When directing "Yokihi," Mizoguchi even insulted in front of the crowd Takako IRIE, his old supporter who had hired him to work at Irie Production and paved the way for his being called a great director, by saying 'You can't act gracefully because you have been playing cat monsters too much.'
かつて入江ぷろだくしょんに雇われ、名匠と呼ばれるきっかけを作った恩人でもあった入江たか子に対してすら、『楊貴妃』の際「化け猫ばかりやってるからそんな芸格のない芝居しか出来ないのだ」と満座の中で罵倒している。