10 Biggest Movie Set Meltdowns Ever

A Hollywood movie set is no place for anyone with a short fuse. Showbiz might seem glamorous but shooting a film is more stressful than you might think, and it doesn't help that a high percentage of actors are certifiably insane.

Time really is money in this industry and vast quantities of it are circling the drain when a scene has to be binned and reshot. There's a cantankerous co-star trying to steal the spotlight and an overzealous director yelling "cut" every five minutes. Is it any wonder that tensions have boiled over during some of these shoots?

Certain movie sets have descended into momentary chaos when the pressure has gotten too much for one of the actors involved, and another cast member or some poor sap from the crew usually feels their wrath as a result.

It isn't just the actors who have a tendency to meltdown on set. When the film just isn't coming together and studio execs are breathing down their necks, directors have been known to buckle under the pressure and take aim at their nearest co-worker.

Occasionally these outbursts find their way into the hands of news outlets or wind up on the internet, and in some cases, they're more entertaining than the movie itself.

Director David O. Russell and actress Lily Tomlin were like fire and gasoline on the set of his 2004 comedy-drama I Heart Huckabees, and behind the scenes, there was certainly more drama than comedy between the pair.

A leaked video from the production revealed a incendiary exchange between these two. It starts out as a run-of-the-mill disagreement when Tomlin complains about being given too much direction, but later escalates into an all-out firestorm.

Needless to say, Russell doesn't come off particularly well when he's tossing F-bombs and C-bombs in Tomlin's direction, hurling things onto the floor and ranting about how he's "worked on this f***ing thing for three f***ing years".

When the footage emerged, Russell's reputation took a battering, but Tomlin has since downplayed the incident and even praised the filmmaker for his passion on set.