Actors Who Lost It On Set (And Were Caught On Tape)

We've all had rough days at the office, but could you imagine if those moments were caught on tape? That's just what happened to these actors, who — in the heat of some messy verbal altercations and very R-rated rants — seemingly forgot they were on production sets where every little thing was being recorded.

This embarrassing Hollywood trope has continued to fascinate fans of all sorts, as it gives them a closer look both at the actor's themselves and the sheer intensity of the filmmaking process. After all, these movies are ultimately major financial investments that could potentially cost creatives millions of dollars or the careers they've worked their entire lives to maintain.

That said, while empathy is warranted in many of these cases, it's also important to keep in mind the person on the other end of these celebrity tirades. Often targeted at members of the crew — whose technical duties can easily conflict with the artistic needs of a performer — these rants should help us all remember to cool down and count to 10 before addressing a major issue. Unless, of course, you're being forced to deal with David O. Russell.

Our journey through these acting breakdowns begins around 1970, in which we find what may be the earliest recorded instance of an actor losing their cool and storming off set. And what better actor to usher such a trend forward than the thespian's thespian himself, Orson Welles. The lauded Shakespearean actor and star of "Citizen Kane" is widely considered to be one of the greatest American actors of all time, possibly one of the greatest actors period. And yes, his final role was infamously as Unicron in "Transformers: The Movie" in 1986. If cinephiles are shocked that such a revered performer spent his final run as an actor voicing a questionably shaped villain in a children's cartoon, we'd wager that "Transformers" was far from the project he most regrets lending his voice to.

Welles often lent his recognizable baritone to commercials (such as this one for champagne that found a new life on TikTok). But when Swedish frozen food brand Findus hired him to narrate a trilogy of ads, it was a step too far. According to his "Merchant of Venice" co-star Jonathan Lynn, Welles was put off before recording began because the ad company asked him to audition. After allegedly leading them on a literal chase across Europe, he finally got in the booth to record — only to find the scripts were an affront to his artistic tastes. He spitefully bickered with directors over word choice and emphasis before storming out entirely.

Thirty years on from Welles' outburst, America was knee-deep in the rising tide of reality television — you know, the genre that thrives on such outbursts. Of course, MTV, the pioneer of this style of entertainment, was able to capture the candid breakdown on the set of their 1999 "25 Lame" special, which featured a group of comedians reviewing bad and overplayed music videos before locking them away in a vault.

For the 10 worst offenders, however, the punishment was harsher — the videos would be "destroyed" physically by way of smashing a tape with a hammer, symbolically removing them from the MTV rotation forever. After destroying Debbie Gibson's "Electric Youth," comedians Denis Leary, Jon Stewart, Chris Kattan, and Janeane Garofalo are joined by the only artist actually on-set: Robert Van Winkle aka Vanilla Ice. Though Garofalo tries to soften the blow by noting "Ice Ice Baby" is a good video that just gets played too much, Van Winkle is excited to commit to the bit — maybe a little too excited.

Following a somewhat tense roast and rewatch, Van Winkle goes off-script and tosses the tape in the air, hitting it with a bat and causing it to hit Kattan. He then immediately swings at a table near Leary and chases down a mannequin, while all four comedians cower in a state of confused laughter. His improvised but obviously tongue-in-cheek "rampage" continues across the set until bits of wood, glass, and popcorn litter the floor.

On the grand scale of great American actors, William Shatner lies somewhere between Orson Welles and Vanilla Ice — perhaps closer to the latter. But in terms of ego in a recording booth, he's right up there with "Citizen Kane." At some point in the '90s or early-2000s, the "Star Trek" star was asked to record narration for a radio commercial, in which he would play himself inviting the listener to step into the 21st century with him. After an initial take — which, as the sound engineer notes later, sounds like a simple, laid-back read for Shatner — the engineer on tape chimes in to ask him for more "excitement" in the beginning. Strangely, the note itself elicits a foreboding laugh from the actor, with the mood only getting more uncomfortable as the tape rolls.

Shatner tries another, more "excited" take that sounds at least half-sarcastic, with him speaking unnaturally fast with a superficially saccharine tone. When the engineer starts to speak again, Shatner antagonizes him, then asks him to model how he'd like the line to sound — and when the engineer obliges after some pressure, Shatner proceeds to mock him during the next take. Though he's unsure how, the engineer is clearly aware he overstepped, but Shatner sounds like he's having too much fun toying with him. He ultimately ends up begging Shatner not to make him read more lines and apologizes for offering a note, but Shatner refuses to let up or continue the session as normal.

