Actors Who Got Into Real Physical Fights On Movie Sets
Fights in movies always require hours of training and careful choreography by professional stunt coordinators and performers. Whether the fight takes place in a boxing ring or in the streets, fight scenes are usually crafted down to the smallest details to keep the actors safe and make the punches and kicks look as realistic as possible. Fights between actors that take place on sets when the cameras aren't rolling, however, are usually the opposite: messy, angry affairs born out of misunderstanding, ego, or frustration.
A real physical fight between actors on a movie set is a rare thing. Typically, actors do what we all do when we're pushed to a breaking point: walk away, cool off, try to reason with the other person, or ask someone to help mediate the conflict. But a surprising number of major Hollywood stars have gone toe-to-toe in on-set fights; here are some of the most notorious behind-the-scenes brawls in recent Tinseltown history.
Tom Cruise vs. Rob Lowe (The Outsiders)
Put a group of up-and-coming actors together on a film and chances are you're going to have a few conflicts. In the case of Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise in "The Outsiders," a conflict boiled over into an actual fistfight. Lowe said that he accidentally struck Cruise while the pair rehearsed a fight scene for the 1983 film. "Tom is such a competitive lunatic — which is what I love about him — but the next thing you know he's ready to kill me," Lowe told the Daily Telegraph (via the Independent). But the brawl was more the result of both actors' desire to make it in show business. "We were all competitive," said Lowe. "It wasn't just Tom. We were hardcore."
In truth, the conflict might have been brewing before that rehearsal. Lowe told Entertainment Tonight that he and Cruise were also roommates during the filming of "The Outsiders," an arrangement that did not make Cruise happy. "We check in and Tom finds out that we're sharing a room, and just goes ballistic," said Lowe. Again, Lowe chalked up Cruise's reaction to his unbreakable focus on success. "There [are] certain people who have always been who they are, and that element has powered them to where they are today, and the rest is history," explained Lowe.
Joel Edgerton vs. Tom Hardy (Warrior)
To play brothers who worked out their personal issues in a mixed martial arts tournament, actors Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy deliver totally committed performances that hit hard both emotionally and physically. Both actors, along with director Gavin O'Connor, were determined to depict MMA fights as realistically as possible. That meant no holding back with punches, which looked great on the screen but also took their toll on the actors.
"There wasn't any room to act, was there?" Hardy jokingly told Den of Geek of the film's tough approach. "I want to act, but he keeps hitting me!" As it turns out, Hardy's face was the least of his concerns. "I broke my ribs, I broke my foot, I tore ligaments in my right hand and I took a real smashing," he recalled to Interview of his time on "Warrior." Edgerton echoed his co-star's injury assessment. "You couldn't really be an actor in this process without getting knocked around," said the Golden Globe-nominated actor, who viewed his own injury as a badge of pride. "My shining moment was getting my MCL ligament" — which stretches across the knee from the thigh to the shin — "torn on a grade three tear. I had six weeks of rehab for that."
Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf vs. Scott Eastwood (Fury)
For his 2014 film "Fury," director David Ayer pushed his actors to their physical and emotional limits in order to accurately depict the toll of non-stop combat during World War II. As a 2014 profile of star Brad Pitt in British GQ detailed, this included encouraging the actors to live inside the tank that their characters drive. The constant strain reached a boiling point for Pitt and actors Shia LaBeouf and Scott Eastwood, who nearly came to blows over a script detail.
In the interview, Eastwood — the son of Clint Eastwood — said that LaBeouf took exception to him not only chewing tobacco in the tank but also spitting on the vehicle. "I pretty much told him to f*** off, and Brad had to break it up," said Eastwood. Pitt added that the argument started with him yelling at Eastwood about the mess, which was followed by LaBoeuf physically confronting his co-star. "I had to get in after the cameras were rolling and explain it to Scott," said Pitt.
Once tempers cooled, Pitt discovered that Eastwood was right. "The funny thing is, when we got home at the end of the day and read the script, it said Scotty's character is chewing tobacco and spitting it on the back of the tank," recalled Pitt. "So we were the knobs in the end."
Tony Bellew vs. Michael B. Jordan (Creed)
Former World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew brought authenticity to Ryan Coogler's "Creed" as Adonis Creed's main competitor, the light heavyweight champion "Pretty" Ricky Conlan. Bellew also served up some pain for star Michael B. Jordan, who found himself on the receiving end of a real punch from Bellew during filming. Footage of the punch shows Jordan preparing for and then taking a hit from Bellew, which sends him crashing to the floor.
