The Shady Side Of Stephen Dorff

From Armie Hammer to Mark Wahlberg, some of Hollywood's most popular actors have shown the world a real shady side. And while some shady moments have been captured on film, others will forever be immortalized in print, like Stephen Dorff's eyebrow-raising comments about other movie stars and their career choices. And those comments are just the tip of the iceberg. The "Blade" star has exhibited some truly shady behavior — and had no qualms about doing so.

Sure, every now and again, Dorff will offer up a quote that suggests he isn't all snark. For example, when MTV News asked him about working with Britney Spears on the "Everytime" music video, he called the pop superstar "very nice" and "very sweet." And when chatting with "Somewhere" director Sofia Coppola for Interview, he said, "I immediately hooked into your style of writing, where not everything is all spelled out."

But when Dorff does have something critical to say about Hollywood? He doesn't hold back, nor has he tried to curb his bad boy behavior. He's also never been apologetic about either. This is the shady side of Stephen Dorff.

Stephen Dorff has a lot of complaints about Hollywood and he wants the world to know them. Over the past decade, he's regularly trashed different aspects of the industry, from scriptwriters to network TV. In 2013, for example, he told Variety that Hollywood is "majorly changing" and "there is very rarely a movie now where I'm like, 'F***, I should have gotten in that.'" Calling that year's summer blockbuster "Thor: The Dark World" "a weird soap opera Halloween spectacle," he boasted that he prefers taking on smaller projects because "otherwise, my job is boring, waiting for 'Robocop 8' or whatever the f*** else garbage they make." Dorff also slammed screenwriters, saying, "I find that dialogue is bad in most scripts. I just think there are very few writers that can capture the natural way people talk."

In 2020, he sat down with Variety again and shared more criticism. "I miss the old days," he lamented. "I miss the old Hollywood producers. I miss the glamor and the mystery of what Hollywood used to be." Saying that "it's all a big joke now," he ripped into network TV, calling it "a stale medium," claiming he "spent 30 years turning down network TV." He then defended his decision to join Fox's "Deputy" by saying "it was just outrageous what they were coming to me with. I had to do it," he reasoned, but added, "I despised creatively where the show went [...] I hate the medium."

Stephen Dorff has made a habit of slamming his own projects. Just like he berated "Deputy," a show he starred in for one season before Fox pulled it off the air, he also took issue with his role in 2009's "Public Enemies," which co-starred Johnny Depp and was co-written and directed by Michael Mann. Initially, he gushed about the flick, telling Interview magazine in 2009 that "Michael Mann has always been one of my favorites" and noting that "'Public Enemies' was the biggest film I've ever worked on." He also enthused that "it was great to work with Johnny. He's always been an actor I've looked up to and respected." 

That seemed to change after he saw the finished product. Speaking with Vulture in 2010, he reflected on spending six months shooting the film, saying, "I love Michael, but I don't know. We shot that movie for a long time, and when you see the movie, there's a lot of parts I like in it, but there are so many characters," he said, adding, "I was like, 'Where did it all go?'" Criticizing the editing, he continued, "I loved the gun-battle scenes, I loved the look of the film, but I kind of lost my character in there, and I was, 'Oh-kay, that was half a year.'"

In what is one of the weirdest Hollywood exchanges ever, Jeremy Piven and Stephen Dorff reportedly hashed it out while waiting for the bathroom at New York's Bungalow 8 club in 2006. According to an insider who spoke with Page Six (per Gawker), the altercation happened when Dorff tried to cut in line and was stopped by Piven who reportedly threw "his arm out to stop him" and said, "No, no, no. You are going to wait in line like the rest of us, you privileged, spoon-fed son of a b****." The "Entourage" star is said to have asked those waiting behind him, "Anyone wanna see this guy cut the line?" while Dorff apparently started making threats. Piven then reportedly responded with "What are you gonna do? You're nothing, baby! Nothing!" According to the source, Dorff went on to up the threats, claiming he was well connected and concluding, "You are done, see you in line for my next movie." Piven later told Rolling Stone he regretted the encounter, saying, "You've got to pick your battles, and telling Stephen Dorff off isn't one of them, so I'm a dummy."

That wasn't the first time that a fellow actor accused Dorff of shady behavior. As "Arrested Development" ensemble member David Cross wrote in his 2009 book, "I Drink for a Reason," while Dorff "wasn't a d*** to me personally," he was rude "to the valet guy outside Mr. Chow's in Beverly Hills after a birthday dinner."

When nature calls, Stephen Dorff answers — even if he happens to be in the middle of the street. As E! News reported in January 2013, the actor paid no attention to the fact that he might be snapped by waiting paparazzi when he stopped in front of some greenery outside a Los Angeles hotel, unzipped his jeans, and relieved himself in full view of everyone. The whiz-cident occurred outside of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which is located right by the extremely busy intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, so it is safe to say he was not exactly in a secluded area. The "Somewhere" star can be seen smiling and laughing in the pictures that were taken by said paparazzi, seemingly having no problems with being photographed. In fact, E! News noted that he even engaged with one photog, telling him he was just "trying to pee, thankyouverymuch."

