History Main / PrimaDonnaDirector

* [[SacrificialLamb Shin Seungyeon]] in ''VisualNovel/BuriedStars'' was the new director for the titular show's fourth season (basically a Korean equivalent of Series/AmericanIdol), and amplified the show's popularity...by forcing scripted behavior upon the contestants. She was also more than slightly manipulative, stringing Hyesung along in a one-sided relationship (his was the genuine side), forcing Seil to perform illegal investigations, and basically manipulating many other contestants--Do-Yoon, Inha, and Gyu-hyuk among them--to do her bidding, both in terms of joining the show and acting to her specifications.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': Bloo turns into one of these when he is partnered with Mac to produce a film for a contest in "[[Recap/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriendsS3E11OneFalseMovie One False Movie]]. He constantly orders Mac around and spends their entire assigned budget on a megaphone.

* Willem Dafoe as Carson Clay in ''Film/MrBeansHoliday''.

* Luke from ''Bleading Lady[=/=]Star Vehicle''.

* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Haruhi herself, when she has the SOS Brigade make a film. She throws tantrums and even goes as far as to [[spoiler:drug Mikuru]] for the purpose of filming a "love scene".
* Takezou Nogame, the author of ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Third Aerial Girls' Squad]]'' in ''Anime/{{Shirobako}}'', ordered a rewrite for the script of the anime adaptation of his manga because he didn't like it... [[SubvertedTrope except]] [[spoiler: this is a lie told by Chazawa, the incompetent liaison between the anime studio and the publisher, to save his own ass since he hasn't been doing his job. When the script's writer gets fed up with Chazawa and forces a meeting with Nogame, he's actually very reasonable, even changing his original DownerEnding as a compromise with the anime studio.]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The director from ''Film/SinginInTheRain'' is pretty much that in most of his scenes -- though to be honest, how else can you react when faced with an ''actual'' Prima Donna?
* Eli Cross, Creator/PeterOToole's character ''Film/TheStuntMan''. And he sometimes went around in a helicopter chair, which made him more unsettling. (O'Toole stated he based Cross on his ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' director Creator/DavidLean so take that as you will.)
* The late Creator/DomDeLuise as Buddy Bizarre in ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. (Though, given that a massive Western brawl had just burst through the wall into his musical number, he's hardly overreacting.)

* Willem Dafoe as Carson Clay in ''Film/MrBeansHoliday''.
* Creator/TomCruise's character in ''Film/TropicThunder'' is a spot-on example, except that Les Grossman is a ''producer'' instead of a director. Damien Cockburn also has shades of this ("The chopper is God and I am Jesus Christ His Son") but it isn't clear whether it's an inherent trait or if it's the result of the pressure of having his feature film debut be a major blockbuster with a bunch of prima donna actors.

* Seanna Birmingham from ''The Remake'', for another producer example.

* Steven, when he begins to go insane, in ''Skeleton Crew''.
-->"Fucking cut! Cut! Cut! Fucking cut! You bunch of incompetent fucks! What the fuck is wrong with you? Huh? Do any of you have any fucking vision? Do you know how to make a fucking motion picture? Mike! Darius! Where did you leave your skills? L.A.? Bruce, you're a fucking professional actor! You're acting like a wet pile of shit! Sort it out! Fuck! This script I wrote last night, this is the new fucking film! This is what I'm gonna be remembered for! This is the fucking masterpiece! Wrap your heads around that, the lot of you! And will you fucking Finnish film school fucks from whatever fucking unpronounceable town you came from go back there and learn your fucking skills!? Fuck! Fucking fucks!"

