They may look romantic but on-screen kisses can be deceiving.
You’d think locking lips with a gorgeous Hollywood star would be something of dreams, but as Nicole Kidman recently revealed, it ain’t all roses. Below, we take a look at the Aussie actress’ kiss confession and other stars’ on-screen smooch experiences…
Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgård
In an interview on the Las Culturistas podcast in March 2025, the Oscar and Emmy winner revealed that she “cannot stand bad breath” and told her Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgård to stop eating falafel before their kissing scenes.
“You could be the most gorgeous, gorgeous guy, and if you came at me with bad breath, I’m like, no. If I say, ‘Breath on me,’ and I have to recoil, yikes, I’m out. You could not offer me enough money,” Nicole said.
“When Alexander Skarsgård ate a falafel sandwich before we did the scenes in Big Little Lies, I’m like, ‘No, no, no, Alex. I’m meant to be into you and kissing you — put away the falafel now.’
“I’m sure he did not eat a falafel ever again. I said, ‘No more falafel. Not before you kiss, not before you make love.'”
Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth
Whilst smooching a Hemsworth brother sounds like fun, cheeky Jennifer Lawrence made sure to wind up her co-star whilst filming The Hunger Games.
On the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Liam confessed, “Anytime I had to kiss Jennifer was pretty uncomfortable.
“When you look at in 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 disgusting.
“Then 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 say, ‘Fantastic I can’t wait to get in there and taste it.'”
Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson
Back when they were filming Water For Elephants, Reese admitted to In Touch that she was “a little disappointed” by her kiss with her handsome co-star, adding that “it wasn’t sexy.”
“Rob possibly had the most hideous, horrible cold of any co-star I’ve ever had to do a love scene with ever in my entire life,” she added.
“He was literally snorting and snotting through every second of it – and it was not appealing. I’m talking green, infectious, disgusting. I’m not kidding!”
Robert himself later told MTV, “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.” Gross!
Emma Watson and Rupert Grint
After years of friendship on the set of the Harry Potter movies, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint felt more like siblings than their characters Hermione and Ron.
The actress told MTV that when it came to filming their kiss, the awkwardness got the better of her.
“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!'”
Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst
That Spider-Man kiss is one of the most iconic smooches in cinema but did you know that Spiderman himself was suffocating?
“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,” Tobey explained to Parade in 2007. “Then, when Kirsten rolled back the wet mask, she cut off the air completely.”
Meanwhile director Sam Raimi recalled, “When he was doing the scene, I remember the water was falling down into his upside down nostrils, so he was kind of drowning.
“But it was a kissing scene. So, he had to pretend like it was a pleasant, sweet moment for him, when in fact, he was semi-drowning.”
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