Not every actor gets on with a co-star, that’s no secret, nor will they necessarily enjoy being asked to kiss a colleague they don’t know very well over multiple takes.
It can even come up for performers at audition, with having recalled how ‘normal’ (and ‘gross’) it was to in droves for so-called chemistry tests in the 2000s.
Often, who had bad breath or who had sloppy technique is something an actor keeps to themselves, never to be revealed to the public.
However, sometimes it comes out years later, often grabbing headlines in the process.
has now admitted kissing certain past co-stars had .
‘I wouldn’t say it’s sort of extreme loathing, but I have definitely not enjoyed some of it,’ she added – although she stopped short of divulging who exactly she was talking about.
Other Hollywood players have been rather surprisingly open about whose smooches repulsed them in the past, and here are just a few as the world celebrates International Kissing Day on July 6.
Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth in The Hunger Games
got right on in there back in 2014, when he admitted that he didn’t enjoy kissing his pal during films one bit.
Lawrence played tribute Katniss Everdeen with Hemsworth as her best friend Gale Hawthorne, with the pair enjoying an on-off teased romance across the four movies.
However, Hemsworth placed the blame firmly at Lawrence’s door.
‘Anytime I had to kiss Jennifer, it was pretty uncomfortable,’ he told host Jimmy Fallon on .
‘She’s one of my best friends, I love her, but, if we had a kissing scene, she would make a point of eating garlic or tuna fish or something that was disgusting.
‘Right before the scene, she’d be like, “yeah, I had tuna” or “I had garlic, and I didn’t brush my teeth”. And I’d be like, “Fantastic, I can’t wait to get in there and taste it!”‘
But Oscar winner Lawrence hit back at any claim this was deliberate sabotage last summer.
‘It was not intentional,’ she insisted during an appearance on Hot Ones.
‘It was just, like, what I was eating, and then we’d kiss! He should just, you know, get over it,’ she joked to host Sean Evans, laughing.
Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants
This pair of co-stars lit up the screen as forbidden lovers in the 2011 romantic drama Water for Elephants, based on the 2006 novel.
But when it came to filming a more intimate scene, involving a kiss, admitted that it was not an enjoyable experience.
It wasn’t ’s fault though; he simply had a ‘really bad cold’.
The Batman actor recalled of shooting their love scene: ‘My nose is running all over the place, and it was in one of the additional photography scenes, and Reese had this wig on, and literally, I was wiping my nose on her wig.’
Witherspoon still went ahead and kissed her co-star, doing the scene as written, but told that it ‘wasn’t appealing; it wasn’t pleasant’.
Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot
This is perhaps one of the most famous examples of a damning post-kiss scene verdicts given on a co-star.
Curtis reportedly compared locking lips with bombshell in 1959’s Some Like it Hot to ‘kissing Hitler’.
This was despite them having previously been lovers.
In the film Curtis plays one of two male musicians hiding as women with an all-female band after witnessing a mob murder, alongside co-star Jack Lemmon. Monroe plays singer Sugar Kane, who falls for him.
He later somewhat backpedalled on the quote, telling the in 2008: ‘I said it as a joke. I mean, it was such a darn stupid question, so I gave a stupid answer.’
However, it appears he still didn’t rate the kiss filmed as part of a scene taking place on the sofa of a yacht.
‘It was awful. She nearly choked me to death by deliberately sticking her tongue down my throat into my windpipe.’
Helena Bonham Carter and Woody Allen in Mighty Aphrodite
Back in 1995, starred opposite in the writer-director’s film Mighty Aphrodite.
The British star, who is 35 years younger than the director, was aged 29 when the film, about a sportswriter who seeks out his adopted son’s biological mother when he discovers the boy is a genius.
His mother turns out to be a part-time porn star and prostitute, played by Mira Sorvino.
Of being directed by Allen in their kissing scene, Bonham Carter revealed he had strict rules.
‘In a kissing scene with Woody, he says up front what he does not want. No exchange of liquid is permitted. Absolutely no tongue encounter. His mouth is a no-go area.’
‘And he makes no effort at all. It is like kissing the Berlin Wall,’ she added in 2001, via .
Orlando Bloom and Zoe Saldana in Haven (2004)
and starred together in 2004’s Haven, an ensemble film set in the Cayman Islands in which unconnected lives intersect and result in a violent chain of events that quickly turn chaotic.
plays a young man in love with his boss’s daughter, played by Saldana.
However, both stars – who also worked with each other on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, released the previous year – did not speak fondly of their onscreen kiss.
Saldana reportedly told People magazine that kissing him had been ‘gross’ during their love scene.
So Bloom hit back, telling the publication in 2006, via the : ‘I hated kissing Zoe too! I was like, ‘Take your tongue out of my mouth, please. Your boyfriend is standing right there.’
‘Most people think kissing beautiful co-stars must be great. But it’s always awkward, man.’
Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body
It’s actually that spilled the beans on ’s and her own reluctance to lock lips during this cult 2009 film.
The horror comedy is told from the perspective of Anita ‘Needy’ Lesnicki, who recalls her popular cheerleader friend Jennifer (Fox) being turned into a succubus during high school.
At one stage, Jennifer’s thirst for flesh sees her attempt to seduce her friend and they on the bed.
‘I remember Amanda and I were horrified that we had to make out. Her more so than me. I was slightly more comfortable being able to do it.’
‘She was not excited about having to film that scene at all,’ she said to in 2019, when marking the film’s 10th anniversary.
The Transformers actress also admitted they were both ‘stressed out’ over having ‘chin acne’ and contending with the kissing close-up.
Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind
Another famous one from back in the earlier days of Hollywood, Vivien Leigh did not rate her kissing experience with Clark Gable for at all.
Despite the sweeping nature of their characters’, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, on-off romance, it was not at all a swoon-worthy moment for Leigh.
Gable might have been known for his swarthy good looks and nicknamed the King of Hollywood thanks to his successful career, but he still had bad breath.
The star suffered from gum disease periodontitis, which got so bad in the 1930s that he had to have all his teeth removed and replaced with a full set of dentures.
This is said to have caused his bad breath, alongside his smoking habit.
Leigh reportedly later commented: ‘Kissing Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind was not that exciting. His dentures smelled something awful.’
Regardless, the duo’s onscreen kisses are often ranking among the best in cinema.
Joanna Lumley and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street
is 28 years ’s senior and for Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.
She played Aunt Emma, the English aunt of Naomi, who is DiCaprio’s character Jordan’s wife.
However, she revealed with a co-star.
‘I did kiss Leonardo DiCaprio, about 15 times in fact,’ she told in 2017.
‘But I’ll let you into a secret. It’s actually no fun kissing actors, no fun at all.’
‘There are so many takes and you both have to chew so much chewing gum,’ she said.
‘It’s like kissing someone in a dentist’s waiting room.’
This story was first published on June 19, 2024.
