2. James Cameron
Bestowed the moniker '
Iron Jim' for a reason, James Cameron WILL take the camera when the camera operator gets too scared to shoot while dangling out of a moving helicopter. Problem is, the director expects everyone else to follow in his mad footsteps;
Linda Hamilton, one of Cameron's many former wives, was put on a year-long diet by Cameron to prepare for her role in Terminator 2, and was made to train with a former Mossad agent. She has since called the director a "controlling" "jerk" that fails to treat actors like humans on set. It's something
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio would know about, the actress suffering a breakdown while filming The Abyss (Cameron in one underwater scene wouldn't allow Mastrantonio a toilet break, and told her to relieve herself in her wetsuit instead). Ed Harris, too, should know, the actor being led to tears after almost drowning in one Abyss scene. That Cameron's egomania means he must be constantly pushing cinematic boundaries in a bid to prove his prowess doesn't make things easy -
Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, writes that "nothing interests this man unless it's hard to do," and that Cameron tests his crew with "long hours, hard tasks and harsh criticism." Apparently, Cameron doesn't like to see tans on set - crew members are expected to work from dark early morning till the dark of night.