7 Movie Scenes So Extreme They Made Actors Quit

5. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Rage-Quit On James Cameron - The Abyss

By all accounts, production on James Cameron's sci-fi classic The Abyss was absolute hell, as is true of pretty much every Cameron movie.

Star Ed Harris almost drowned filming one scene, ended up punching Cameron as a result and even had an emotional breakdown on his way home from the set, but he forged ahead regardless.

His co-star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio wasn't quite so eager to put up with the director's crap, though, and lost it with Cameron while shooting the famous scene where Harris' character administers CPR to her, desperately slapping her across the face repeatedly while screaming "Fight!"

The famously perfectionist Cameron ordered countless takes of the scene, and it became too much for Mastrantonio when the camera malfunctioned half-way through a take. Soaking wet and fed up of being slapped and screamed at, the actress walked off the set while yelling at Cameron, "We are not animals!"

Because Mastrantonio (temporarily) refused to return, the shots focused on Harris' face are largely composed of the actor shouting at thin air, though given the brilliance of his performance in the scene, you'd never know it.

The actress was eventually convinced to return to the set, of course, and despite the hellish production, the result is one of the most ambitious and unforgettable sci-fi films ever made.