Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets of TV Shows and Movies.
The glitz and glamour of Hollywood often hide the intense pressure and creative clashes behind the scenes. While most actors and crew members work harmoniously, there are moments when tempers flare, egos clash, and stars storm off-set.
Everyone has bad days, but for celebrities, they sometimes happen while on set.
Let’s dive into some memorable instances when Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets of TV Shows and Movies and the impact they had on their projects.
Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets of TV Shows and Movies.
Kelly Rowland: The Today Show Debacle
Movie Set: Today With Hoda and Jenna (TV show)
Why She Stormed Off: Kelly Rowland reportedly had an issue with her dressing room and left the set just before guest-hosting an episode. Speculation arose that her exit was triggered by questions about her former Destiny’s Child bandmate, Beyoncé.
Replacement: Rita Ora stepped in to fill Rowland’s role.
Outcome: The show continued, but Rowland’s departure left an impression on her co-hosts and viewers.
Emma Watson: Cannibal Scene Refusal (Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets)
Movie Set: This Is the End (2013)
Why She Stormed Off: Emma Watson refused to film a scene involving Danny McBride playing a cannibal walking Channing Tatum on a leash.
Replacement: The scene was reworked, and Watson returned to say goodbye to the cast and crew.
Outcome: The film, a comedy about the apocalypse, went on to be a hit despite the creative differences.
Jenelle Evans: Teen Mom Drama
A source exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2019 that Evans “stormed off [set] for a few minutes and then returned” while filming the Teen Mom 2 season 9 reunion, adding, “Jenelle hung in despite some bumpiness.”
TV Show Set: Teen Mom 2 season 9 reunion
Why She Stormed Off: Jenelle Evans argued with her ex, Nathan Griffin, and her mother, Barbara Evans.
Outcome: Despite the tension, Evans returned to the stage, and the episode aired as planned.
Nicolas Cage: Creative Disagreements
Movie Set: Superman Lives (unreleased)
Why He Stormed Off: Nicolas Cage disagreed with the direction of the film, including the infamous decision to have Superman fight a giant spider.
Replacement: The film was eventually shelved, and Cage’s departure contributed to its demise.
Joaquin Phoenix: Walk the Line
Scarlett Johansson revealed in October 2022 that her former costar walked off the set of 2013’s Her while filming their “bizarre” orgasm scene. “We tried to get through one take, and he was like, losing it,” she shared on an episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “He left the studio. He needed a break.”
Movie Set: Walk the Line (2005)
Why He Stormed Off: Joaquin Phoenix clashed with director James Mangold over creative choices.
Replacement: The film continued with Phoenix returning after a brief hiatus.
Outcome: Phoenix’s performance as Johnny Cash earned critical acclaim, and the movie became a success.
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Teresa Giudice
The Bravo star has removed herself from the set of several Real Housewives of New Jersey reunions.
She famously ran into a bathroom after being asked about her legal issues during the show’s season 6 reunion in November 2014. Cameras did not follow Giudice into the bathroom, though she was heard via her microphone saying, “I don’t want to be out there for that conversation.” (Giudice went to prison in January 2015 after pleading guilty to fraud charges and was released that December.)
Giudice’s family feud with brother Joe Gorga and sister-in-law Melissa Gorga came to a head during the show’s season 13 episode. Following an argument, Giudice told the couple, “Don’t come following me!” before leaving the set in tears.
Jean-Claude Van Damme
The Belgium native stormed out on an interview on an Australian morning show in July 2016.
“Those interviews you are giving me on TV right now, they are very boring because the questions are very boring,” he said on camera. “It’s difficult for me to answer those questions so I start to sweat, I don’t feel good because they are boring and I knew this. OK, next question. You have something interesting to ask me?”
Upon standing up to leave and use the restroom, he quipped, “What the f—k is going on with Australia?”
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino
The Jersey Shore star told in October 2010 that he exited the Dancing With the Stars set after receiving bad scores from the judges. “I don’t know what their deal was, I really don’t know,” he stated. “I was upset. I actually stormed off upset because I tried so hard. I really did. I changed my haircut, I don’t know.”
He noted that he was confused by the judges’ critiques after he pulled off some impressive lifts with his dance partner, Karina Smirnoff, during their routine. “Once I landed all those lifts and the judges were trashing me? I’ll be honest with you, it was in one ear and out the other,” he said. “In the back of my head, I knew those lifts were extremely hard. I tried my best, and if they didn’t see it and wanted to be negative, so be it.” (The season 9 competitors ultimately landed in ninth place.)
Mel B
During an August 2017 episode of America’s Got Talent, the Spice Girls singer threw water and walked off stage after fellow judge Simon Cowell made an insensitive joke about her relationship with ex-husband Stephen Belafonte.