* [[Creator/ChristopherWalken Hal Weidmann]] from ''Film/AmericasSweethearts'' drives the studio executives nuts by holding the final movie starring the titular sweethearts hostage, refusing to let anyone see it until the press junket. He's deeply eccentric but is said to have won several Oscars already so the studio has to play along. We eventually learn ''why'' he's refusing to let anyone see the film: he didn't actually make it. Having decided the script was terrible he decided to let the shoot continue but installed hidden cameras throughout the set to capture the bad behavior and raging egos of the cast and crew as a ''cinema verite'' piece. By the time the lights go up the studio head is humiliated, the [[BitchInSheepsClothing lead actress]] is threatening to sue and the leading man (who actually ended up looking pretty decent, if a tad intense) is already making plans to work with him again.
* Creator/LouisdeFunes when not playing a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive crooked businessman]] , a [[MeddlesomePatrolman irate policeman]] or a [[ThePerfectionist demanding restaurateur/food critic]] with [[FrenchCuisineisHaughty high standards for french cuisine]]. Both his characters Stanislas Lefort (''Film/LaGrandeVadrouille''), an orchestral conductor, and Evans Evan (''Film/LHommeOrchestre'')), a ballet company manager, are ''INCREDIBLY'' perfectionists and often work their musicians/performers completely nuts.
* In ''Repo Jake'', porn producer King, played by Robert Axelrod, has this winner:
-->'''Porn Director:''' Hey, it's in the script.\\
'''King:''' '''[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck]]''' the script! These girls can't '''''read'''''. People like to see black guys fucking white, blonde women. Here's your plot: [[ExcusePlot they all just took a love drug]], they've all got their clothes off, and they're fucking and sucking the shit out of each other and that's the movie you're gonna make, you got it?
* The Crypt Keeper in ''Film/DemonKnight'' takes on this role, berating Creator/JohnLarroquette ("Where'd they dig ''this'' guy up from?") for his performance.
-->'''Crypt Keeper:''' Cut! Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! What the hell are you doing? You call that [[{{Pun}} "hack-ting"]]?\\
'''John:''' Well, yes, I do call it ''acting''.\\
'''Crypt Keeper:''' Well, let me tell you something. You're no [[Creator/GaryCooper "Gorey" Cooper]]. You ain't even a [[Creator/RobertRedford Robert "Deadford"]]. Another take like that and it'll be back to bit parts for you, and I won't say what bits I'm talking about!

* The Creator/BurtReynolds movie ''Film/{{Hooper}}'' has Roger Deal, played by Creator/RobertKlein. Roger is absolutely committed to his frequently-changing vision of the FilmWithinAFilm "The Spy Who Laughed at Danger". In particular, he demands more (and more dangerous) stuntwork, and frequently plays people against each other to get what he wants. [[spoiler: In the end, Roger semi-apologizes to Hooper, confident that he'll accept. Hooper replies, "As usual, Roger...you're wrong," and punches him out.]]

* Marshall Townend from ''Series/{{Friends}}''. Alternates between LargeHam and DeadpanSnarker. As Joey so eloquently puts it, "He's like a cartoon!". When the play finally debuts the critics tear it to pieces leaving the director looking even more ridiculous.
-->'''Marshall:''' I am going to take this call. When I continue, I hope that there will appear on stage this magical thing that in the theatre we call, '''''committing to the moment'''''!
* Parodied with the ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' game "Hollywood Director".
-->'''Colin:''' I believe it was Shakespeare who said, "All the world's a stage, and you are CRAP!"
* The director of "Queen of the Zombies" in a ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'' episode. Perhaps justified in that [[spoiler:he turned out to be {{God}}.]]
* Creator/JohnBarrowman plays one of these in an episode of ''Series/HotelBabylon'', in which he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLVRVjoa98w screams at his female lead for refusing to show her breasts in a sex scene.]]
* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Jerry turns into one when he's forced to make bootleg copies of movies.
* The ''Series/DreamOn'' two-parter "The Second Greatest Story Ever Told" has Sir Roland Moorecock, who would make for a great [[BritishStuffiness stuffy Brit]] if he weren't busy with his film work (he's played by Music/DavidBowie). At the end, he's chewing out the lead actors when Martin steps in to chew ''him'' out, on behalf of all those present, for his unyielding snobbishness and cruelty...whereupon Sir Roland proves himself the best actor of the lot by successfully pretending to be shamed before gleefully declaring "I DON'T CARE!"

* In Series/AreYouBeingServed, Mr. Humphries became this whenever the cast [[HeyLetsPutOnAShow puts on a show.]]
* Series/{{Frasier}} becomes one of these while directing a radio production for his station's anniversary. During the script reading alone he drives one of the cast to quit by repeatedly criticizing the voices he (a professional Broadway actor), used for the characters (such as his voice for the dwarf sounding "''Too Tall''"). Things do ''not'' get better on the day of the performance.

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'':
** Naturally, when Diane is allowed to get behind a camera, she's one of these, scolding the gang for not following her pretentious and overblown direction ("You're ''ruining'' the mise-en-scene!") and eventually storming out.
** Many years later, Cliff is asked to direct a home movie for Woody and his girlfriend Kelly. He insists on doing dozens of takes because he doesn't think either of them are convincing enough. Eventually, Frasier finally takes over... [[HereWeGoAgain and reduces Kelly to tears because her first take isn't satisfying to him]].

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Film/MeetTheFeebles'': Sebastian, the director of the Feebles variety show. He yells at all the cast, dismisses their assorted problems (up to and including death) as mere annoyances, assigns the new kid to the knife-throwing act for questioning his choreography; and, against the producer's explicit orders, uses the last-minute cancellation of several acts as an excuse to go on stage himself and do a song-and-dance number about [[spoiler: sodomy.]]
[[/folder]]

* The unnamed Director of the [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 "Meet the Team"]] series of short films is one of these, apparently laboring under the delusion that he is creating a scathing docudrama of epic proportions, rather than the series of propaganda films the Administrator has hired him for. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to both him and his subjects, The Administrator is actually using the Director to gather intel on the [=RED=] team to blackmail them into playing by her rules.]] Neither the Team nor Miss Pauling is willing to put up with him for very long...

