25 Of The Best And Worst Celebs To Work With According To Movie Set Workers
We love Hollywood for many reasons. The glitz, glam, and gossip keep us hooked, and there’s always something new to talk about. If you enjoy getting to know more about your favourite stars, this list may reveal a few surprising tidbits about the personalities of some well-known celebrities.
Drawn from the first-hand experiences of people who have worked with A-listers in various roles, these accounts are genuinely eye-opening. Scroll below to read a selection of responses shared under a particularly juicy Reddit thread asking, “People that work on movie sets, who are the most entitled actors you have ever met?”
#1
Image source: humbird09, arianagrande
Not a movie set but I worked Guest relations/manager at the resorts at Disney and Ariana Grande was just terrible. She completely trashed the Cinderella suite. Apparently also caused damage over at Universal as well. On the other hand. Met several others. The ones that stand out are John Stamos, Chris Evans, and Prince Harry.
John Stamos was there on his honeymoon and still made time for fans.
Chris Evans was very polite and when someone recognized him through his sunglasses and ball cap disguise he was very cordial (his hotel room was a revolving door of women, but when you look like he does why not)
Prince Harry first thing he’ll tell you is, it’s just Harry. Extremely down to earth. Met him when we hosted the Invictus games. He cares so much about those wounded warriors.
#2
My aunt (cousins aunt technically) did make up on sets the meanest most selfish person she ever met was Debra Jo Rupp, “Kitty” from that 70’s show.
#3
Not on a movie set but was friends with someone who’s parents owned a large hotel in a small community, Gordon Ramsey was filming an episode of hotel hell at their place, came over with McDonald’s for me and my friend and Gordon walked into the dining area and said “what have you got there” to which I responded McDonald’s then he gave a stern look and said “ throw that garbage away and wait here” a little while later he returned with fresh made eggs Benedict and was very polite to us. He genuinely cared for the youth.
#4
Image source: zephyrpawan, IMDb
Also a TV set, James Corden is an absolute jerk, not the funny happy go lucky guy you see on TV.
#5
In case anyone was worried that Bill Murray is secretly awful, he’s not. I was the stand in for the lead actress in one of Bill Murray’s movies, and Bill was super nice. Always on time and chatted and joked with the crew. One time I was feeling unwell so Bill made me a cup of tea.
Image source: fox_ontherun
#6
Matthew McCon—nah I’m playing, he’s the nicest celeb I’ve ever met. He even took time to talk to an entire room of recovering addicts who had filled into the theater from next door, totally unaware MMC would be in there.
#7
Image source: OleRockTheGoodAg, IMDb
Read multiple reports from sailors on board that Tom Cruise was a royal pain in the bum to deal with when filming the new top gun movie.
#8
Image source: aznsamiama, IMDb
Opposite story. I met Colin Hanks, the son of Tom Hanks, while filming *Orange County*. You would expect him to be pretty arrogant and entitled, considering he grew up in Hollywood and his dad was TOM FREAKING HANKS.
Me and my friends had gotten on set since we were in a film club and ran into him while there. He was sooooo nice. He joked around, answered a lot of questions, and was really genuine. He laughed when we asked him how it felt being Tom Hank’s son and said it got old being asked that all the time, but he always took it in stride. He is definitely like his father and just an all around nice guy.
#9
My brother in law worked white house security and apparently Oprah is kind of a Karen.
#10
Not really an actor but I served Harvey Weinstein during filming for The Hateful Eight. He was way overly entitled, a jerk, and a miserable tipper. And because he was absolutely amazing I’ve got to mention that Kurt Russel is awesome!
Image source: meetmeinthebthrm
#11
Here’s some uplifting news for you in this thread: I’ve had the luck to speak with Tomas F Wilson (Biff Tannen, BTTF)
Contrary to his character in BTTF, he’s a funny and really friendly man.
#12
Image source: forgot_the_nda, Gordon Cowie
Throwaway because reasons….
So to be fair to celebrities, if someone meets you or works with you only once and you happen to be having a bad day that person might think you’re a jerk all the time and rumors start to spread.
This, for the most part. is not that.
In no particular order:
-Steve Harvey – Complete self entitled jerk. Disrespectful of everyone on set and acted like a petulant child the entire time. He didn’t want to have his photo taken (at a photo shoot set up specifically for him) so what should have been 30 minutes turned into 2-3 hours.
