Passengers was barely watchable but at least we got to see Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Prat kiss, right? Wrong. While on-set to film the movie Passengers, Jennifer Lawrence faced major waves of guilt. At the time, Christ Pratt was married to Anna Farris, and Lawrence barely mustered up the courage to film their first intimate scene. Imagine trying to psych yourself up to kiss a married man for thousands of people to watch?
So how’d she manage it? "I got really, really drunk,” Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter. “But then that led to more anxiety when I got home because I was like, 'What have I done? I don't know.' And he was married. And it was going to be my first time kissing a married man, and guilt is the worst feeling in your stomach."
Orlando Bloom, Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings heartthrob, was (and still is) at the heart of many women’s desires, but former co-star Zoe Saldana has words about his kissing. Saldana was the first to speak up to People about the “gross” kiss she shared with Bloom in the 2004 film Haven, and he couldn’t agree more during a 2006 interview with the magazine.
“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." Its too bad the movie wasn't any good either.
Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney starred together in Out of Sight, a smart crime drama that was standout in Clooney Lopez's early career. Jennifer Lopez has kept her opinions on her worst on-screen kiss relatively private, but she gave some hints to the actors at the bottom of the barrel on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But if you're hoping for the reason why they're the worst, you'll have to ask someone else.
Stewart guessed, “I think it’s Clooney.” Lopez replied, “He was OK,” and everyone took that as her definitive answer. It was all but confirmed when she told Wendy Williams that Clooney ranked last in a line up of co-stars she’s kissed. Sorry, George!
High School Musical legend Zac Efron’s first kiss wasn’t Vanessa Hudgens, but Kay Panakater in Summerland. Unfortunately, the big kiss wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows, and neither was the mediocre television series.
He told the uncomfortable anecdote on the Graham Norton Show: “At lunch, they served fish. And next was the kissing scene. I was very nervous. We went in for the kiss. I got up this close. I shut my eyes. I’m ready to go in and nothing happens. I’m going further and nothing’s happening. I’m getting further and further, thinking eventually we’re going to touch. And then I hear, ‘Oh my gosh, did you have salmon for lunch? Seriously?'” He hasn’t left the house without a toothbrush since.
Jennifer’s Body co-stars Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried and has since become a cult classic. Its two stars might have represented LGBTQ+ sexualities on screen, but they felt much different about the exchange behind the scenes.
Fox told Variety, “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.”
Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard were only 15 when they kissed for the first time on the set of Netflix’s bandwagon thriller Stranger Things, and Brown dubbed it as the “most awkward thing in the world” to MirrorUK.
“My dad was watching. My dad watched the whole thing, my whole family was there… It’s awkward, we’re 15 years old. It’s not like, all right, let’s just do it. We’re obviously like, ‘Okay… what do you wanna do now? Shall we hug?’ No idea what to do. There’s not really preparation.”
Some actors are like Jennifer Lopez and are lowkey about their terrible kisses, but others aren’t so kind. Alec Baldwin targeted Friends actress Jennifer Aniston while on the set of 30 Rock. While a hilariously funny show, the kiss between the two actors was awkward in a not-so-funny way.
“It was painful,” he admitted to New York Magazine in 2008. “I mean, every man who’s had to make out with her in TV and movies—I don’t know how they do it.” Um, harsh?!
In 2012, Colin Farrell told Conan O’Brien an awkward kiss story that's hard to top. While filming Total Recall, he had to kiss co-star Kate Beckinsale, but that’s not even half of it. She was married to the director, so Farrell was obligated to make out with her right in front of her husband...
"She’s actually the director’s wife. She’s married to the director. [It was] moderately uncomfortable. Kissing her was a little bit dodgy ’cause the director, her husband, wasn’t kind enough to leave the room." Good thing it made for a great film! Just kidding. It was terrible. Watch the original.
Disney alum Ashley Tisdale had to give Zac Efron a couple of pointers for their kiss scene on The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, a lighthearted sitcom for kids. The actor was used to filming for The CW, she explained to Elle, so his kissing wasn’t as PG as she expected.
“I had to kiss Zac Efron... it’s the worst because I’m so close to him and he’s like my brother.” She continued, “At the time, he was used to acting on Warner Bros, which is The CW, and we were on Disney Channel, and he tried kissing me with his tongue, and I was like, ‘Get away from me!’ I closed my mouth so fast. I was like, ‘This is Disney Channel! We don’t kiss like that on Disney Channel!’”
Poetic Justice, starring Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson, is a classic early-90s film with quite the dynamic between the two actors. Initially there was supposed to be a sex scene, but Shakur refused Jackson’s demands for an HIV test.