It wouldn't be a piece about Hollywood meltdowns if there wasn't some mention of director David O. Russell and his alleged repeated abusive treatment of his peers on and off set. On the set of the 1999 black comedy "Three Kings," he came to physical blows with actor George Clooney after the former reportedly became fed up with his treatment of a crew member and his generally abrasive directing style. It was even reported that he once put then-rising director Christopher Nolan in a headlock at a party until he agreed to not to poach Jude Law for "Memento" so he could return to the set of "I Heart Huckabees." Whether or not this tactic worked, Law did not move further on "Memento" and fulfilled his commitment on "I Heart Huckabees" — though perhaps he wishes things would have gone a different way.

That is, if his experience was anything like star Lily Tomlin, who, like Clooney, was driven to her own on-set breakdown because of Russell's intolerable behavior. In leaked footage from the set of the 2004 film, Tomlin becomes increasingly frustrated by Russell's constant tweaking of a scene, so much so that she feels she can't keep up with his demands. "Okay, for Christ's sake," she exclaimed at one point. "Let's just take it one f***ing line at a time instead of changing everything." Russell ultimately responded by violently sweeping props off a desk and hurling sexist slurs at her in a fit of rage.

Perhaps the most well-known entry on this list, Christian Bale's regrettable "Terminator Salvation" outburst is sure to remain in the annals of entertainment history. In the infamous leaked audio clip, the recent star of "The Dark Knight" can be heard shouting down director of photography Shane Hurlbut after he entered Bale's line of sight during a scene. Though director McG and an associate producer rush in to calm him down, their attempts are in vain. Screaming for almost four straight minutes, he berates Hurlbut for what he feels is unprofessionalism, questions his ability to work with actors, and insists that he won't return to set until the offender is fired. All this, because seeing a non-Terminator checking the light pulled him out of character.

This is rather ironic, as when the audio eventually leaked ahead of the film's release, Bale would claim his "inexcusable" behavior was because he was too deep in character. "I'm half John Connor, I'm half Christian there," he said in a radio interview (via The Guardian), in which he also apologized at length for the tirade. He insisted that he and Hurlbut reconciled shortly after the outburst and that he was never serious about wanting him fired, and Bale described himself as hurt that the audio would lead people to believe he thought he was better than anyone else on set. To him, that intensity came from a place of caring — perhaps too much — about making the film as good as possible.

Rightly or wrongly, Lindsay Lohan has quite the divisive reputation in Hollywood (it's one of the reasons why you rarely hear from the actress anymore). In fact, it's likely her brief altercation on the set of the low-budget 2013 thriller "The Canyons" doesn't rank among the most outrageous stories you've heard about her — if you ever knew about it at all. But even if it may have gotten lost during one of Lohan's career valleys, it's still a peak among on-set skirmishes that's hard to believe happened in the first place.

In an audio recording, it sounds as though Lohan is becoming frustrated with director Paul Schrader after being asked to rehearse a line-thru for a scene in which she has no lines. Apparently perplexed by the necessity of silently participating in a recitation without simply rehearsing the entire scene, her confusion quickly turns to anger — which she then takes out on co-star James Deen. Lohan seemingly tells Deen to ignore Schrader and rehearse the scene with physicality. Before he can even say or do anything, she snaps at him, "Do your f***ing job!" When Deen points out he was about to start the rehearsal before she interrupted him, she repeats herself. In a later interview with TMZ regarding the incident, Deen didn't seem to have taken anything she said to heart and seemingly thought the whole ordeal was just an amusing behind-the-scenes moment.

It's not uncommon for reality competition shows to turn quickly from high-stakes contests to high-intensity outbursts, especially as contestants wrestle with getting eliminated from their dream opportunity. But what happens when it's not the normal participants that lose their cool, but the celebrity judges running the show? Though rare, it does happen every so often. Ken Jeong famously walked off the stage of "The Masked Singer" after disgraced lawyer and former mayor Rudy Giuliani was revealed as one of the show's secret competitors. And when Simon Cowell made an ill-timed joke about Mel B's marriage during a 2017 taping of "America's Got Talent," she stormed off the set as well — though she went much further than Jeong did.

After one of the contestant's magic tricks went terribly wrong, Cowell jokingly likened it to Mel B's wedding night. "I kind of imagine this would be like Mel B's wedding night," the judge said. "A lot of anticipation, not much promise or delivery." The former Spice Girl had been going through a very public divorce from Stephen Belafonte. Mel B rose from her chair, uncovered her drink, and doused Cowell with ice water before walking away. In interviews after the episode, her co-hosts seemed relatively unbothered by the incident, with Heidi Klum saying they'd all had to douse Cowell for crossing a line in the past. Mel B even downplayed it herself, telling the Associated Press, "He just said something annoying, so I threw water on him. Simple as that."