-Bobby Brown – Kind of a jerk. Thinks he’s still as big of a deal as he was in the 80’s / 90’s. He was really pleasant to the producers but dismissive at best to the crew.
-Young Thug – All of the stories you’ve heard are true. He’s so strung out on lean most of the time that he can’t be bothered to actually leave his hotel room to show up at the shoot. When he does show up, it’ll be a miracle if you get him to look at the camera.
-Migos – I didn’t interact with them directly but they were 4 hours late for their own concert, which was being recorded for advertising purposes (but there was a venue full of audience members who had paid for tickets). I was supposed to be in bed by 11pm, but because of their mess up I didn’t get home until 5am.
-2 Chains – 2hrs late and then refused to walk on set until he could smoke leaf. Once he did finally walk on he all fun & games for 10 minutes until he saw something on a monitor he didn’t like and started acting all **hard** and screaming about it.
-Mike Will – Showed up 3hrs late for what was supposed to be a 60 minute photo shoot – didn’t acknowledge the photographer or the crew for the first 45 minutes and instead messed around on his phone and walked around the location. We finally managed to get usable stuff, but only after his full crew arrived and the owner of the location gave them a green light to hotbox the bathroom.
-T.I. – Professional as hell. On time. Focused. Ready to work. But also sort of gives off a gangster/Scarface vibe. Very respectful to everyone but also his vibe puts everyone on edge a bit.
-Killer Mike – 100% Real. Professional and has no time to waste. What you see with him on TV or whatever doing interviews is pretty much him all the time.
-Sarah Blakely – She’s a literal nut case.
-Lil Yachty – Eh. He was alright. Did a couple of shoots with him early on. He rolled up 30 minutes late and his dad (his manager at the time) yelled at him, which was amusing.
-Shaq – worked with him half a dozen times. He’s basically a giant 15 year old. Mostly pleasant but has a really short attention span and insists on having a hookah ready for him at all times so he can suck on it while the scene is getting lit.
-The Rock – Incredibly aware that he’s a big deal. Very serious and professional but totally pleasant and respectful to everyone. (Also he’s not as big as I expected). In between scenes he can be spotted doing curls and inhaling chicken, broccoli & rice. (Seriously this dude doesn’t stop).
-Mike Epps – Consummate professional and hilarious. 10/10
-Sean Astin – Major nerd (in the best way possible). Incredibly friendly and personable to everyone on set. I wish I hadn’t been so busy because I really would have loved to chat with him.
-Zoe Saldana – Super friendly and fun to work with. Made a point to thank every person on the crew for their work before she left.
-Natalie Dormer – The only time I’ve been legitimately star struck. She’s effortlessly beautiful, charming and was lovely to everyone on the crew.
-T-Pain – Like pretty much every other rapper, he was a couple of hours late… but made up for it by being hilarious and pleasant to work with. We had a lot of ruined takes because he likes to ad lib and see if he can get the crew busting up. (He can. We did).
-50 Cent – Total jerk. Super entitled and disrespectful to the entire crew. Needed a stunt double to catch a football for him.
-Andy Serkis & Martin Freeman – worked with them at the same time. Complete gentlemen even at 3am they were beyond professional.
-Emily Blunt – She was delightful.
-Jason Bateman – Very approachable and pleasant. Very easy to work with.
-Barry Bostwick – Really approachable and easy to work with. Dude has been around forever and knows how to get it done.
-Dale Earnhardt * – Polite and professional. Not professional “talent” and seems like he doesn’t care to be on camera but knows he needs to in order to keep the machine running – so we just get him in & out as fast as we can. No complaints.
-Keith David – Very professional. Seemed like a nice guy but I never got a lot of time with him because he would he got pulled off set into something else the moment we had the minimum we needed.
-Rhetta – Genuinely hilarious and good to work with the couple of times I was on set with her.
There are more but it’s late and my brain is done. Ha.
#13
I knew a lady who’s sister was Ben Stiller’s assistant. She recorded how he would verbally berate her and call her stupid. I got to listen to the recording and it was absolutely 100% Ben Stiller’s voice.
So apparently that guy is a real jerk.
Image source: ellingtonlasoo
#14
Image source: TimReaper9564, IMDb
Friend of mine works in the biz. She and several of her coworkers have said multiple things about the entitled behavior of Benedict Cumberbatch. Talks down to people, acts superior to everyone around him, and they won’t give him a female personal assistant cuz he always tries to “break them.”
