Sometimes onscreen chemistry can blow up in real life. From on-set fistfights to getting fired over text message; here's how on-screen buds busted up off set.
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00:00Sometimes, on-screen chemistry can blow up in real life, from on-site fistfights to getting
00:04fired over text message. Here's how on-screen buds busted up off-set.
00:09In Anger Management, Charlie Sheen and Selma Blair played friends and occasional lovers,
00:13but off-screen, it was a different story. Their tense relationship ended with Blair
00:16getting fired from the show, and to add insult to injury, the termination was via text message.
00:21It started when Blair voiced concerns to series executives about Sheen's work ethic. The notoriously
00:26volatile star was unhappy seeing these remarks leaked to the press, and gave an ultimatum
00:30to the producers — choose between him and Blair. Of course, as an executive producer
00:34and star of the show, it was obvious that Sheen wasn't going to get fired. Not only
00:38did he tell her via text that her days on the show were over, he sprinkled in a few
00:41tasteless four-letter words to boot.
00:44On Grey's Anatomy, Isaiah Washington and Patrick Dempsey's characters grew to be friends and
00:48found their personal lives intertwining on countless occasions. However, the actors found
00:51themselves getting a little too close during a violent 2006 confrontation on set when Washington
00:56grabbed Dempsey's shirt over a co-worker who showed up late. During the fight, multiple
01:00onlookers reported that Washington also shouted a homophobic slur at his fellow actor. Taking
01:05to Twitter in 2020, Washington did not appear to have gotten over the conflict. This time,
01:09he directed his rage at another co-star, Katherine Heigl, who had once said that he should, quote,
01:14"...just not speak in public, period."
01:16According to critics, the chemistry between Damon Wayans as Murtaugh and Clayne Crawford
01:20as Riggs was one of the best aspects of the TV version of Lethal Weapon. But surprisingly,
01:25Riggs was killed off by the second season, suggesting that perhaps Wayans and Crawford
01:29weren't a great fit off-screen. Sure enough, reports began to circulate that Crawford was
01:33fired from the show following multiple incidents related to his anger on set. Leaked audio
01:37revealed Crawford and Wayans sniping at each other between takes, with Crawford calling
01:41Wayans a crybaby and suggesting that he was only famous because of his family name.
01:45In an appearance on the Drinking Bros podcast, Crawford didn't deny that he was prone to
01:48losing his cool, but also claimed that Wayans was responsible for plenty of toxicity on
01:52the set as well.
01:53He wouldn't do table reads. So there was no way for us to get an indication of what worked
01:57and what didn't work, and what he would do and what he wouldn't do. So we would have
02:00to find out on the day.
02:02The friendship between Jeanette McCurdy and Ariana Grande on Sam & Cat had a lot more
02:05ups and downs than the relationship between the two on TV. Rife with rumors of conflict
02:09from the start, the show only lasted one season. Following the cancellation of the show after
02:13a lengthy production hiatus, McCurdy not only left the program, but Nickelodeon itself.
02:18She notably skipped an appearance at the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards alongside Grande, and
02:22when Grande posted an emotional farewell letter to the cast and crew, it was shocking when
02:26she didn't mention McCurdy at all. Ultimately, it came out that McCurdy took issue more with
02:30the production and her pay than with Grande herself, though she revealed to E! News that
02:34they would, quote, butt heads on set. But according to McCurdy, these squabbles were
02:38more sisterly than anything else.
02:40The relationship between Emily Osment and Miley Cyrus started out strong on Hannah Montana,
02:45In reality, the friendship between the two was a roller coaster. In 2009, Miley published
02:49her autobiography Miles to Go, just a year after she'd described having a sisterly bond
02:53with Osment. In the book, Cyrus reflected on how unfortunate it was that the two of
02:57them were once friends but couldn't get along the way their characters did on set. Years
03:01later, it seems that the roller coaster hit another peak, as the two caught up with each
03:04other virtually during the pandemic and reminisced about their friendship.
03:08Although Kim Cattrall had suggested over the years that she and her Sex and the City co-stars
03:12weren't really friends, most people didn't think too much about it. After all, plenty
03:15of creative partnerships don't transfer over into close personal friendships. But those
03:19remarks slowly started to have a bit more bite as the years went on, until they exploded
03:23on Instagram in 2018.
03:25Sarah Jessica Parker posted condolences to Cattrall following the death of Cattrall's
03:29brother, prompting Cattrall to reply,
03:31"...I don't need your love and support at this time. Your continuous reaching out is
03:34a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. You are not my family.
03:38You are not my friend."
03:39"...I just wish that Sarah had been nicer."
03:43Single Ladies was a VH1 dramedy about the professional and personal lives of three
03:46successful career women, played by Lisa Rae McCoy, Stacey Dash, and Charity Shea. But
03:51by season two, Dash was out, and Denise Vassi was in. Initially, Dash claimed she voluntarily
03:56left the show because she wanted to spend more time with her kids in Los Angeles, which
03:59was difficult with Single Ladies being an Atlanta production. VH1 backed up that statement
04:04and wished her luck. However, following the fourth and final season in 2016, Lisa Rae
04:08McCoy claimed that she and Dash didn't get along on set, and eventually got to a point
04:12where there was cursing and fingers in faces. McCoy hasn't always been consistent in admitting
04:16whether or not she outright got Dash fired, seeming to admit it in one interview but denying
04:20it in another.
04:21When he wasn't openly criticizing the quality of his show community in the press, Chevy
04:26Chase was butting heads with his castmates as well as show creator Dan Harmon. At first,
04:30it seemed like Chase was just being his usual cranky, hard-to-work-with self, which wasn't
04:34anything new for the actor. However, his hostility toward community and the people who worked
04:37on it with him just seemed to get worse and worse as time went on. Coming to a head during
04:41the Season 3 wrap party, Harmon got everyone's attention and made fun of Chase for the actor's
04:46behavior.
