Actor, writer and director Kevin Smith has lashed out at Bruce Willis on Marc Maron’s podcast, claiming that working with the action icon during shooting for his recent film Cop Out was “soul crushing”. It’s not new gossip, although officially denied, there were reports at the time that not all was hunky dory on set. Now that the hype surrounding the movie has cleared, Kevin Smith has more or less explicitly stated that there were problems, and those problems were caused by Bruce Willis. During his conversation with Maron about the movie, Smith referred to marketing issues when “one guy wouldn’t even sit for a f*cking poster shoot”. Prompted for a name by Maron, Smith said:

“Everyone knows who it is. Put it this way, remember the really funny guy in the movie? It ain’t him. He’s a f*cking dream. Tracy Morgan, I would lay down in traffic for. Were it not for Tracy, I might’ve killed myself or someone else in the making of that movie.”

It could be a clash of egos, because there’s no denying that both of these men have massive egos, but if we’re to believe Smith’s reports, Willis was no barrel of laughs on set. Hit the jump for the low down.

Before going any further, thanks to FilmDrunk and /Film for bits in this story.

Apparently, when shooting on Cop Out came to a close, Willis wasn’t in attendance for the wrap party, and Smith toasted the movie saying:

“I want to thank everyone who worked on the film, except for Bruce Willis, who is a f*cking dick.”

As Marc Maron probed Kevin Smith for details on working with Bruce Willis, Smith admitted:

“It was difficult. I’ve never been involved in a situation like that where, one component is not in the box at all. It was f*ckin’ soul crushing. I mean, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Oh, you’re just trying to blame the movie on him.’ No, but I had no f*cking help from this dude whatsoever.”

Well, if Smith is trying to lay blame elsewhere, it would definitely seem like a bit of a Cop Out, although this isn’t the first time Smith has discussed working with Willis in a negative light. Speaking at Macworld Expo last year he joked:

” ‘I’m Bruce Willis and I’ve been doing this for 25 years very successfully’ – how long have you been silent motherf*cker? Please don’t put your loser stink on me…”

Below is the full video. I wonder how this news sits with Bruce Willis and whether he’ll give any official response, would love to hear his side of the story…