"I said, 'If I can make love with Janet Jackson, I'll take four AIDS tests,’” he revealed during an interview with The Source. “But if I'm gonna do a love scene with her just like somebody else did, and they didn't take a test, I'm not taking a test. Not only am I not taking the test, but get out of my trailer.”
Gossip Girl was one of the juiciest dramas on television at one point and things ended up being just as dramatic behind the scenes. Can you imagine kissing your ex on TV? Or at all? Penn Badgley knows the feeling all too well. When asked on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen who his best and worst on-screen kisses were, Badgley singled out his ex-Blake Lively.
"I'd say best...I'll say it was [Blake Lively], because we actually had a relationship at the time. And worst? Maybe Blake after we broke up.” That’s really poor timing, right there.
There are few superheroes as funny and annoying as Deadpool brought to life by the funny and charming Ryan Reynolds. Unfortunately, actor Ryan Reynolds didn’t pass the test for on-screen love interest Morena Baccarin. Anyone would consider themselves lucky to make out with a superhero, but it can come with smelly downsides.
“I keep saying that kissing him in that mask is like kissing a giant latex condom,” she said on kissing Reynolds in Deadpool. “It basically just smells like rubber the entire time.”
Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey have teamed up twice, most notably in the romantic comedy film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. While the film provides a charming romance with plenty of chemistry between its two stars, it appears to have all been smoke and mirrors. Kate Hudson spilled on Gwyneth Paltrow’s podcast Goop that Matthew McConaughey earned her top spot as worst kisser for a myriad of unfortunate reasons. Who would've guessed that kissing could be so disgusting?
"The thing is, every time I kiss McConaughey, it's like, I mean, it's like there's just something happening and there's like snot or wind, or things are just...like when we were kissing in the end of Fool's Gold, we're like in the ocean, we like had the plane crash. He just had snot all over his face."
The Hunger Games may be a thrilling sci-fi franchise but its romances were less than compelling. Liam Hemsworth told People that his co-star Jennifer Lawrence didn’t make his life easy on the set of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Not a kissing scene went by that Lawrence wasn’t subjecting him to a smorgasbord of smelly foods.
"Anytime I had to kiss [ Lawrence] was pretty uncomfortable. When you look at it on the outside, it looks like a great picture. 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,” he said. “Right before the scene, she'd be like, 'Yeah, I ate 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!'"
At one time, before we had a million other super hero movies, Spider-Man was one of the best. The upside-down kiss from the 2002 Spider-Man is an essential part of pop culture at this point. After countless TV parodies to household notoriety, Tobey Maguire sets the record straight that movie magic falls far from reality.
"I was hanging upside down, it was really late at night, it was raining, and the whole time I had rainwater running up my nose,” he admitted to Parade. “Then, when Kirsten rolled back the wet mask, she cut off the air completely.”
Some Like It Hot is one of the greatest screwball comedies of all time directed by the master Billy Wilder. Allegedly, Tony Curtis’ kissing stint in Some Like It Hot with Hollywood bombshell Marilyn Monroe wasn't the fantasy it was casted to be. Rumors have circulated that Curtis likens kissing with the actress to smooching Hitler.
Curtis cleared the air to Entertainment Weekly in 2001, saying, “Everybody quotes me as saying that kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler. I never said that.” Instead, he clarifies that she made him feel like they were being much more intimate than merely locking lips. Wait... that sounds like a compliment!
Before they reunited for 1923, Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford starred in The Mosquito Coast, an edgy thriller unlike most other Ford flicks. It seems that Harrison Ford has built up quite the reputation in Hollywood for his kissing ability… but not in a good way. Helen Mirren starred beside Ford in the ‘86 award-winning film The Mosquito Coast and had a lot to say about Ford’s bashfulness to BBC Radio.
"The nicest, sweetest guy you could want to meet. But he can't kiss—he finds it impossible to kiss on screen. He's probably not very good off screen either,” she said, continuing, “It's not just me--other actresses agree. Whenever we get chatting off-screen and we get around to talking, we come to the same conclusion: 'He couldn't do it with me either!' He does try, but it is just not there.'”
Who can forget Josh Hutcherson’s ultra-adorable role as 11-year-old Gabe in Little Manhattan? Unfortunately, it looks like he won’t be forgetting his pre-teen kiss with Charlie Ray anytime soon…
“My first kiss ever…it was on camera. It was for this movie I did called Little Manhattan, and I was 11 years old. I was filming in New York City and my mom surprised me by flying my dad in for the kiss scene for support. But it was a horrible first kiss,” he told Seventeen magazine. "I had a crew of, like, 50 people standing around watching me and it was the most non-real, non-intimate that I could possibly have for my first kiss I think."
