsby film (released in the US as The Brothers Grimsby), with Wilson portraying the girlfriend of Cohen's characters.
As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Wilson had previously spoken up about her filming experience with Cohen on the film in 2014, telling Australia's Courier and Mail that "every day" he'd ask her to "go naked" for a scene. She said she even threatened to tell their shared American agent "how much you are harassing me."
She thought she'd won that ongoing argument when the film used a body double for the final scene. "Then in the last scene... he was like, 'Rebel can you just stick your finger up my butt?' And I went, 'What do you mean Sacha? That's not in the script.' "And he's like, 'Look, I'll just pull down my pants, you just stick your finger up my butt, it'll be a really funny bit."
According to the newspaper, Wilson settled on a compromise with Cohen's character, slapping him on the butt instead.
Cohen's team responded to Wilson's claims with a statement received by TMZ: "While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.