5 Movie Directors Who Are Notoriously Insufferable to Work With

There is a recurrent issue whether the personality of the creator can affect the impression of the results of their work. This includes discussions about the directors, famous for their difficult behavior while filming and even assaults to their crews.

Here are five movie directors who were claimed to behave controversially on set.

1. David O. Russell

The first director that is mostly associated with abuse of actors and crew is the American Hustle’s director, who is infamous for his on-set conflicts with many actors, from George Clooney, with whom he had a fistfight while filming Three Kings, to Lily Tomlin from I Heart Huckabees.

Amy Adams even claimed she “was really just devastated on set” with David O. Russell, who was unfairly hard on the actress.

2. David Fincher

One of the most memorable facts regarding this well-recognized director is that Zodiac’s leading actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, stated Fincher turned filming into a living hell.

He made the actor do the scenes over and over again, which, according to him, was the only way to get the job done right, even when others couldn’t even understand the need of repeating the scene and saw no difference between the 30th cut and the 50th one.

3. James Cameron

The Titanic ’s star Kate Winslet once said about her work with Cameron:

“He has a temper like you wouldn't believe... You'd have to pay me a lot of money to work with Jim again."

The actress’ bold statement is supplemented by the nickname "Iron Jim", which was given to the director due to his strict rules, imposed on the crew while filming, including him banning cell phones on set and nailing them to the wall if seeing them.

4. Alfred Hitchcock

Despite the status of the 20th century’s cinema legend, Psycho and The Birds’ director was accused of sexual harassment by the actress Tippi Hedren, who called him “obsessive” and a "mean, mean man."

She claimed he used his power as a director to sexually assault women, which victims became not only her, but other actresses on The Birds’ set, and it makes Hitchcock's figure quite a controversial one.

5. Michael Bay

The Transformers ’ director sacrificed a lot to make his movies better, including his crew’s feelings and good relationship with them, as he was repeatedly claimed to behave like a tyrant in the process of shooting.

“He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he’s a nightmare to work for,” the star of his movies, Megan Fox, said about Bay’s behavior.