The romantic pairing for Water for Elephants, made up of Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson, had extraordinary chemistry on-screen that many fans were no doubt jealous of. However, the pair shattered the illusion of Pattinson’s kissing skills during an interview with MTV.
Pattison admitted, "The love scene... I was doing it when I had a really bad cold. 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 didn’t add much except to confirm his “runny nose” and how “it wasn't appealing; it wasn't pleasant."
Tobey Maguire got to share his worst kiss opinion, so what does Kirsten Dunst have to say? So many people would find kissing Brad Pitt the best moment of their lives, but Dunst did it Interview With a Vampire and came out on the other side… uncomfortable. The 20-year age gap was already ridiculous, but kissing someone who felt like a sibling made it ten times worse.
"I hated it so much because Brad was like my older brother on set and it’s kind of like kissing your brother," Dunst told ET. "It’s weird because he’s an older guy and I had to kiss him on the lips, so it was gross." While the movie is certainly weird in its own right, the kiss made it just as weird to film.
You read that right. The Rock and Steve Carell locked lips on screen! Sure, their smooch is taken less seriously than the others on the list, as it was featured in the comedy Get Smart, but that doesn’t bar the actors from their funny critiques. The movie couldn't hold a candle to the original series it was based on, but at least we got this kiss!
Johnson dished on IMDb the famous kiss: “We thought what's the funniest, entertaining thing we could do at the end of the movie that would really make a good laugh and we came up with the kiss. But there's 300 crew members, they're all looking and laughing and joking. I just see Steve Carell's lips... the bottom of a cat's paw - the soft supple part underneath - that's what Steve Carell's lips are like. But his tongue is like kitty cat litter. That's the physical experience."
Selena Gomez and Dylan Sprouse were both Disney Channel pros, but once Gomez guest starred on The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, she found herself out of sorts before her first kiss. “I was in love with Cole Sprouse… I guest-starred on the show, but I kissed his brother and I didn’t get to kiss Cole... It was my first kiss—on camera! It was one of the worst days of my life!” she admitted on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
But that wasn’t the only bad thing about it, Gomez told Twist Magazine. “I actually leaned in to kiss him, and I had my eyes closed a little too early and I ended up missing, like, half of his lip. It ended up being the most awkward kiss in the world.”
Many of us grew up with the magical Harry Potter films and we may never see anything like it again - until HBo remakes it that is. Nonetheless, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint make up the magical romantic pairing in the Harry Potter film adaptations. It took seven books and eight movies for the couple to finally kiss, so once the big moment happened, fans went wild in theaters, but excitement was replaced by nerves behind-the-scenes for Watson who’d never kissed on-screen.
Watson dished about her nerve-wracking kiss with Grint to MTV News: "I was like, 'Do I use tongue? Do I not use tongue? Do I cover my teeth? What do I do? Do I go first? Oh my God!' I ended up pouncing on Rupert. I was so desperate to get it over. After the first take he was like, 'Whoa, there! Where did that come from?' I was like, 'Sorry!'” Grint corroborated the story, laughing, “It took me by surprise.”
JLaw can't catch a break! But from the looks of it, she purposely lands herself on these lists. While she accused Bradley Cooper of being a “wet kisser,” Josh Hutcherson gives audiences a little insight into his experience kissing the Hunger Games actress that definitely evens the playing field.
Hutcherson explained on Live! With Kelly and Michael what went wrong with their kiss in Catching Fire: “It was very slobbery…It was right after Peeta had been knocked down and it wasn’t looking too good for him. So, she was upset, she was crying…and then when we kissed it was just fluid.” To be fair though, it looked a little better in the movie.
James McAvoy gave Angelina Jolie a mediocre review of their on-screen kiss for Wanted. Interestingly, that's exactly how we'd describe the movie. While their characters grew closer over the course of the storyline, the same wasn’t true IRL, especially when filming the kissing scene.
The X-Men actor didn’t say too much about the experience. Here's what he revealed to InTouch: “It was awkward, sweaty, and not very nice." Noticing a trend here?
Avengers: Infinity War gives us one of the most gripping romances in the last two Avengers films, just as gripping as the finale itself, but allegedly the kiss in reality didn't have many sparks flying. On her Goop podcast alongside Kate Hudson, Iron Man actress Gwyneth Paltrow admitted that the kisses shared between her and Robert Downey, Jr., felt too much like what you might see on Game of Thrones.
