When most people in Hollywood talk about interacting with George Clooney, it is an extremely pleasant picture that they paint. Known to be a world-class prankster, Clooney has been known to pull off elaborate jokes on all of his best friends and George is a great sport when his pals retaliate. With all of that in mind, it sounds like working on a film with Clooney would be a whole lot of fun.

On the other end of the spectrum, David O. Russell is known for making visionary films and treating his actors terribly. For example, after making the 2004 film I ♥ Huckabees, footage of Russell viciously berating the legendary actor Lily Tomlin was leaked to the public and shocked almost everyone.

When George Clooney and David O. Russell came together to make the movie Three Kings, there was a chance that the actor’s fun-loving ways could have caused the director to lighten up. Unfortunately, the exact opposite turned out to be true and an incident that involved Clooney and Russell has gone down in Hollywood history.

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The Bright Side

When people look back on the people who’ve had a huge impact on Hollywood over the last few decades, George Clooney is bound to be quickly brought up. An extremely talented actor and a good-looking man who exudes charm from his pores, Clooney is a delight to watch on the big screen more often than not.

By the time George Clooney showed up on set to film the 1999 movie Three Kings, he was still in the process of building his reputation in Hollywood. Fortunately for everyone involved in the production of Three Kings, the movie would go on to be a massive hit with critics and do decent business at the box office.

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Things Heat Up

During an interview George Clooney conducted with Playboy in the year 2000, he praised Three Kings director David O. Russell's artistic abilities. In fact, Clooney even said that Russell “is in many ways a genius”. However, later in that same interview, Clooney said that working with Russell was "truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life." Considering that Clooney has a long history of building strong relationships with his co-workers, that quote says a lot about how hard it was for him to work with Russell.

During the aforementioned Playboy interview, George Clooney spoke about the fact that he and David O. Russell got into a violent fight while making Three Kings. According to Clooney, from day one Russell was abusive but after Clooney confronted him several times, he began to behave better. However, several days later, Clooney says that Russell lost it on an extra who he wanted to throw George to the ground in character.

"David walked up to him and grabbed him. He pushed him onto the ground. He kicked him and screamed, 'Do you want to be in this [expletive] movie? Then throw him to the [expletive] ground!'" In the past, George Clooney’s employees have said that he is very protective of people. With that in mind, it isn’t surprising that Clooney stepped in to defend the extra’s safety.

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Actor Vs. Director

According to what George Clooney said during the aforementioned Playboy interview, once he stepped in to defend an extra David O. Russell attacked him physically. "He started banging me on the head with his head. He goes, 'Hit me, you [expletive]. Hit me.' Then he got me by the throat and I went nuts. I had him by the throat. I was going to kill him. Kill him. Finally, he apologized, but I walked away."

Once George Clooney and David O. Russell were literally at one another’s throats, you may assume that they were no longer able to work together going forward. In some ways that is true as there is next to no chance that Clooney would ever agree to star in one of Russell’s films in the future. That said, the two men managed to co-exist long enough that they were able to finish shooting Three Kings. However, Clooney has said that Russell “sort of pouted through the rest of the shoot”.

For his part, David O Russell claims that George Clooney was the one who attacked him first. In fact, Rusell once said that if he ever ran into Clooney again, he’d say; “Shut the f**k up, you lying-a** b***h". Fortunately, Clooney clearly has no interest in hanging out with Russell either. In fact, during an interview with Premiere Magazine, Clooney didn’t hold back when addressing what he would do if he ran into Russell. "Quite honestly, if he comes near me, I'll sock him right in the f**king mouth."

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