10 Old Hollywood Rivalries
It always comes as a shock when it’s revealed that two Hollywood coworkers never actually got along despite their charisma on screen. From Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in The Notebook to the disastrous relationship between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan behind the scenes of Fifty Shades of Grey, actors have been able to repeatedly fool us into thinking there was some substance behind their portrayal, because—well—it is their job.
But Hollywood rivalries and rocky relationships aren’t a completely new phenomenon. Classical Hollywood stars didn’t get along quite as well as you might think.
10 Bette Davis & Joan Crawford
Although he was one of Britain’s finest actors, Laurence Olivier was once described by Sir Alec Guinness as “unpleasant” and “vindictive.” In tapes used for his memoirs, Olivier is bitterly critical of even his most famous co-stars, annihilating the careers of Joan Fontaine, Merle Oberon, Kirk Douglas, and Marlon Brando. Orson Welles wasn’t the biggest fan of Olivier, either, at one point calling him “seriously stupid.”
However, it was for Marilyn Monroe that Olivier claimed his hatred was the strongest. Monroe and Olivier worked together for the first time in The Prince and the Showgirl, and their memoirs paint a vivid picture of their disdain for each other. Monroe was decidedly shy and nervous on set and spent as little time with other cast members as possible. Olivier despised her use of “method acting” and the constant presence of her coach, Paula Strasberg. Another actress who worked on the film, Jean Kent, described Monroe as “grubby” and “disheveled,” claiming that other co-stars took to drink in order to get through the long process of filming with her.
However, Jack Cardiff, who worked as a cinematographer on the film, claimed that Olivier set out to purposefully humiliate the young actress, regarding her as “inferior.” He constantly referred to Monroe as a “bitch” and refused to acknowledge her status as a sex symbol, something she never forgave him for.
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