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The Director Lady from the [[https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9C8F3F2E3FE9F137 IR-Relevant Astronomy edutainment videos]] made about the Spitzer Space Telescope is like this. She does not take kindly to having factual errors pointed out in her script, even when it contains EXTENSIVE ArtisticLicenseSpace and ArtisticLicensePhysics in what are supposed to be educational materials. The high (or low) point came when she saw an actor getting killed on-set and then haunting her as an opportunity to include a real ghost in her video.

* Llewellyn Sinclair (Creator/JonLovitz), in the ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' episode "A Streetcar Named Marge". He actually winds up on stage when he takes over Otto's role right before the performance, having realized Otto wasn't good enough.
* James Finson in the ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' episode "End of Take".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': The director from "Hoist Goes Hollywood." He adds the Autobots to his film on a whim, even changing the entire script to accommodate them.
* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': Bloo turns into one of these when he is partnered with Mac to produce a film for a contest in "[[Recap/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriendsS3E11OneFalseMovie One False Movie]]. He constantly orders Mac around and spends their entire assigned budget on a megaphone.

* Jhin, the Virtuoso, in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is a MadArtist who sees murder as a stage performance which he produces, directs, and choreographs (with his victims as the actors, naturally). The resulting combination of {{Auteur}}, SoftSpokenSadist, and this trope in his voicelines is ''profoundly'' creepy, especially as he flips from one mode to another without any pause.

* The ''Creator/TimDorsey'' novel ''The Big Bamboo'' is centered around the production of a movie being made by a third-rate studio, that hired a once-great director who had gone senile. Included in the film at the director's insistence are recreations of the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Death Star, despite the fact that the movie is about an oil scam in Alabama. American viewers rightly rejected it as awful, [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible but artsy film critics in Europe thought it was brilliant]], and successfully got the director a posthumous Oscar.

* ''Manga/KimbaTheWhiteLion'' has a nature documentary director who puts a captive orangutan in his documentary of African wildlife and he yells at his workers to go with it despite their cries of MisplacedWildlife (he defended his claim that there are orangutans in Africa [[CircularReasoning because the captive one he's filming is in Africa]]); he even went as far as to make his workers start a large fire in the jungle just to film a stampede.

-->'''Crypt Keeper:''' Cut! Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut! What the hell are you doing? You call that [[IncrediblyLamePun "hack-ting"]]?\\

* Bloo turns into one of these when he is partnered with Mac to produce a film for a contest in ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''. He constantly orders Mac around and spends their entire assigned budget on a megaphone.

* Some ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fics depict Nino as one. Tellingly in ''Webcomic/ScarletLady'' where Marinette tells him to knock it off or [[CutYourHeartOutWithASpoon she'll impale him with a clipboard]].

* Creator/LouisdeFunes when not playing a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive crooked businessman]] , a [[MeddlesomePatrolman irate policeman]] or a [[ThePerfectionist demanding restaurateur/food critic]] with [[FrenchCuisineisHaughty high standards for french cuisine]]. Both his characters Stanislas Lefort (''Film/LaGrandeVadrouille''), an orchestral conductor and Evans Evan (''Film/LHommeOrchestre'')), a ballet company manager are ''INCREDIBLY'' perfectionists and often work their musicians/performers completely nuts.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' stars Alistair Boorswan. Vain, overly verbose, and obsessed with making a DarkerAndEdgier film reboot of a family-friendly TV series (WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck) that he knows nothing about, and distraught at having an actual child hired to edit his "psychological masterpiece". He also serves as a [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed mash-up]] of Creator/ChristopherNolan and Creator/ZackSnyder. The only person with an even bigger ego than him is Jim Starling, [[NiceCharacterMeanActor the original Darkwing Duck actor]], and he's not even supposed to be in the reboot!

* Marshall Townend from ''Series/{{Friends}}''. Alternates between LargeHam and DeadpanSnarker. As Joey so eloquently puts it, "He's like a cartoon!"

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Haruhi herself, when she has the SOS Brigade make a film. She throws tantrums and even goes as far as to [[spoiler:drug Mikuru]] for the purpose of filming a "love scene."

* [[Creator/ChristopherWalken Hal Weidmann]] from ''Film/AmericasSweethearts'' drives the studio executives nuts by holding the final movie starring the titular sweethearts hostage, refusing to let anyone see it until the press junket. He's deeply eccentric but is said to have won several Oscars already so the studio has to play along. We eventually learn ''why'' he's refusing to let anyone see the film: he didn't actually make it. Having decided the script was terrible he decided to let the shoot continue but installed hidden cameras throughout the set to capture the bad behavior and raging egos of the cast and crew as a ''cinema verite''piece. By the time the lights go up the studio head is humiliated, the [[BitchInSheepsClothing lead actress]] is threatening to sue and the leading man (who actually ended up looking pretty decent, if a tad intense) is already making plans to work with him again.