#15
Image source: Rose_ofthehouse_Red, Andrej Lišakov
Way back in the day, my husband worked as a manger for a movie theater. He ran projection. The theater was a pretty nice theater in a big city.
He met Matt Damon and George Lucas.
Both came to see their movies (in secret, like outside of the big to do premieres)
Luca for Star Wars and Damon for Bourne.
Said both were nice. Matt Damon more so. Was really appreciative.
It’s funny because some people saw Bourne Identity with Matt Damon and didnt even know it.
#16
I’m so glad you said Martin Freeman was nice, I love everything he is in and all the interviews he does I would be heartbroken if he had turned out to be a jerk.
Image source: Meekelo
#17
Image source: ZillaSquad, IMDb
Klaus Klinski was legendary for on set tantrums, Werner Hertzog threatened to shoot him once whilst on set haha.
#18
Image source: henry_sqared, IMDb
2nd hand, but I used to bartend in Rockefeller Center in the late 90s. NBC shot a lot of shows in the building so a lot of my lunch crews were the people who worked on sets and production.
The hardest drinking, most miserable patrons were the ones from the Rosie O’Donnell Show. She tortured those poor bastards. Constant fits of rage, constant shouting, insults and throwing things. I would hear about it daily.
#19
Image source: high5er161, guyfieri
My girlfriend worked for a production company in California. In the 3 years she worked out there she said Guy Fieri was 100% the worst. Very demanding and rude. She had to rush and pick him up from the airport in a Jeep and he lost it on her. Said’ I’m suppose to have a limo driver, who the hell are you?’ She snapped right back and told him she can put a hat on to make him feel better or he could just get the hell in the car because he was already running late for filming. He also complained about the water bottles in his dressing room. He wanted Fiji and they had smartwater or something stupid. Flavor town jerk.
#20
Image source: slackerdan, IMDb
Cesar Romero used to make my dad and some other stagehands throw orange wedges at his bare bum on the set of ‘Batman’ in 1966.
#21
Jim Carrey’s trailer had an astroturf roll up lawn. On this lawn was a picnic table. On this table was a vase. On this vase was a flower. I’m not sure if he makes the teamsters bring it everywhere they filmed but I imagine so.
I never met the guy himself but that honestly I respected him for it. If you’re living out of a trailer for days or weeks at a time and working the kind of hours we do making it as livable as possible is a good idea. Its honestly such a minor amount of work to set up compared to all the gear that gets hauled around regularly I doubt it was a huge deal.
Beyond that I’ve never really run into talent being primadonnas. Which makes sense. In this industry you’re only as good as your last gig and your next one. People who are straight up naturally nasty don’t last long.
If you see footage of someone melting down on set you should keep in mind we’re all working like 12+ hour days 5 days a week and tensions are high. Even nice, good people can often crack in these circumstances. Hence why I don’t fault anyone who wants a bit of extra comfort.
#22
A handful of stufents stayed after a talk neil degrasse tyson gave and while he did stop and talk with us his first reaction was “youre the only ones? there aren’t more people?” and then he made weird backhanded compliments to a few of the women in regards to them being science majors.
Image source: alldemboats
#23
Dunno if he qualifies as an A lister, but Rhys Darby (Jumanji, Yes Man) and I got to know each other when he was doing stand up in New Zealand. He is a seriously funny guy, and so giving and humble with his time. Had a few post gig beers with him one night, him, me and two other NZ comedians in a booth at the Classic Comedy and Bar in Auckland. Still one of the best nights I ever had. Great guy!
#24
I was a driver on a movie starring Joey from friends in the 90s. He was a Very nice guy, and when I was slumped over at the wrap party because I was a drunk 19 year old he checked to make sure I was okay.
Image source: anon
#25
Image source: NewLeafNic, IMDb
I have worked many Hollywood sets from lighting In the 90’s to assistant director with Cameron the Coen brothers and a handful of MCU movies. Of the many actors I have meet the one that was the most difficult to work with the Emma Watson when I worked with her in wall flower. She was constantly late (which isn’t a big deal of you can you land your lines) but clearly didn’t take anytime to learn the script. Scenes took hours because she as I quote “I prefer to improve this one” time and again. Anyway time to make a new account. I like being incognito.
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