8 Actors Who Were Scared Of Other Actors - Commenter Edition

They're just acting, right? The knife is a prop... isn't it?

By Jonathan H. Kantor /

One of the most important aspects of acting is reacting. Playing off of another actor's portrayal in a scene only works when an actor or actress gets into the mind of their character, and plays off of their scene partner. While many professionals do this all the time without any problem, there have been instances where one actor has scared the hell out of another.

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It doesn't happen as often as you might think, but every once in a while, an actor will become too method in their portrayal of a character, they go a little wild and over-the-top in their performance.

On the one hand, they're talented and good at their jobs, on the other, it's all make-believe, so toning it down isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some actors have refused to work with others for this sort of behavior, and every so often, stories will leak the tantalizing details of why one person remains apprehensive about working with someone in the industry.

These ten actors and actresses have experienced real fear while working alongside other actors. Whether they got over that fear or not is another story.

Please Note: This is a sequel to our article from a few weeks ago 10 Actors Who Were Scared Of Other Actors which you can read HERE.

8. Anthony Perkins Ensured Janet Leigh Would Never Shower Again In Psycho

Who He Scared: Janet Leigh

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Alfred Hitchcock has a history of terrifying his actresses, and while plenty of people are familiar with the story of Tippi Hedren's fearful filming during the movie The Birds, less know of Janet Leigh's terror in the movie Psycho. Granted, a movie about a psychopath killing people in a motel could lead to some nasty experiences.

Hitchcock may have been the director, but it was Anthony Perkins who terrified Janet Leigh during the filming of Psycho. The infamous shower scene was the culprit, and going through that filmmaking process left Leigh in a state of terror, which would go on to affect her entire life.

Since filming the movie, Leigh refused to take a shower ever again. The experience of filming her death while bathing in the movie had a lasting impact on the actress, and she stuck to baths until the day she died, but that's just part of her reaction to working across Perkins in that scene.

When Leigh did choose to bathe in a bathtub, she could only do so if all the doors and windows were tightly locked shut. It's likely she replayed the scene in her head every time she set foot in a tub, so it makes sense that the scene affected her the way it did.

"I stopped taking showers, and I take baths, only baths. I make sure the doors and windows of the house are locked and I leave the bathroom door open and shower curtain open. I’m always facing the door, watching, no matter where the showerhead is."
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