12 Directors Everyone Hates Working With (But Get Awesome Results)

12. Michael Mann

His Reputation: Michael Mann is known for being a fierce perfectionist on his film shoots: for instance, while making Ali, he insisted upon shooting a scene set in Muhammad Ali's home at his actual house, despite the fact it was on the flight-path of Miami International Airport, meaning a plane would fly past and make dialogue inaudible every 90 or so seconds. While working on Miami Vice, meanwhile, reports emerged that as the production ran over-schedule and over-budget, he routinely chewed out crew members and clashed with Jamie Foxx's "unconventional" acting method. Furthermore, on the set of gangster flick Public Enemies, Depp reportedly found Mann's shooting style so "chaotic" that the two eventually stopped talking to one another. Why He's Worth Working With: To date, Mann has been nominated for four Oscars (two for producing, one for directing, one for writing), and though his more recent work has hardly been his top output, he remains a world-class director who, with the right script, can knock out quality pics every time. With his distinctive visual style and tendency to get actors nominated for Oscars (Russell Crowe in The Insider, Will Smith and Jon Voight in Ali, and Jamie Foxx in Collateral), it's little surprise that actors are prepared to put up with his roughshod directing style.