‘We got along well on camera, but we just didn’t get along on set’: This director didn’t like working with Bruce Willis

Not everyone will like you! During his career, which spanned more than 40 years, Bruce Willis made many friends who paid tribute to him after announcing his early retirement due to an early form of dementia. But the actor was also known for being difficult on set to the detriment of certain directors who simply did not like working with him.

This is the case of Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Rage in the Belly, The Equalizer Saga), who portrayed him in the war film Tears of the Sun alongside Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser and Eamonn Walker.

In an interview with the BBC in 2014, the director was asked about his career. and to the question “Who is the biggest pain you’ve ever worked with?“, he simply answered Bruce Willis !

“It’s a pain in the ass, no problem. We just didn’t get along. We got along behind the camera, but on set, we just couldn’t get along. Some men disagree at work – you have different work ethics, different opinions, different points of view, different filmmaking methods – and we couldn’t agree. Off camera we were friends – Bruce is great – but we just don’t agree when it comes down to it and that’s okay.“

Things are going well outside of work: we made sure!

remind you tears of the Sun The action takes place in Nigeria, where the president’s family has just been killed and civil war is about to begin. A secret commando led by Lieutenant Waters is sent to the edge of the jungle to evacuate humanitarian doctor Lena Kendricks from a village under threat from insurgents. But the course of the mission changes when he refuses to leave without the villagers…

After the shooting, Bruce Willis files a complaint

But finally, on his side too, Bruce Willis The film studio had a claim! In fact, the actress sued Revolution Studios in October 2004 seeking compensation for “negligence” that caused her “mental and physical” injuries during the filming of the film. Tears of the Sun two years ago.

According to the complaint, Bruce Willis Probably received a projectile from a pyrotechnic device used to create the illusion of bullets on the ground. He was wounded in the forehead, he would suffer after that”Significant mental, physical and emotional pain“. He then sought compensation and reimbursement of medical expenses.

Joe Pancake, the film’s special effects specialist, stated that the actor “hot socket“But he wasn’t seriously injured and that his medical records showed that doctors just prescribed paracetamol for pain relief. The lawsuit was settled in 2005, but we don’t know if any money was exchanged between the two parties.

In 2022, friends of the actor suggested in a statement to the DailyMail that his initial aphasia diagnosis may have been related to the aforementioned injuries. In February 2023, at the end of his illness, his family Bruce Willis said that his condition had progressed and that he had now been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and that “His communication problems were just a symptom of the disease“. They now hope that media attention to the actor’s health will raise awareness of the disease.

Tears of the Sun is currently available on Netflix.