10 Actors Who Wouldn’t Talk To Each Other On Set

By Gareth Morgan / September 9, 2024

Actors can be funny ol' creatures on occasion.

For every star who feels entirely comfortable sitting down for a cup of coffee in-between takes that involve their character battling against a sworn on-screen enemy, there's another who simply cannot bring themselves to share the same space as their cast-mate for a whole host of intriguing reasons.

Now that's not to say that every single actor out there should be expected to be a talkative soul and leave both the cast and crew in stitches each and every day before a director shouts "action!" But there's choosing to keep things a little more professional, and then there's feeling that the only way to get the best out of themselves and their scene partner was to completely ignore a co-star throughout the filming process.

In some cases, that choice to keep from chatting to another actor on set when the cameras weren't rolling unquestionably led to cinematic gold, it must be said. But in others, though, it likely just left the stars on the receiving end of the blanking feeling a little bit awkward and wondering what they'd done to p*ss off their fellow performer.

So, it's time to talk about those actors who just didn't feel the need to do any of that to their co-star on movie and TV sets.

10. Joaquin Phoenix Didn't Like Talking To De Niro All That Much On Set - Joker

Different actors have different processes.

And in the case of eventual Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix, the Joker star isn't exactly the biggest fan of reading through a script with the rest of his cast-mates in the lead-up to shooting a picture, feeling that he works better when just performing in the moment opposite his fellow actors.

Robert De Niro, however, is someone known for being fond of hearing the whole movie in a room with all involved before getting out onto set to film the project.

Ultimately, Phoenix was convinced to mumble his way through the read. But after kissing and making up on the back of that early read-through drama, the pair proceeded to barely utter a word to one another throughout the rest of the shoot.

Despite De Niro being the leading man's "favourite American actor", outside of a "good morning" on their first day, Phoenix "didn't like" talking to his co-star and couldn't recall many conversations with Bob on set.

Both men clearly felt there wasn't any need to do much chatting when the cameras stopped rolling, with De Niro also adding that they didn't need to talk about anything outside of the scene and it "made it simpler" to just "do the work" and "relate as the characters to each other."