According to Daily Mail, the incident took place in the hotel's parking lot after a night of partying (surely the historic hotel has a lovely bathroom or two he could have used?) and, following the bizarre ordeal, Dorff walked away from the bush, giving the paparazzi two thumbs up before getting into a waiting car and driving off.

In July 2021, Stephen Dorff boasted to the Independent that he's happy being single, saying, "I don't have a family yet and I don't have five ex-wives that I have to pay for!" That same month, however, he admitted to The Guardian, "My personal life is a bit of a train wreck." The rumor mill has linked him to a number of high-profile individuals over the years; Life & Style (via Glamour) once suggested he got "very flirty" with Lauren Conrad, and before that, he appeared to have a thing with Pamela Anderson, per SFGate. In 2015, he was spotted, per E! News, with model and star of that year's Carl's Jr. Super Bowl commercial, Charlotte McKinney. The pair were snapped together on numerous occasions, but by July 2016, it was all over. 

What went wrong? An insider told Page Six that McKinney, who is 20 years Dorff's junior, ended things because "he was fooling around with other women. Charlotte has been dating Stephen for a while, but he carried on ­texting other women and inviting them over to his house on the beach in Malibu." The source said Dorff's party lifestyle was also an issue. "July Fourth weekend [...] there were all these random people in his house. Charlotte has had enough of him," the tipster claimed. 

In 2021, Dorff told The Guardian he's had one great love: "Maybe my first girlfriend when I was 17, Courtney Wagner ... Maybe I am like George Clooney, and I'll have babies in my 50s."

While promoting the release of 2020's "Embattled," Stephen Dorff took his interview with Variety as an opportunity to talk smack about some near-miss roles. When asked if it was true that he almost landed Leonardo DiCaprio's part in "Titanic," the actor revealed, "I was in the final running for it. I did a test with Kate Winslet. At one point, it was my part to lose. Then it became his part, and it wasn't going my way. It kept changing hands," he recalled. Hinting at what he thinks went wrong, Dorff appeared to imply that it had to do with ratings. Noting that they "both had movies at Fox" at the time, Dorff said his "was a dark Bob Rafelson movie that was awesome with Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine and J.Lo" while DiCaprio's film "was 'Romeo and Juliet,' which was testing pretty good with the young kids and had a hot soundtrack." Whatever the reason, he was quick to dismiss the whole thing, concluding, "To me, it wasn't a great movie. It was kind of a soppy, really on the nose kind of love story."

When the topic came up on a 2020 episode of "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen," Dorff said he "can't really look back" when it comes to what ifs. "It was obviously a monster of a movie," he stated. "There were other movies that I'd passed on that I wish I had done, but I just keep going forward."

Back in the late '90s, Stephen Dorff seemingly had no qualms about joining the Marvel universe as he appeared in 1998's "Blade." Somewhere in the past two decades, however, it appears that Dorff changed his mind because, when he sat down for an interview with Independent in July 2021, he went on a rampage against Marvel and all of its successful films. Talking about how he chooses the roles he plays, Dorff decided to rant about the latest MCU release, saying, "I still hunt out the good s*** because I don't want to be in 'Black Widow.' It looks like garbage to me," he proclaimed, continuing, "It looks like a bad video game. I'm embarrassed for those people." He then chose to go directly after the film's star, saying, "I'm embarrassed for Scarlett [Johansson]! I'm sure she got paid five, seven million bucks, but I'm embarrassed for her." 

"I don't want to be in those movies," Dorff continued. "I really don't. I'll find that kid director that's gonna be the next Kubrick and I'll act for him instead."

But he didn't just go after Marvel movies, he took issue with all movies. "My business is becoming a big game show," he declared to the Independent. "You have actors that don't have a clue what they're doing. You have filmmakers that don't have a clue what they're doing. We're all in these little boxes on these streamers. TV, film — it's all one big clusterf*** of content now."

The list of things and people Stephen Dorff isn't a fan of continues to grow. Not only did he openly criticize Scarlett Johansson to the Independent in July 2021 and reportedly get into a heated (and public) fight with Jeremy Piven, but it sounds like Dorff isn't so keen on many of his peers. When The Guardian asked him in July 2021 which fellow actor he would choose to play him in a biopic, he had quite the response. "I am not a big fan of young actors working today, so I would rather they didn't make that movie about me," he retorted. But his Tinseltown compatriots shouldn't take it personally because, by the sounds of it, Dorff doesn't much like anyone. When the outlet asked him "What is the trait you most deplore in others?", he didn't mince words, responding, "Social media has turned people into complete idiots. I like smart, interesting people, and I'll know immediately if I want to know you or walk away." So, err, pretty much everyone. 

The "Embattled" star has also gone after his own team — er, his former team. As he proudly told Independent, he fired his agents when they warned him that doing "Cecil B DeMented," which was later called "too sloppy and underdeveloped," per Rotten Tomatoes, was "not gonna do anything for your career or money-wise."