The hardest actor to work with, according to Tony Scott: “He is difficult to handle”
As one of the action genre’s leading directorial lights, Tony Scott was no stranger to working with some of the biggest names Hollywood had to offer. For the most part, he knew how to handle a star, but one actor stood out as a notably tricky customer.
It was Scott who helped steer Tom Cruise to superstardom after helming the 1986 classic Top Gun, and they re-teamed again four years later on racing thriller Days of Thunder. However, he was soon outstripped and outgunned as the filmmaker’s leading man of choice by Denzel Washington, who went on to become one of his most trusted collaborators.
The pair partnered up for Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable, while Scott’s myriad of other A-list colleagues included Beverly Hills Cop II‘s Eddie Murphy, The Last Boy Scout‘s Bruce Willis, Enemy of the State‘s Will Smith, Spy Game‘s Brad Pitt, The Fan‘s Robert De Niro, and Revenge‘s Kevin Costner.
At least one of those names has been labelled difficult at one point or another, but none of them are the offending party Scott settled on when quizzed by the BBC to out the most challenging performer he’d ever worked with. Instead, he plumped for a certified legend of cinema, although his issues were derived largely from his innate gifts.
“Damn, I’m going to end up in trouble here,” Scott began, before pointing the finger squarely at Academy Award-winning veteran Robert Duvall, even if he did have his reasons for deciding he was the most prominent thorn in his side. “Why? Because he’s crazy and that’s his strength. He is difficult to handle but he is brilliant. Since I worked with him, I’ve offered him every movie I’d done, but it’s just… He’s a handful.”
Duvall played Harry Hogge in Days of Thunder, serving as the team leader and mentor to Cruise’s brash upstart Cole Trickle. It’s a typically assured, wizened performance from The Godfather star, and while there were hardly widespread reports of errant behaviour or foul-mouthed outbursts emanating from the production, there was clearly a certain degree of tension between the performer and director if he was happy to call Duvall the single most difficult thespian he’d ever had to deal with.
Any friction that began on the Days of Thunder set may have left an impact on Duvall, though, considering that he never worked with Scott ever again. As the filmmaker said, he was happy to continue offering him parts in virtually every one of his future projects – and it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine him playing the Gene Hackman roles in either Crimson Tide or Enemy of the State, hypothetically speaking – but the interest was entirely one-sided and went completely unreciprocated.
