George Clooney can throw down when the situation calls for it... And by 'throw down' we mean literally throw a famous director down on the ground.
Okay, we don't know precisely how his physical altercation with this A-list director looked, but apparently, it was nasty AF. Sure, George Clooney may be known for his nuanced performances in Michael Clayton, Up In The Air, and Good Night And Good Luck, as well as for being a major prankster and an all-around charming man, but he's gotten into some legitimate trouble.
Here's the truth about his highly controversial physical fight with director David O. Russell.
George Clooney Did Not Like How David Was Treating Everybody
There have been quite a few reports of George Clooney's troubles with David O. Russell on the set of their 1999 war movie, Three Kings. Throughout shooting the highly demanding movie, George was becoming increasingly angry with the director, according to Cinema Blend. First of all, George received a pay cut while working on the project as well as scheduling overlap which put him at risk with his television job at ER. On top of this, George would constantly see what he perceived as abuse. While filming the climax of the film, things reached an aggressive boiling point.
"Now we're shooting the climax of the movie. Helicopters, explosions, gunfire. It's chaos, madness," Three Kings' producer Charles Roven said to The Hollywood Reporter. "George sees David talking to the extras' [assistant director], and it looks like he's yelling at him. But he's yelling to be heard. And George comes running over and goes, 'I told you, mother****r, if you're going to pick on somebody, pick on me.' And David goes, 'Why don't you just f****** remember your lines for once?' And boom! They grab each other, and they're tussling. And so I pulled George away. That was it."
Clearly, there was an extreme amount of tension on the set between George and the American Hustle director. After all, to go from arguing to full-on fighting at work is a big leap. While George has seemingly said otherwise, David claims that George threw the first punch and things got crazy from there.
"He started banging me on the head with his head. He goes, 'Hit me, you f***. 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," George Clooney said in an interview with Playboy Magazine.
We're not sure how George and David are nowadays, but for nearly a decade after Three Kings was released and that story became public, the two were trading barbs in the press.
In 2004, George Clooney spoke to Premiere Magazine and said, "Quite honestly, if [David] comes near me, I'll sock him right in the f***ing mouth."
According to The Guardian, David retaliated in the press much later saying, "I never physically attacked him. If I ran into him, I'd say, 'Shut the f*** up, you lying-a** b***h.'"
While promoting The Fighter in 2010, David did his best to avoid speaking about the issue when asked about it. While he claimed he regretted how tense things became, he didn't outright apologize to George nor absolve him of his own actions.
Then again, according to Bustle, David O. Russell has a long history of bad behavior on set that definitely didn't end on Three Kings.
David O. Russell's History Of Bad Behaviour
While David O. Russell's fight with George Clooney may be the most famous in Hollywood, his vicious argument with Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees received viral fame after the fight was leaked online. While Lily has since forgiven David and even shot another movie with him, there's no denying that the argument was just downright brutal. In the leaked video David started calling Lily the C-word and kicking furniture and props. Lily, of course, retaliated, hurling some vicious insults his way.
Viewers of the video... beware...
Aside from his battle with Lily, David has also gotten in trouble for his treatment of Amy Adams on the set of American Hustle. While he would yell at Jennifer Lawrence and some of the other actors as well, Amy claimed that she had a really hard time dealing with his angry directing style. According to Amy, co-star Christian Bale even had to step in and defend her.
While George Clooney's physical attack on the undeniably talented director may not have been the most diplomatic way of dealing with conflict, it seems as though he had his reasons. His claims of David's treatment of other people on set certainly fall in line with other reported stories years after the Three Kings incident.