"Like with Robert, like when I kissed him and I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me,'" Paltrow said. "This is literally like kissing my brother." Could've been a little nicer, but if it's true, it's true!
Felicity is probably one of JJ Abrams most memorable shows but one kiss on the show, certainly wasn't. Unlike other actors who are tight-lipped about their worst kisses, Scott Foley laid it all out during an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. Apparently, the model wasn’t too keen on swapping spit for Felicity.
“She was just not into it,” Foley said. “I think it was her first on-screen kiss. And I was so excited about it, but it was a lot bigger than it needed to be, or should’ve been, which isn’t always bad.” It's healthy to admit these things and come out on the otherside a better person (and kisser)!
Dane Cook, another actor to dish about his terrible kisses to Andy Cohen, targeted Kate Hudson for her decisions while filming My Best Friend’s Girl. This terrible movie also featured a terrible kiss.
"Did a movie with her… and I think she purposely ate a feast of onions right before the scene. I had to burn her on that one.” Onions don’t make the best breath mint! These actors make us consider carrying around a toothbrush like Zac Efron...
The sappy rom-com, Notting Hill, had some people crying and some people cringing. Hugh Grant, who starred in the film was one of the latter, especially when it came to his kissing scene. Hugh Grant took time during an interview on The Oprah Show in 2004 to point out his co-star Julia Roberts’s larger-than-life features. Unfortunately, it caused a subpar kiss for the Notting Hill actor.
“[She’s] very big mouthed. Literally, physically, she has a very big mouth. When I was kissing her, I was aware of a faint echo." Grant definitely needs a reality check after that comment! Ungrateful much?
Why is it that the men we assume are the best kissers are bound to be the worst? Thandie Newton can’t help but bemoan her own struggle kissing Top Gun icon Tom Cruise during the filming of Mission: Impossible 2 - the worst installment of the franchise.
On top of Cruise pushing her “into a place of terror and insecurity,” Newton told Elle that kissing him was “slightly icky and sort of wet.” Not to mention that the positioning of the kiss made her think “more about whether or not you’re squashing him than kissing him,” according to The Guardian.
Eva Mendez and Will Smith locked lips for the film Hitch, one of the most successful romantic comedies of the 2000s. In an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Mendez claimed she was nervous about the scene and to calm her nerves, she had her stank breathe special.
That consisted of a tuna sandwich with extra onions and a bag of Doritos. Repulsed by the smell, Smith had her take some breath mints to do the kissing scene. A kindly gentleman, when asked about the kiss by Mendez, Smith replied that “It was absolutely wonderful.”
Probably one of the worst vampire movies put on screen, it should be no surprise that Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner’s awful kiss was just as bad as it look on-screen for the film Twilight: Eclipse. According to Stewart, “One of the most challenging scenes was probably finally kissing Jacob for the first time.”
She told Parade, “Bella has got such tunnel vision that Edward is the only thing for her. That’s a strange perspective. So when Taylor Lautner and I kissed, it felt like such a different dynamic. I was nervous as hell.” Evidently, the kiss was just as cringy to film as it was to watch.
Camille, a cheesy rom-com starring James Franco and Sienna Miller, is a quirky mess of a movie and the on-screen kisses shared between its stars are no better, particularly for the stars involved, James Franco, in particular, pointed out the less-than-pleasurable experience.
He told E! "I think we kissed once in that film and it wasn't at all intense—there was no rolling around or anything…Sienna's molar was giving her pain so she called the dentist!" Maybe no fault of her kissing abilities but you can’t blame her. Who wants to be touched when they are in pain?
The Disney channel original movie Jump In certainly isn’t trying to be a masterpiece, but you’d think the stars would put in a little more effort? But it seems Keke Palmer and Corbin Bleu did not, and much of it had to do with how nervous they were.
She described the experience as scary, telling Access Online, “I was very, very nervous. I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is the first person I am kissing outside of my family. It was real scary for me." She did add that Bleu was a true professional, saying he was "so sweet about it.”
Elizabeth Hurley and Jürgen Prochnow kissed for the film Kill Cruise a German thriller that, while lacking in plot, offered plenty of cheap thrills. Prochnow played the skipper while Elizabeth Hurley played Lou. In an interview on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, she mentioned a kiss with “a german actor” as being her worst on-screen kiss.
It wasn’t long before fans of Hurley figured out just who she was talking about. As Hurley explained, "We hated each other. We had to have sort of a sexy scene and we had to do a lot of snogging. I didn’t like it. Horrible.”
