Michael Douglas certainly has thick skin — so thick that Debra Winger didn’t end up cutting her teeth opposite the “Basic Instinct” star in “Romancing the Stone.”
Douglas revealed during Rob Lowe’s “Literally!” podcast that three-time Oscar nominee Winger bit his arm during a pre-shoot dinner with Robert Zemeckis.
After “knocking back tequilas” over friendly conversation, Winger allegedly broke the skin on Douglas’ arm with her teeth.
“We walk out and, just as you would kind of go ‘Oh you!’ and give someone a little punch in the arm, she goes ‘Oh you!’ and she reaches over and she bites me on my arm,” Douglas said. “I’m like, ‘Aaargh!’ She bite me.”
Douglas continued, “She’s joking and I’m looking at her and go, ‘I don’t know, I’m thinking this could be rough…’ she’s broken the skin!”
The incident led to Douglas telling director Zemeckis that he couldn’t work with loose cannon Winger.
“I break down in tears, ‘I can’t go into the jungle with her, she bit me, look! She bit me in the arm,’” Douglas recalled.
Instead, Kathleen Turner replaced Winger in the role and went on to win the Best Actress Golden Globe for the adventure rom-com.
This isn’t the first time Winger has been at the center of controversy claims on set: The “Officer and a Gentleman” Oscar nominee allegedly feuded with “Terms of Endearment” co-star Shirley MacLaine and is even said to have licked MacLaine’s leg while filming a love scene with Jack Nicholson.
During an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live,” Winger was asked by host Andy Cohen to clarify the claims, including that she even “tried to pass gas in her direction” of MacLaine.
“You mean — you want to just go in there and say, ‘Is there something true in there?’” Winger responded. “There’s something true in there.”
Winger also was supposed to star as Dottie in “A League of Their Own” before quitting the WWII-set film after director Peggy Marshall cast Madonna. Winger slammed the production as fluff, calling it “an Elvis film” with the presence of Madonna, whom she allegedly didn’t believe to be a serious actress. Geena Davis later replaced Winger on the film.
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