The Most Vicious Battles Behind The Camera

If you think Davis and Crawford's relationship was twisted, just know that their antics don't hold a candle to the madness that passed between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. Though the pair is often mentioned as one of the more fruitful director/actor collaborations in history, their love/hate relationship was complicated to say the least.

Okay, complicated might be an understatement; their relationship was actually quite dangerous. In fact, of the five films Herzog and Kinski worked on, all were plagued by frequent arguments and violent clashes between actor and director. Such was the case with their very first collaboration, 1972's Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Tensions between the pair quickly flared on the film's steamy South American set as Kinski (who we now know had serious mental problems) flew into wild rages and frequently held up filming. Late in the film's production, Kinski even threatened to abandon the project altogether, leading Herzog to threaten the actor with death "I told him I had a rifle and that he'd only make it as far as the first bend before he had eight bullets in his head—the ninth one would be for me."

When the duo returned to the jungles for 1982's Fitzcarraldo, their fiery relationship again boiled over. To be clear, Kinski was not supposed to be in Fitzcarraldo—he was a last-minute substitute for an ailing Jason Robards—but once he was on set, well, things went sideways fast. According to Herzog, Kinski was so out of control that "natives" working on the project offered to kill Kinski for the sake of the film. Herzog replied, "No, for God's sake! I still need him for shooting." Hey, who says making movies can't be fun?