Their movie didn’t leave much of a legacy, but their feud sure did. In 1994, Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte starred in the panned romantic comedy I Love Trouble as rival newspaper reporters, who end up joining forces to investigate a story. Despite the leads being big stars at the time, the movie wasn’t a success. And amid I Love Trouble premiering to negative reviews, there were reports of personal issues between Roberts and Nolte on set. The actors also exchanged harsh words in the press, leading to a lot of discussion about what had gone so wrong between them.
Now, in a new interview, Nolte has commented on the feud nearly 30 years later. Read on to find out what he thinks caused it and who he believes bears the blame.
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In 1993, Roberts was interviewed by The New York Times during the filming of I Love Trouble. Her review of her male lead was mixed, to say the least.
“From the moment I met him we sort of gave each other a hard time, and naturally we get on each other’s nerves,” Robert said. She explained that Nolte could be “completely charming and very nice,” but added, “He’s also completely disgusting. He’s going to hate me for saying this, but he seems to go out of his way to repel people. He’s a kick.”
Nolte responded to Roberts’ words in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It’s not nice to call someone ‘disgusting,'” he said (via The Independent). “But she’s not a nice person. Everyone knows that.”
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Soon after I Love Trouble premiered, the Los Angeles Times reported that Nolte and Roberts’ lack of chemistry in the film could be due to their dislike for one another in real life. This was apparently evident to people working on the movie.
According to the newspaper, sources claimed that “tempers flared early on [during filming], peppered with a few Roberts tantrums along the way.” Reportedly, Roberts “wasn’t thrilled with Nolte’s machismo, so she would deride and insult her co-star.” Meanwhile, “he became so annoyed with her attitude that he would do things to agitate her even more.”
In a new interview, Insider asked Nolte if he had thought of reaching out to Roberts to bury the hatchet at some point.
“No, I haven’t,” the 81-year-old actor responded. “Though it’s buried. I mean it was absurd what we went through.”
Nolte went on to address who deserves the blame for their feud, saying, “”It was partly my fault and a little bit of hers.” He also said that Roberts’ marriage to musician Lyle Lovett in June 1993 had something to do with the tension between them.
“Julia got married at the beginning of that film and it was one of those things where I just approached it all wrong,” Nolte explained.