Celebs Who Had Disgusting On-Set Habits
Some of Hollywood's biggest names have found that when you're fabulously wealthy with box office appeal, grossing out your coworkers probably won't hinder your career — no matter how pungent you smell or how inappropriately you dispose of certain bodily fluids. Perhaps many celebrities' disgusting habits go unchecked because others around them are reluctant to make a fuss for fear of bruising the wrong ego. However, there's no shortage of stories about stars with hygiene issues and other unpleasant tendencies have circulated over the years.
Often, celebrities have their co-stars to thank for spilling the beans about their ickiest idiosyncrasies. Even when they leave their gross behavior at home, they can't always keep their dirty secrets hidden forever, as was the case when Ben Affleck outed Matt Damon for being a slob back when the "Good Will Hunting" collaborators were roomies. Spouses can blab about off-putting practices, too. Hopefully, Orlando Bloom's habit that Katy Perry can't stand is one he didn't bring to work with him — if so, Legolas was leaving a trail of used floss for the Nazgûl to follow.
Unfortunately, other actors don't clean up their act when it's time to start filming. Be forewarned: some of the on-set body emissions and other offenses to the senses below are pretty revolting.
The disturbing way Dwayne Johnson avoids bathroom breaks during filming
If you don't want to smell what The Rock was cooking long after the fact — especially if it was asparagus — don't sniff the contents of his Voss water bottle. In a 2024 interview with The Wrap about the production problems that plagued Dwayne Johnson's holiday film "Red One," an industry insider leaked a squicky story about what Johnson sometimes does when he needs to relieve himself while filming. "He pees in a Voss water bottle and his team, or a PA has to dispose of it," the source said, explaining that this is Johnson's preference over using any public facilities that the rest of the cast and crew are presumably expected to settle for.
Johnson had previously admitted to emptying the contents of his bladder into water bottles during workouts — after all, you can't expect great gains if you have to keep making drains. He was promoting one of his shoe collabs with Under Armour in a 2017 Instagram video when he accidentally included some product placement for Voss that the premium water brand probably wouldn't have signed off on. Yup, he actually filmed one of his urine bottles, and it turns out that his hydration game could use a little work.
Johnson tried to paint his unorthodox pee breaks as a positive practice, saying, "I go hardcore when I train." As far as that report that he also uses bottles as portable bathrooms on set are concerned, he told GQ in 2024, "Yeah. That happens." At least he had an ocean at his disposal while filming the live-action version of "Moana."
Will Smith's foul flatulence caused an evacuation
What were those worm aliens putting in the coffee in the MIB breakroom? In a 2019 Vulture interview, "Men in Black" director Barry Sonnenfeld recounted how Will Smith once let one rip that smelled so revolting that it was too much for the human olfactory system to handle. Will dropped the odious odor bomb while he and his "Men in Black" co-lead, Tommy Lee Jones, were sealed inside a contraption designed to look like a car. At the time, they were filming the scene in which their characters' vehicle drives upside down over the traffic clogging the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
Sonnenfeld realized something was seriously wrong when he heard Will apologizing to Jones profusely and begging for the two of them to be let out of the rig. "Tommy is a manly man ... So he played it cool. But man, as soon as we opened it up, Tommy was outta there," he recalled. In a later appearance on the "Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa" podcast, Sonnenfeld's further musings on Will's fetid flatuosity revealed that this possibly wasn't the only time the director experienced it firsthand. "Will Smith is a farter. It's just some people are," he said. To paint a better picture of just how powerfully putrid the actor's gaseous gales are, Sonnenfeld added, "We evacuated the stage for about three hours."
While he was apologetic to Jones, Will once said during a "Red Table Talk" discussion, "I like being gassy." He also revealed that days sometimes pass between his bowel movements, to which his son Jaden Smith replied, "That's why your farts smell like that."
Jeremy Jackson's swimsuit sniffing
"Baywatch" made red swimsuits with high-cut legs iconic in the '90s, and some of its stars kept theirs when the series ended, including Pamela Anderson. In 2023, she told People she planned to sell hers — which was perhaps music to the ears of her former co-star, Jeremy Jackson. From the ages of 10 to 19, he starred on "Baywatch" as Hobie Buchannon, the son of lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (David Hasselhoff). And unbeknownst to his castmates, he was engaging in some pervy adolescent antics. "I would usually sneak into [the women's] trailers after they were done and grab their dirty bathing suits," he confessed in the documentary "After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun" (via the New York Post). "Let's just say I smelled every [bleep] on 'Baywatch.'"
According to Jackson, his favorite swimsuit to sniff was the one worn by Nicole Eggert. He admitted this in the creepiest manner possible, saying, "We had a very intimate moment, her and I, that she never knew about." In addition to Anderson and Eggert, other actors who potentially had their one-pieces inhaled by Jackson were Yasmine Bleeth and Carmen Electra.
Surprisingly, Eggert didn't come down with an extreme case of the ick after learning what Jackson said about his obsession with the aroma of his castmates' bathing suits. "It's hilarious, and I know people are shocked by it," she told TMZ, adding, "I just love it because I love him for his honesty."