When Fox was looking for an actor to succeed Mel Gibson in their television adaptation of "Lethal Weapon," they likely hoped whoever they chose wouldn't also emulate Gibson's controversial side. Unfortunately for them, that wound up being exactly the case. As Crawford said on a podcast (via The Hollywood Reporter), his relationship with the series and his co-star Damon Wayans was strained from the start, with neither of them being enthusiastic about leading the project. He even said he almost quit after the first season, in part due to Wayans being difficult to work with — after which the studio offered him the opportunity to direct an episode in the second season. During production, however, Crawford lost his temper after a strenuous and stagnant day of shooting and was caught on tape screaming at an assistant director to get a group of nearby children to stop making noise during a take. In the aftermath of the outburst, Crawford said he was asked to give up half his salary for the episode and was thereafter warned that the recording could get released and ruin his career.

All the while, Crawford's relationship with Wayans continued to sour. Things came to a head when the latter refused to shoot a scene in a church on religious grounds. Crawford called Wayans many insulting names and accused him of only being famous because of his brothers. They allegedly wound up fighting outside Wayans' trailer. A separate incident during an episode Crawford was directing left Wayans with a head wound from shrapnel. Crawford was fired from "Lethal Weapon" at the end of Season 2.

Sometimes, on-set freakouts are staged for a prank. Indeed, actors of every caliber and genre from Rainn Wilson and Michael Cera to Matt Damon and Dennis Quaid have played this game at some point — but is Joaquin Phoenix one of them? This was the question on some minds after the actor appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" to be confronted by behind-the-scenes footage of him losing his temper on the set of the 2019 thriller "Joker." In the footage — which he apparently was unaware was sent to Kimmel by director Todd Phillips — Phoenix seemingly gets frustrated at cinematographer Lawrence Sher ("Larry") for whispering while he was trying to prepare for a particularly tense scene and cursed the crew member out. The actor got impatient, made demands, and ultimately wound up defending or justifying an insult about the artist Cher. The whole thing — from the outburst itself to Phoenix being ambushed about it on "Kimmel" — is too crazy to believe, and yet there's no confirmation that it was a joke for the show.

Entertainment outlets reported on the moment as if it were entirely genuine. And perhaps most curious of all, the "joke" would have had to have been planned months in advance at least, as it was filmed on the set of "Joker" — among other things, we're not sure Kimmel has the budget or resources to recreate that for a bit on his show.

Even the most civilized of Jedi have their breaking point. "Star Wars" actor Ewan McGregor found his while attempting to shoot a scene for the Netflix series "Halston" on the outdoor and very public set of Central Park. This New York City cultural hub already presents enough environmental challenges, from uncontrollable weather and noise levels to its proximity to the general public. As such, it's likely the team was already fighting an uphill battle that day and was just hoping to get the shots it needed as quickly and cleanly as possible. Unfortunately, cast and crew reached a tiny bump in the road when a photographer discovered their location and tried to get a closer look at the set.

New York-based photojournalist Steve Sands (who regularly captures on-set moments around the city and has released photos from the sets of "Daredevil: Born Again," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown") was apparently trying to engage McGregor between takes of a scene with co-star Kelly Bishop. But when he said something to the actor as he was walking in the photographer's direction, McGregor responded, "Stop talking to me. I'm walking behind this f***ing flag" (referring to a piece of lighting equipment). The moment was recorded on audio tape and circulated through tabloids at the time, including at The Sun. Though Sands confirmed the interaction did occur, he seemingly took responsibility for it and told The Sun he holds nothing against the actor.

It's rather fitting that, as our journey began with one of Hollywood's most legendary movie stars, it ends with one of its last. Tom Cruise needs no introduction as an actor, his intense love for the art of filmmaking usually translating to fully committed performances and death-defying stunts. But like Christian Bale and David O. Russell, that intense passion has spun out of control on at least one occasion — though Cruise may have been slightly justified in this case.

While filming "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning: Part One" directly after the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a blow to the film industry (that it still has yet to fully recover from), Cruise was caught on tape shouting at crew members for violating COVID guidelines put in place by the studio. Cruise told Empire Magazine (via the Los Angeles Times) that he pulled a group of offenders aside and warned them — loudly and with many expletives — that they would be fired if they continued to violate the restrictions that allowed them to keep working during the pandemic.

It's clear from what he can be heard saying to the crew that Cruise felt a tremendous amount of pressure to keep the film from being shut down, both to prevent further delays and to prove to every other studio that the industry could survive the pandemic. The actor has since stood by his comments, as they conveyed the magnitude of the responsibility everyone on set had.