In an interview with Graham Norton, Jordan explained that the real punch was required for a slow-motion shot. "You can't fake it because if you did a slo-mo shot and it was a miss, you'd see the space and it just wouldn't connect," said Jordan. The actor rose to his feet immediately after the hit, only to discover that he had to take a second punch from Bellew because the first shot had been obstructed. Bellew, who retired from boxing in 2018 and now serves as a boxing analyst for the DAZN global sports streaming platform, returned as Conlan in "Creed III."
Jason London vs. Shawn Andrews (Dazed and Confused)
By all accounts, the cast of Richard Linklater's beloved "Dazed and Confused" got along really well — maybe too well, given the many accounts of behind-the-scenes hookups. But one actor didn't click with the rest of his fellow up-and-comers, and as a result, found himself on the outs with not only his castmates but also Linklater as well. And according to "Alright, Alright, Alright," an oral history of "Dazed," that conflict nearly flamed into physical contact.
As Linklater said in Maxim, Shawn Andrews, who played Pickford in "Dazed," took pains to stand apart from the other actors. "He wasn't getting along with everybody," said the filmmaker. Well, not everybody: Andrews was in a relationship with co-star and then-girlfriend Milla Jovovich. He also held himself in high regard. "He was too confident," said Rory Cochrane, who played Slater, in "Alright, Alright, Alright." "To the point where he would tell the hotel staff, 'Save my sheets, I'm gonna be famous.'" That overinflated ego wore on Linklater, who started giving many of Pickford's lines to Matthew McConaughey's Wooderson.
It also rankled co-star Jason London, who said, "I never had any behind-the-scenes drama with anyone, except with Shawn." That drama eventually boiled over into a near-fight between London and Andrews, which reportedly required breaking up by Linklater.
Patrick Swayze vs. Marshall Teague (Road House)
If you thought the fight between Patrick Swayze's James Dalton and Marshall Teague's Jimmy Reno in "Road House" was epic, you should know that both actors gave their all to the scene. So much so, in fact, that Swayze and Teague traded blows for real to deliver a memorable on-screen dust-up. According to Teague, the fight became so intense that the crew stepped in to break it up.
Teague told the Daily Express that Swayze wanted their fight to look real. "'Let's not cheat the audience for a change,'" Teague recalled Swayze telling him. "'What do you say let's just rock 'n' roll?'" The "Dirty Dancing" actor had just one requirement: "'Try to leave the head and faces alone as much as possible because we still got a movie to shoot,'" said Teague. The resulting brawl impressed legendary kickboxing champ Benny Urquidez, who served as the film's fight coordinator. "The good part is Marshall was able to take good impact," said Urquidez. "And Patrick, too, he took some shots as well."
The fight looked so real that the crew stepped in during the shoot. "The next thing I know, everybody — and I do mean everybody — was piling on top of [Swayze] and me," said Teague. "We're like, 'Get off us, would ya? We know what we're doing.'"
Tom Sizemore vs. Val Kilmer (Red Planet)
Actors Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer were not only on-and-off friends but also former co-stars (in 1995' "Heat"), yet all it took was the film "Red Planet" to unravel their relationship. The 2000 feature co-starred the pair as opposing factions on a mission to Mars, and apparently, they continued the antagonism when the cameras weren't rolling. Kilmer complained that the production paid to ship Sizemore's exercise equipment to the film's Australian locations, and reportedly told Sizemore how much more money he was making on the film. Sizemore allegedly responded by throwing a 50-pound weight at Kilmer.
Eventually, neither actor would speak to the other or appear on set together, which required the use of body doubles. Sensing that this conflict would eventually reach a flash point, one of the film's producers begged Sizemore to avoid Kilmer's face if punches were thrown; when the pair did fight, Sizemore popped his co-star in the chest. From there, things went downhill: "Red Planet" earned just $33 million worldwide (against a $80 million budget), and Kilmer and Sizemore underwent various degrees of personal and professional failure. But according to Sizemore, the two actors reconciled a few years before his death in 2023.
Jack O'Halloran vs. Christopher Reeve (Superman II)
Christopher Reeve's Superman defeated Kryptonian villain Non (Jack O'Halloran) at the end of "Superman II," but a behind-the-scenes squabble between the actors might have ended in a very different way. According to O'Halloran, Reeve said some unkind things about O'Halloran's family (O'Halloran alleged in a 2011 book that his father was crime boss Albert Anastasia). The actor apologized to O'Halloran during a private conversation but reportedly began talking out of turn when others were in earshot. O'Halloran — a former professional boxer who stood six feet, six inches — decided to settle the problem his own way.
