Bruce Willis, the marquee star of box office blockbusters like “Armageddon” and “The Sixth Sense,” may not be the most fun guy on the call sheet, according to some of those who have worked with him. “Moonlighting” in the late ’80s gave Willis his first break. It also fed his ever growing ego as his star power was growing.
In an interview with Moonlighting Strangers, producer Jay Daniel said he played “referee” on set while stars Willis and Cybill Shepherd would constantly bicker. Shepherd shared a similar account, telling EW, “I remember at one point in the show, it had gotten to where we just hated each other.” Director Kevin Smith alleged on Marc Maron’s podcast (via Film Drunk) that working with the actor on 2010’s “Cop Out” was “f***in soul-crushing. I mean, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Oh, you’re just trying to blame the movie on him.’ No, but I had no f***ing help from this dude whatsoever.”
When Sylvester Stallone asked that dude to return to “The Expendables” franchise for the third installment, Willis asked for a million dollars a day. After news of Willis’ exit broke, the “Rocky” star tweeted, “GREEDY AND LAZY . . . A SURE FORMULA FOR CAREER FAILURE.” At that price, Stallone decided Willis was, well, expendable. An inside source told The Hollywood Reporter at the time, “I think [Willis] was pretty surprised he was replaced in 72 hours by Harrison Ford — a better actor, a much nicer person.”