Shailene Woodley's stinky supplements
There are quite a few actors who didn't enjoy kissing their co-stars, and they're more than happy to share their on-screen liplock horror stories. "Top Gun: Maverick" star Miles Teller is a member of this kiss-and-tell club. In 2013, he explained to Variety that Shailene Woodley's fondness for eating dirt made it unpleasant to film some of their characters' romantic scenes in "The Spectacular Now." He recalled, "Before our first kissing scene, Shailene took these Chinese dirt supplements and shoved them in her mouth. It's like a dirt pouch, and it smells like crap." He added that she also toted around a mason jar that reeked just as badly.
Unfortunately for Teller, asking Woodley to give her teeth a vigorous brushing before they had to smooch possibly didn't help much if she was following the lead of a fellow believer in the power of consuming earthen wellness products. "One of my friends was making a clay toothpaste that you swallow instead of spit out," she told Into The Gloss. "But I first heard about the benefits of eating clay from a taxi driver."
Apparently, chowing down on bits of the ground doesn't just make your breath smell crappy — it also gives your crap a distinctive scent. "When you first start eating clay, your bowel movements, pee, and even you, yourself, will smell like metal," Woodley said. At least Teller didn't complain about feeling like he was kissing C-3PO.
Woody Harrelson's healthy diet had a disgusting side effect
Sometimes, you want to go where everybody knows your name, but you can't expect them to always be glad you came when you bring some malodorous methane fumes with you. Celebrities farting on sets is apparently a fairly common occurrence, but the stenches of some stars' colon coughs are worse than others. Woody Harrelson is a member of this group, so anyone who starred alongside him and Will Smith in the movie "Seven Pounds" should have had their noses pinched shut with clothespins whenever possible.
When several members of the cast of "Cheers" reunited on stage at the ATX Television Festival in 2023, Ted Danson accused Harrelson of attacking his nostrils with noxious gases from the depths of his bowels on purpose. "He'd look me right in the eye, waiting for his fart to reach my nose," Danson recalled, per IndieWire. "He was like a killer — he wanted to see my eyes go out."
A year later, the two men were discussing Harrelson's horrendous rectal hiccups on their "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" podcast when Danson revealed, "His vegetarian farts were so horrible that he would shut down production." But Harrelson jumped in to correct his friend by noting that his farts were actually vegan. He also suggested that it wasn't just his dietary choices making his toots so toxic. "That was back when I didn't chew my food," he explained.
Johnny Galecki left a lot of DNA on The Big Bang Theory set
If an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" was named after Johnny Galecki's gross habit, a fitting title would be "The Gum Accumulation Abomination." This is what the actor created over the course of the 12 years he filmed the popular CBS sitcom, according to his castmate Kunal Nayyar.
On "Sunday Brunch," Nayyar revealed what fans would see if they were to walk down the (fake) stairwell that the "Big Bang" gang was forced to use because their apartment building's elevator was perpetually broken. "There's a wall there where Johnny Galecki, for 12 years, would stick his chewing gum on. I'm not joking," he said (via The Independent). That couldn't have been a pretty sight to be greeted with whenever the cast pretended that they were leaving the premises. He also shared a theory about the fate of the wall decorated with Galecki's wads of spit, polymers, preservatives, rubber, and sweeteners. "I am sure it's for sale somewhere on the internet," he joked.
While Galecki's gum disposal method was as icky as it was sticky, perhaps his co-stars benefitted from his gum chewing. It's possible he was trying to eliminate the cigarette smell from his breath, but a source told In Touch in 2016, "All the air fresheners, breath mints and gum in the world can't hide Johnny's bad [smoking] habit."
Jared Padalecki's poor trailer etiquette appalled Jensen Ackles
Apparently, if you have "alecki" in your name, you're more prone to doing strange things with your chewing gum. However, Johnny Galecki's gum wall isn't as gross as what Jared Padalecki always did when he dropped by the trailer of his "Supernatural" co-star, Jensen Ackles. At the 2018 "Supernatural" convention in Seattle, Ackles revealed that Padalecki would waltz through the door, remove his chewing gum from his mouth, and stick it on the counter beside the sink.
Unlike Galecki, Padalecki didn't leave his gum wad where he stuck it — but what he did was arguably worse. "He picks it back up and puts it in his mouth and leaves," Ackles revealed. He found Padalecki's bad gum etiquette baffling because there was no shortage of fresh sticks of the stuff at the craft services table. But Padalecki explained that he just wanted to fully savor each piece's flavor. "Gum tastes better when it's been exposed to oxygen," he insisted. "That's why you smack it."
While Ackles disagreed with his friend, he also likes to give his jaw a regular workout at work. At a convention in Pittsburgh, he explained that the Winchester bros have a gum-hating teacher to thank for their minty, fresh breath. "For 13 seasons, just so you know, both Sam and Dean have had gum in their mouth in every scene just to prove my English teacher wrong," he said.