"I threw Christopher against a wall, and I was ready to smack him right in the mouth," O'Halloran told Yahoo!. He was stopped by Richard Donner, who at the time was still directing "Superman II" before being replaced by Richard Lester. O'Halloran put Reeve on the floor and informed him, "'You don't know how lucky you are, kid.'" The pair later settled their differences, and today, O'Halloran has nothing but praise for his late co-star's performance as the Man of Steel. "He changed from Clark Kent to Superman extremely well, and portrayed both characters brilliantly," said O'Halloran. "He's still the best Superman we've ever had."
Richard Pryor vs. Harvey Keitel (Blue Collar)
For 1977's "Blue Collar," his first turn as a feature film director, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Paul Schrader ("Taxi Driver") couldn't have picked three more passionate and volatile personalities as his three leads. He cast Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, and Richard Pryor — in a rare, non-comic role — as auto workers who rob their union headquarters. The trio gave uniformly excellent performances, breathing life into the desperate characters created by Schrader and his co-writer and brother Leonard, but their combined intensity made "Blue Collar" a difficult shoot.
Schrader noted on the commentary track for the home video release of "Blue Collar" that Pryor frequently improvised his dialogue, a practice that didn't sit well with his co-stars. During one particularly long improv monologue by Pryor, Keitel looked into the camera to blow the take, prompting the comic to physically attack him. Pryor's bodyguard and Schrader had to break up the pair, who would eventually refuse to appear together on camera. Schrader also said that many scenes in "Blue Collar" were shot without close-ups because the actors would leave the set while coverage was filmed of their co-stars.
Jamie Foxx vs. LL Cool J (Any Given Sunday)
Ego — the catalyst for many a celebrity squabble — appeared to be the fuel that touched off an on-set battle between hip-hop legend LL Cool J and Oscar-winning actor-comic Jamie Foxx on Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday." A variety of sources, from the two actors to co-stars Dennis Quaid and Bill Bellamy, have weighed in on the fight, which has muddied the details that caused the brawl. But the core facts seem to be that at some point during filming, LL reached his breaking point in regard to jokes at his expense by Foxx and hit his co-star.
According to Bellamy, the impact could be heard throughout the set, and as Foxx noted in his 2008 comedy special "I Might Need Security," "[LL] knocked me into another movie." Whatever the particulars might be in regard to the fight, the two participants have apparently buried the hatchet and even collaborated on LL's 2006 single "Best Dress."
Richard Gere vs. Louis Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman)
The fight between Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) and Sgt. Emil Foley (Louis Gossett Jr.) in 1981's "An Officer and a Gentlemen" brings the simmering conflict between their characters to a furious conclusion. However, Gere didn't act like a total gentleman while filming the fight. In a 2012 interview with Film Festival Traveler, Gere said that both actors trained to prepare for the fight, but claimed that Gossett struggled with the choreography.
This left Gere frustrated, and at one point, he lashed out at his co-star. "I hit him in the gut," said Gere, who added that Gossett stormed off the set with no intention of returning. To his credit, Gere took full responsibility for Gossett's departure. "I had no right doing that to him," he said.
Director Taylor Hackford used a stunt double to complete the scene shortly before Gossett consented to return to the film. Despite the conflict, everything worked out well for both actors: Gossett won the Oscar for his performance, and Gere patched up his differences with his co-star. "I run into Lou every once in a while and we always embrace," he said.
John Leguizamo vs. Steven Seagal (Executive Decision)
Is there anyone in the entertainment industry who doesn't have a beef with Steven Seagal? The action star has a long list of fellow performers who have nothing but negative things to say about him; most have said their piece about Seagal's behavior, but actor John Leguizamo is far from finished talking about Seagal clocking him during the making of "Executive Decision."
Leguizamo told the AV Club in 2012 about the incident, which reportedly started when Seagal told the cast, "I'm in command. What I say is law." Leguizamo (understandably) laughed at the statement, to which Seagal responded by smashing him with an elbow. "All I could say was, 'Why? Why?'" said Leguizamo.
Reportedly, Seagal was later unhappy to learn that Leguizamo included the story in his one-man show and graphic novel "Ghetto Klown," and said that he'd beat him up again if the pair encountered each other. However, Leguizamo continues to repeat the story in interviews — most recently in 2023, when he explained that Seagal inspired his turn as a faded actor in "The Menu." "What am I, going to spoof myself like I'm a failed actor?" he told Comic Book. "I used Steven Seagal because I hate him."