Debra Winger And Shirley MacLaine Didn't Get Along. Here's Why

In 1984, "Terms of Endearment" led the Oscar race with an impressive 11 nominations. Of those, the film took home five Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor. Starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger as a mother-daughter duo, the film was written, directed, and produced by James L. Brooks, who is also famous for projects like "Taxi," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "As Good as It Gets." 

Interestingly, the filming process on "Terms of Endearment" wasn't as seamless as its many accolades would suggest. In fact, two of the lead actors on the set were "rivals" in the words of Us Weekly, which unsurprisingly disrupted the filming process. Who were those actors, and why didn't they get along? Do they talk today? Let's pull back the curtain on "Terms of Endearment" and dig into the drama that surrounded the production. 

Shirley Maclaine and Debra Winger were rivals

Over the course of her time in Hollywood, Debra Winger has earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. She also won the National Film Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for "Terms of Endearment" — but the on-set experience was no walk in the park. According to Us Weekly, the film's two leads, Winger and Shirley MacLaine, didn't get along in real life. In fact, When MacLaine won the Oscar at the 1984 Academy Awards, she was up against Winger for the trophy. After winning, MacLaine yelled, "I deserve this!" 

In her 1995 biography, "My Lucky Stars," MacLaine wrote about an incident in which Winger yelled at her to "get over here" and hit her mark. "'I heard you,' I said. 'I know marks when I see them,'" MacLaine wrote in the book. "'Good,' [Winger] said. 'How's this for a mark?' She turned around, walked away from me, lifted her skirt slightly, looked over her shoulder, bent over, and farted in my face."

Debra Winger also feuded with Richard Gere

In 2018, Debra Winger addressed her relationship with Shirley MacLaine on "Watch What Happens with Andy Cohen." During a game of "Plead the Fifth," Cohen asked Winger three personal questions, two of which she had to answer. The talk show host stated that Winger brought MacLaine up in her book, to which Winger quickly contested, "No! I didn't write about her. She wrote about me! Let's try to get something straight. I mean, c'mon. It's hard out here for a chimp."

MacLaine wasn't the only actor Winger had issues with, though. In 2002, she told The Guardian that things between her and Richard Gere were tense while they were filming the 1982 romantic drama, "An Officer and a Gentleman." She stated, "The only remarks that ever made print were those that ruffled a few feathers. I run into Richard Gere quite a lot and he half jokes: 'Are you still saying terrible things about me?' We had a moment in our life which was not good, but everyone has to get it into perspective."

In their profile about Winger's departure from Hollywood, The Guardian quoted the actor as saying, "I had this reputation for being 'difficult.'" Winger continued, "This is what the business can turn you into. It can make us all so neurotic about what is written about us and what is being said. You live by your image and what others think of you. I never considered myself falling into that trap very often, but obviously I did." These days, Winger is busy playing the role of Ruth Corman in the TV series "Mr.Corman."