The steam, arthouse crime drama film Spring Breakers had a star-studded cast that ultimately failed to meet expectations. Sometimes the movie is just downright uncomfortable to watch and apparently, was also uncomfortable to film according to actress Vanessa Hudgens.
According to an interview with The Independent, Hudgens told the publication, “I'd rather kiss Ashley than kiss James to be honest–because she's a girl and I was close to her and I felt comfortable…So I was like, 'Yeah, I'll kiss Ashley!'” And if Franco is just as creepy as they say, it’s easy to see why.
While the rest of us might have forgotten about the movie Forces of Nature, Sandra Bullock hasn’t, but that’s mostly because of Ben’s bad breath. According to The Telegraph, Bullock had complained about the star’s bad breath. And according to Fox News, multiple female co-stars have complained about the same.
Just another reason Ben Affleck is better behind the camera than he is in front of it. Given that the movie didn’t turn out great in any capacity, we can say rest-assured that Bullock wasn’t paid enough to have to swap spit with the foul-breathed Bostonian.
Miles Teller made a big name for himself as the star of Top Gun: Maverick, but before making blockbusters he had to star in films like The Spectacular Now with the poor man’s Jennifer Lawrence Shailene Woodley. The film certainly wasn’t spectacular and neither was Woodley’s oral hygiene.
According to Vulture Miles Teller said, “she would these Chinese herbal supplements, and they tasted like crap.” However, Woodley herself had plenty to say about his breath as well, complaining about his consumption of licorice and Gatorade, among other things. But needless to say, the two still work together and also co-starred in the Divergent film series.
Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel played husband and wife perfectly on the hilarious sitcom How I Met Your Mother but apparently that on-screen chemistry didn’t translate into real life. In fact, allegedly Hannigan refused to kiss her co-star because of his terrible breath.
Alyson Hannigan told Digital Spy, "I cannot stand cigarette smoke. It's like kissing an ashtray and [Segel]’s trying to be polite by having gum or mints, but it doesn't help." However, her complaints all worked out for the best as it motivated the actor to kick the habit – for a time anyway.
Jennifer Lawrence received a well-earned Oscar for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. While the filming of the movie might have been enjoyable to an extent, the experience of kissing Cooper was not as enjoyable for the actress, according to Bradley Cooper.
In a 2013 interview on The Graham Norton Show, Cooper told the host that Lawrence described him as a “wet kisser,” adding, "You don't want to hear that. It was not a compliment." And we agree, it certainly doesn’t sound like a compliment to us either.
Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence starred together in the Hunger Games franchise, films that provided interesting dystopian vision of the future that reflected on real-life contemporary issues pertaining to class. Of course, the films also offered a good ol’ fashioned love triangle, requiring the two stars to kiss.
But like Jennifer Lawrence said of Cooper, Josh Hutcherson said of Jennifer Lawrence that her kisses were quite wet as well. Worse yet, he described the kiss as slobbery in an interview on Live! with Kelly and Michael. However, to be fair, the scene also required crying on her part, so it wasn’t necessarily her fault.
Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman swapped spit for the Baz Luhrmann epic Australia but the kiss was just as unremarkable as the movie itself. Jackson told Oprah, "It's never particularly comfortable making out with someone in front of 70 people, adding, “That's really not something that turns me on.”
And according to Nicole Kidman herself, the feeling is mutual. In the same interview, she noted that "The whole thing is weird, and you just ignore it and move on." And given that the two actors are happily married, it’s perhaps best that they didn’t enjoy it too much.
Smokey and the Bandit, an action comedy film starring two of the most popular actors of the time, Sally Field and Burt Reynolds, was heavy on the laughs but the on-screen chemistry (or lack of), between Field and Reynolds, left much to be desired.
Although we may all really like the talented Sally Field, the same can’t be said for Burt Reynolds – at least when it came to kissing him. Sally Field said of Reynolds on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, “It just was not something he did really well. Just a lot of drooling.”
Helena Bonham Carter has starred in a lot of strange movies, so it’s no surprise she starred in one of Woody Allen’s strangest comedies, Mighty Aphrodite. While it might be enough to say it’s one of his worst films, on top of that however, it also has one of the worst kisses, according to Helena Bonham Carter.
In part, that’s because of his lack of effort, as she told Elle. “It’s like kissing the Berlin Wall,” she says. Apparently, he has strict rules for kissing scenes and that includes no exchange of fluids. The Academy seemed to agree about the lack of effort as well, as the film only won Academy Award and that was for Mira Sorvino’s performance.