04:47Chevy left embarrassed, but later blew up on Harmon in a voicemail. According to Harmon,
04:50they soon reconciled. Community co-star Joel McHale later revealed on the Inside of You
04:54podcast that he and Chase sometimes came to blows, and that McHale dislocated Chase's
04:58shoulder during one altercation.
05:00Fist fight or verbal?
05:02Fist.
05:03Did you fight fists?
05:04Multiple times.
05:05You fought him?
05:06We, we, we, there was pushing and shoving, yeah.
05:08Another cast member, Donald Glover, said Chase would sometimes make racially charged comments
05:12at him between takes in an effort to throw him off.
05:15On the set of One Tree Hill, co-stars Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush started dating
05:19just as their respective characters were also sparking up a relationship. The actors moved
05:23quickly, dating for two years before getting married, and then separating only five months
05:27into their marriage. Much to their dismay, their characters were just coming back together
05:31after a period of estrangement, with the reunion coinciding with the breakup of Murray and
05:35Bush's real-life marriage.
05:36Their split was far from amicable, with Bush trying to have the marriage annulled on the
05:40grounds of fraud, claiming that Murray misled her on truly wanting to get married in the
05:43first place. As the years have gone on, the two stars have each made various statements
05:47about the split, none being particularly positive. Nonetheless, they still had to spend a further
05:52three seasons together, despite going through a messy and bitter divorce.
05:55While it was alleged that Shannon Doherty clashed with most of her castmates on Beverly
05:59Hills 90210, she seemed to have a particularly ugly relationship with co-star Jenny Garth.
06:04Tori Spelling recalled that Doherty and Garth got involved in such a brutal physical altercation
06:08one time that their male co-stars had to break them up. The cast urged Spelling, who happened
06:12to be the daughter of the show's executive producer Aaron Spelling, to convince her dad
06:15to fire Doherty, and he did.
06:17Garth and Spelling reflected on the incident later, mostly laughing it off and chalking
06:21the beef up to immaturity. The pair also stated that they were thrilled to have Doherty back
06:25in the fold for BH 90210, which saw the original cast members return to play exaggerated versions
06:30of themselves making a 90210 reboot.
06:33Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alison Hannigan, best friends and Slayer sidekick combo on
06:37Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reportedly had a lot of tension between them off-camera, especially
06:41in 2003, when Gellar supposedly shocked her co-stars by announcing she was leaving the
06:46series. Though there wasn't an issue before, Hannigan's interview on Watch What Happens
06:49Live sure changed all that.
06:51Who was the most annoyed to be on Buffy the Vampire Slayer by the end of the show's run?
06:56Sarah.
06:57When the crowd began to murmur in response, Hannigan quickly added that she had a big
07:01career going and the stunt-heavy Buffy series was a lot of work. Hannigan went on to say
07:05that Gellar lost her patience for the show long before it even ended. When asked by which
07:09specific season the show's star grew to hate doing Buffy, Hannigan said it was Season 3,
07:13hinting that Gellar's unhappiness had gone on for a while.
07:16It's been well-documented that Family Matters was retooled significantly when Jaleel White's
07:20side character Steve Urkel became the show's breakout star. The show increasingly became
07:24more focused on Urkel, and storylines started to get more outlandish and gimmicky to match.
07:29That shift never sat well with his castmates. As White told TV1,
07:33It's very important that I say this. I was not very well welcomed to the cast at all,
07:37okay?
07:38He claims that his co-stars felt that his popularity diminished their importance, an
07:41assertion that he disagrees with. JoMarie Payton said that she and White once butted
07:44heads so badly during a particular shoot that White challenged her to a physical fight,
07:48an offer she said she nearly took him up on. Payton was replaced partway through the
07:52final season, though she insists that she was simply ready to move on to other things
07:56and that her exit had nothing to do with White.
07:59George Pappard and Mr. T often clashed while making The A-Team. Allegedly, Mr. T was the
08:03biggest star on the show at the time, and he was acting like it. That didn't sit well
08:06with the more seasoned, professional Pappard. The veteran actor wasn't shy about expressing
08:10his issues with Mr. T and would openly speak ill of him in interviews even while the show
08:14was still airing.
08:15After one particularly rough incident involving the two, they apparently didn't speak for
08:19nearly four months, which is pretty tricky for two people who are the leads on a television
08:23show together.
08:24While Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams were close friends for decades following the ending
08:28of Laverne & Shirley, things were much different while the show was actually on the air. Gary
08:32Marshall, Penny's brother and one of the sitcom's co-creators and producers, revealed in his
08:362012 memoir that the women struggled with getting so famous so quickly, often yelling
08:41and cursing at each other during production of the series. That was corroborated by other
08:44sources over the years, who also pointed out how the women were always competing over which
08:48one should be the bigger presence on the show, down to having their agents clock their screen
08:52time with stopwatches.
08:53At first, fans didn't have any indication that Larry Wilcox and Eric Estrada weren't
08:58pals off-screen like their characters were on the late 70s cop show Chips, at least not
09:02until the actors started having parties and major life events that the other didn't get
09:06invited to. First, Estrada didn't invite Wilcox to his wedding or his big birthday bash, both
09:11of which Wilcox pointed to as part of the reason why he didn't invite Estrada to his
09:14own 1980 wedding. At the time, people quoted Wilcox as saying,
09:18"'There's no point going around telling people Eric is my best chum, because he's not and
09:21never will be.'"
09:22But time eventually cooled the tension between the actors. They seemed to be in a good place
09:26when they reunited years later for the made-for-TV movie Chips 99, and were shown to be goofing
09:30around with one another on the convention circuit as recently as 2024.