This actor wasn’t just a problem for him, either. Other people in the industry have complained about this celebrity’s reported lack of professionalism. Read on to find out who Hickox branded “a nightmare” and what happened on their set to make him feel this way. READ THIS NEXT: This Co-Star Said He’d “Had Enough” of Brad Pitt. In an interview with the horror movie site Dread Central in 1999, Hickox was asked why he stopped making horror movies, which were his signature. Hickox films in that genre include Waxwork, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, and Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. “It wasn’t intentional; I love horror, it’s my favorite genre. I guess I got sidetracked into the low-budget action genre. I had a big mortgage to pay and I was being offered these movies one after the other, and I love to shoot, so,” Hickox explained. At the time of the interview, Hickox was in the process of going back to horror, making the 2004 film, Knife Edge. He continued of the action movies, “I must say I do enjoy blowing [expletive] up! But it was beginning to get a little mind numbing, especially the one I did with [Steven Seagal]; I just decided ‘I can’t do this [expletive] anymore.’” Hickox went on to describe his experience working with Seagal on the movie Submerged. “He is a nightmare!” Hickox said. “He’s impossible; he doesn’t turn up, he refuses to say any line that’s written, it’s just ridiculous. I sat back when I was making it and said, ‘I’m a better director than this,’ so I went back to what I like to do, which is write and direct horror.” The interviewer joked that Seagal was to thank for Hickox’s return to horror, and the director said, “Things happen in strange ways, you know? I’d probably be doing a [Jean-Claude] Van Damme picture now if I hadn’t done the Seagal one, so we’d be thanking Van Damme (laughs).” (However, Van Damme doesn’t have a reputation for being easy to work with, either.)ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb For more celebrity news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. In an interview with The Shlock Pit, Hickox spoke in more detail about what went wrong on the set of Submerged. He claimed that the original script was “brilliant.” “It started life as a full-on horror and sci-fi,” he said. “I just thought wouldn’t it be great if you were stuck at the bottom of the ocean with [expletive] aliens on your submarine! … And then Seagal came on board.” “We’d planned everything and he was like, ‘I don’t think this movie should be on a submarine.’ Erm, but it’s called Submerged and it is on a submarine! And then he was like, ‘But I want a big opera scene’—I mean, this is literally how it happened—‘I want an opera scene.’ But, you’re on a submarine! ‘Yeah, well, I’ve decided I don’t like aliens and I don’t like monsters, and I don’t want to be in a monster movie.’ And basically that’s why it ended up like it did. We had no clue what we were doing: no script, and the whole mind control thing in the final film was made up the last week before shooting. It was really insane. At that point, again, I should have quit, but I needed the cash.” READ THIS NEXT: Kenny Loggins Opens Up About Feud With Garth Brooks in New Memoir. Seagal has faced many complaints and allegations over the course of his career, ranging from being difficult to work with to claims of sexual abuse. (Seagal walked out of an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2018 when asked about the abuse claims.) When it comes to being difficult on set, one of the most publicized instances was Seagal’s time hosting Saturday Night Live in 1991. The actor was reportedly banned from the show afterward and multiple cast members have spoken out about the experience. SNL creator Lorne Michaels even commented on Seagal during a future episode. When Nicolas Cage hosted in 1992, the star said during his monologue that the audience probably thought he was “the biggest jerk who’s ever been on the show.” Michaels responded, “No, no. That would be Steven Seagal.”