“I kind of imagine this would be like Mel B’s wedding night. A lot of anticipation, not much promise or delivery,” Cowell said of a magic act gone wrong. At the time, Mel B was in the middle of her divorce from Belafonte, whom she was married to from 2007 to 2017.
Joan Rivers(Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets)
Rivers faced criticism from CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield for making “very mean” comments about celebrities’ outfits on Fashion Police during a July 2014 interview. Rivers walked out of the interview after Whitfield questioned her choice to wear a fur coat on the cover of her book, Diary of a Diva.
“You know what, I’m going. I’m really going because all you’ve done is negative,” she stated. “I’ve made people laugh for 50 years. I was put on Earth to make people laugh and my book is funny.”
Paris Hilton (Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets)
Hilton’s response to being asked if her “moment” of fame was over during a July 2011 ABC News interview was to get up and leave.
She followed up the moment by telling reporter Dan Harris, “I’ve been in this business for 15 years now, so it’s been a very long time. And just like any other business person or someone in the industry, it’s always important to reinvent yourself and come up with new projects.”
Patrick Stewart (Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets)
Stewart credited his theater background as the reason he had a tantrum on the set of Star Trek: the Next Generation.
“I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and that’s when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off and responded to Denise Crosby‘s, ‘We’ve got to have some fun sometimes, Patrick,’ comment by saying, ‘We are not here, Denise, to have fun,’” he wrote in his October 2023 book, Making It So: A Memoir.
He continued: “In retrospect, everyone, me included, finds this story hilarious. But, in the moment, when the cast erupted in hysterics at my pompous declaration, I didn’t handle it well. I didn’t enjoy being laughed at. I stormed off the set and into my trailer, slamming the door.”
Sharon Stone
Italian film director Pupi Avati recalled Stone leaving set while filming the final scene of 2014’s A Golden Boy because of a TV cameraman on set. “She immediately disappeared. We looked for her everywhere, but nothing!” he told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2014. “Then my brother received a phone call from Los Angeles from her manager: she wouldn’t come back on the set until the photographers and especially that damned TV cameramen had gone away. Obviously, we did so, and she, like nothing happened, shot the scene.”
Carl Weathers (Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets)
While filming a Rocky IV fight scene with Dolph Lundgren, the late actor reportedly left set for four days due to his costar aggressiveness.
“I like Carl,” Lundgren told Yahoo! Entertainment of Weathers in November 2020. “But I’d worked out with [Sylvester Stallone] for five months before the picture. So, I knew him pretty well. And I was a fighter, a karate champion from Europe and I think when Carl showed up, he was like, ‘I’m gonna have to fight this guy? He seems like he’s the real thing.’ I didn’t dislike anybody on that set but I think he got a little scared of me.”
Chevy Chase (Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets)
Before his 2012 exit from NBC’s Community, Chase reportedly walked off set while filming the season 4 finale due to a feud with show creator Dan Harmon. According to Deadline, Harmon dissed Chase at the show’s season 4 wrap party, after which Chase left him a profanity-filled voicemail. In the message, Chase credited his exit to not receiving script pages before filming. Chase’s character, Pierce Hawthorne, was killed off the following season.
Diana Rigg (Celebrities Who Stormed off the Sets)
The late Game of Thrones star once arrived on set of the HBO series to film a scene before the crew had finished setting up. “She interrupted [a crew member] and said, ‘Roll the cameras!’ And she just started doing her lines,” costar Jessica Henwick told Entertainment Weekly in September 2020. “She did two takes, and then the guy came over and was like, ‘Great, now we’re going to do a close-up.’ And she just stood up and she went, ‘I’m done!’”
Henwick joked, “Now, she can’t walk fast. She has to be helped. So basically we just sat there and watched as Diana Rigg effectively did her own version of storming off the set, but it was at 0.1 miles per hour. She cracked me up. I loved her.”
James Caan
The late actor stormed off the set of the movie Nailed, later titled Accidental Love, after director David O. Russell asked him to cough and pretend to choke to death at the same time, according to Entertainment Weekly. After shooting the scene both ways, Caan left the project in August 2020.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mastrantonio walked off the set of 1989’s The Abyss while filming a scene where her costar, Ed Harris, attempts to save her character’s life. “I was slapping her across the face and I see that they’ve run out of film in the camera—there’s a light on the camera—and nobody had said anything,” he explained to Entertainment Weekly in November 2016. “And Mary Elizabeth stood up and said, ‘We are not animals!’ and walked off the set. They were going to let me just keep slapping her around!”
Wrap Up
While storming off-set can create tension and challenges, it doesn’t always spell disaster. Sometimes it leads to creative solutions, unexpected replacements, and even box office hits. Behind the glimmering lights, Hollywood remains a world of passion, ego, and artistic clashes – and that keeps us returning for more.
