Why Antoine Fuqua Didn't Enjoy Working With Bruce Willis On Tears Of The Sun

It would seem to be of vital importance that directors and actors at the very least respect each other while they're making a movie, but Hollywood history is riddled with instances where this simply didn't occur. One of the most famous disagreements nearly turned fatal when Werner Herzog threatened to shoot (with a gun) notoriously erratic star Klaus Kinski while filming "Aguirre, the Wrath of God." No guns were brandished on the set of "Hook," but Steven Spielberg famously did not enjoy his time collaborating with Julia Roberts (they haven't worked together since). And then there's David O. Russell, who's fought with and/or terrorized stars like Amy Adams, Lily Tomlin, and George Clooney; if there's any justice, O. Russell, a once-formidable talent who hasn't made a watchable movie since 2010's "The Fighter," won't be allowed back behind the camera until he learns how to behave like a decent human being.

One actor who had a reputation for clashing with his directors is Bruce Willis. The sadly retired performer (who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023) had a horrible time shooting the horrible "Cop Out" with Kevin Smith and was so displeased with Lee Grant's direction of "Broadway Brawler" that the studio, Disney, shut the entire production down (thus forcing Willis to make a movie called "The Sixth Sense").

Willis also butted heads with director Antoine Fuqua while making the 2003 Nigeria-set war film "Tears of the Sun." This was Fuqua's first film since the commercial and critical triumph of "Training Day," which earned Denzel Washington his first Oscar for Best Actor, so the timing of Willis' discontent was a tad surprising. Fuqua was one of the hottest directors in town, and this was supposed to be a prestige action movie. What could've possibly gone wrong?

In a 2004 interview with the BBC timed to the release of Fuqua's "King Arthur" (not to be confused with Guy Ritchie's "Kind Arthur: Legend of the Sword"), the filmmaker unloaded about his contentious experience with Willis on the set of "Tears of the Sun." When asked which actor was the "biggest pain in the arse" he'd ever worked with, Fuqua responded:

"Bruce Willis. Pain in my ass, no problem about that. We just didn't get along. We got along off camera, but shooting ['Tears Of The Sun'] we just didn't get along. Some men don't gel when it comes to work — you have different work ethics, different opinions, different points of views, different methods of filmmaking — and we didn't gel. Off camera we were friends — Bruce is great — but we just don't get along when it comes to work, and that's pretty much it."

For his part, Willis had a right to be hostile. While shooting the film, he was knocked unconscious when a projectile from a staged explosion struck him in the head. He subsequently sued Revolution Studios for damages. Fuqua has continued to stress that his off-camera relationship with Willis was amicable, though he has hinted that he lost a power struggle with the star over the final cut of the movie.