Jennifer Lawrence's thoughtless snacking before smooching Liam Hemsworth
Liam Hemsworth hated kissing Jennifer Lawrence at work, and for good reason. In a 2014 appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," Hemsworth claimed that his "Hunger Games" co-star tried to sabotage their snogging scenes by going out of her way to make sure they were a miserable experience for him. "She would make a point of eating garlic or tuna fish or something that was disgusting," he recalled. "And right before the scene, she'd be like, 'Yeah ... I didn't brush my teeth.'"
Lawrence shared her side of the story on "Hot Ones." She claimed that her diet wasn't a scheme to make Hemsworth nauseous; she just had a habit of thoughtlessly snacking on pungent foods before it was time to pucker up and plant a wet one on her co-star. "It was not intentional," she insisted.
What was intentional was when Lawrence decided to relieve herself while filming some of their movies' outdoor scenes. At Comic-Con in 2013, she shared one of her favorite perks of filming "Catching Fire" on the Hawaiian coast. "Anytime you have to pee you can just run right in the water," she said, per Mirror. "It was amazing, because the water was really warm." Apparently, urinating outside was another J-Law habit that her "Hunger Games" co-stars had to get used to. On "The Tonight Show," Amandla Stenberg even recalled, "She taught me how to pee in the woods."
Kate Winslet's Titanic tinkling confession
Much ado has been made about the door that Kate Winslet's "Titanic" character, Rose, couldn't share with the love of her life, Jack, in the 1997 epic about the titular boat's ill-fated voyage. Knowing what he did about what was swirling around in the water surrounding him, Leonardo DiCaprio probably envied Winslet for getting to keep her head above water instead of sinking into its dark depths as he did. "Yes, I admit to sometimes peeing in that water," Winslet said in a 1998 Rolling Stone interview. The actor argued that there was a practical purpose for this, saying, "You didn't want to have to get out and go to the bathroom, which would take half an hour with corsets and dresses and all that sort of thing."
Winslet wasn't the only one using the giant tank that Jack's tragic death was filmed in as a toilet. "Leo would sometimes say to me, 'Sweetie, sweetie, I gotta pee,'" she recalled on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show." And when the urge to take a whizz hits when you're in the water right next to someone, you've got to decide if you want to do so near, far, or wherever you are.
Ever the gentleman, DiCaprio moved away from where they were filming, and Winslet did the same. "And so I sort of swim away for three meters ... 'Oh, warm patch! Warm patch!'" she recalled, adding, "You always felt awful doing it." Hopefully, knowing this wee fact doesn't ruin Jack and Rose's romance for "Titanic" fans.
When Scarlett Johansson discovered the stomach-churning contents of Bradley Cooper's cup
Jennifer Lawrence didn't enjoy kissing Bradley Cooper while filming the 2012 movie "Silver Linings Playbook," and she had no qualms about telling him why. "After the second take she said, 'You're a wet kisser.' You don't want to hear that," Cooper recalled on "The Graham Norton Show" (via Metro). But at least she didn't witness what Scarlett Johansson did before she swapped spit with Cooper. Johansson and Cooper had sizzling on-screen chemistry in the steamy scenes they filmed for the 2009 rom-com "He's Just Not That Into You," but Cooper didn't leave the greatest impression on his co-star when she got acquainted with his visually offensive oral habit.
On "The Jonathan Ross Show," Cooper admitted that he used to chew tobacco at work, and it didn't occur to him that Johansson might find this behavior off-putting. He even started discussing a scene with her while he had his spit cup in hand and a chaw of tobacco crammed in his cheek. "I'm spitting, and I remember there was a line of saliva to the cup. It was really disgusting," he recalled.
Cooper also confessed to having the ludicrous idea that Johansson would think his vice was charming. While he didn't share her reaction to seeing him spit out his wad of saliva-soaked tobacco, based on Cooper's palpable shame, she just wasn't that into chew.
Frank Sinatra's strange solution for Shirley MacLaine's gum conundrum
Shirley MacLaine was good friends with the late Frank Sinatra. On "Larry King Now," she even insisted that Ol' Blue Eyes once spoke to her from beyond the grave through a professional channeler. "He said, 'Hi, kid, you're doing great.' Spoke just like he used to," she recalled. When she filmed the 1960 movie "Can-Can" with Sinatra, he came through for her in a different way.
On her website, MacLaine reveals that she had a gum-chewing habit back then. "I was always searching for a place to put my gum before I did a scene," she writes. "Frank had noticed this and said, 'Hey kid, put it here behind my ear. It'll help both of us.'" She did just that, suggesting that the gum placement was helpful because it covered a scar behind Sinatra's ear.
According to a reporter for Screenland magazine who interviewed MacLaine on the very day that this occurred, she was still chewing the same piece of gum after plucking it from its unusual hiding place. She admitted that it had later ruined a shot of Sinatra from behind and explained why she was tucking the well-traveled gum glob inside a napkin: so that she could pop it back into her mouth after lunch. "I like old gum," she said. "New tastes funny." Apparently, Sinatra was fond of creating saliva wads, too, as MacLaine discovered when she filmed "The Children's Hour" with him. She recalled to the Los Angeles Times, "Dean and Frank used to come on the set and throw spitballs in a very dramatic scene that Audrey Hepburn and I were doing."