* [[Creator/ChristopherWalken Hal Weidmann]] from ''Film/AmericasSweethearts'' drives the studio executives nuts by holding the final movie starring the titular sweethearts hostage, refusing to let anyone see it until the press junket. He's deeply eccentric but is said to have won several Oscars already so the studio has to play along. We eventually learn ''why'' he's refusing to let anyone see the film: he didn't actually make it. Having decided the script was terrible he decided to let the shoot continue but installed hidden cameras throughout the set to capture the bad behavior and raging egos of the cast and crew. By the time the lights go up the studio head is humiliated, the [[BitchInSheepsClothing lead actress]] is threatening to sue and the leading man (who actually ended up looking pretty decent, if a tad intense) is already making plans to work with him again.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Haruhi herself, when she has the SOS Brigade make a film.

* The director from ''Film/SinginInTheRain'' is pretty much that in most of his scenes -- though to be honest, how else can you react when faced with a ''real'' Prima Donna?

--> "Fucking cut! Cut! Cut! Fucking cut! You bunch of incompetent fucks! What the fuck is wrong with you? Huh? Do any of you have any fucking vision? Do you know how to make a fucking motion picture? Mike! Darius! Where did you leave your skills? L.A.? Bruce, you're a fucking professional actor! You're acting like a wet pile of shit! Sort it out! Fuck! This script I wrote last night, this is the new fucking film! This is what I'm gonna be remembered for! This is the fucking masterpiece! Wrap your heads around that, the lot of you! And will you fucking Finnish film school fucks from whatever fucking unpronounceable town you came from go back there and learn your fucking skills!? Fuck! Fucking fucks!"

* In ''Film/IrreconcilableDifferences'', Albert Bronsky goes from being a geeky film scholar to an obnoxious, diva-ish film director who takes up with a much younger actress, who is starring in his film. He's loosely, but obviously based on Creator/PeterBogdanovich.

* The ''Creator/TimDorsey'' novel ''The Big Bamboo'' is centered around the production of a movie being made by a third-rate studio, who hired a once-great director who had gone senile. Included in the film at the director's insistence are recreations of the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Death Star, despite the fact that the movie is about an oil scam in Alabama. American viewers rightly rejected it as awful, [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible but artsy film critics in Europe thought it was brilliant]], and successfully got the director a posthumous Oscar.

* In the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Documentary Making: Redux", Dean Pelton is tasked with filming a thirty-second commercial advertising the school, and is given $2000 to do so. It ends up costing over $17000, involves green-screen, costumes, and [[Film/TheGodfather strategic placement of oranges]], and turns the Dean into a tantrum-throwing maniac who ends up causing the nervous breakdowns of almost every single one of his students. At one point, he [[LeaveTheCameraRunning films Britta and Troy turning and hugging for]] ''twelve hours straight''.
* In the 1970s educational series Series/TheElectricCompany1971, Rita Moreno played one of these, named Otto (A ShoutOut to Otto Preminger), complete with a riding crop, as a recurring character. [[Creator/MorganFreeman The man who held cue cards for her]] was terrified of her.

* Series/{{Frasier}} becomes one of these while directing a radio production for his station's anniversary. During the script reading alone he drives one of the cast to quit by repeatedly criticizing the voices he (a professional Broadway actor), used for the characters (Such as his voice for the dwarf sounding "''Too Tall''". Things do ''not'' get better on the day of the performance.

** Naturally, when Diane is allowed to get behind a camera, she's one of these, scolding the gang for not following her pretentious and overblown direction ("You're ''ruining'' the mis-en-scene!") and eventually storming out.

* ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFilesNirvanaInitiative:'' When recreating a crime scene for their investigation, Tama will roleplay as a hilariously overbearing director that orders Ryuki around and cusses him out like he's a thrid-rate actor.

** In "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E50WhoBoppedBugsBunny Who Bopped Bugs Bunny?]]" Sappy Stanley was once a famous American cartoon star, but after one of his shorts nominated for a Shloskar award lost to Bugs Bunny's cartoon, ''WesternAnimation/KnightyKnightBugs'', Stanley scorned the American film industry, moved to Paris, and spent decades planning his revenge on Bugs. On the day following the bopping incident, Stanley goes off to film one of his shorts and acts like a donkey's butt to his entire crew, getting mad at one guy for simply sitting on a couch drinking coffee. It's implied that his attitude is coming from the stress of keeping his cover.