Celebs Get Really, Really Honest About Their Best (and Worst) On-Screen Kisses (2024)

Kate Hudson & Gwyneth Paltrow

Speaking together on Paltrow's Goop podcast on Oct. 13, 2020, the two actresses looked back on some of their memorable kissing scenes, revealing that not all of them were enjoyable.

Hudson explained that several of the kissing scenes with costar Matthew McConaughey took place during less-than-desirable circ*mstances, causing the kiss itself to be not that great.

"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 at the end of Fool's Gold, we're like in the ocean, we like had the plane crash," she told Paltrow with a laugh. "He just had snot all over his face."

When Paltrow asked if McConaughey gave Hudson "brother energy," she answered that "it can be a little sibling-y at times, but no ..."

"Like with Robert, like when I kissed him and I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me,'" said Paltrow, who starred with Robert Downey Jr. in the Iron Man and Avengers franchises. "This is literally like kissing my brother."

Sharon Stone

On an episode of Watch What Happens Live, the actress revealed that her best on-screen kiss was with her Casino costar, Robert De Niro. Stone not only called De Niro the "best kisser," she also said that he meant a lot to her as a fellow actor, and holds him in "extraordinary high regard."

"Well, Robert De Niro was for sure the best kisser. Bob was far in a way the best kisser," she told WWHL host Andy Cohen.

Stone explained that De Niro was the actor she "admired the most" and had been waiting for the moment she could "sit across the table from Robert De Niro and hold [her] own."

"I just held him in such extraordinary high regard," she continued, sharing that her on-screen kiss was the "pinnacle" as there was "so much attached to it."

Shia LaBeouf

The actor stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show in November 2019 to discuss his autobiographical film Honey Boy, and dropped major news regarding who he shared his best on-screen kiss with.

During LaBeouf's guest appearance, DeGeneres had challenged the star to eat a spicy ghost pepper before firing off questions for him to answer. The host then took her opportunity to ask who LaBeouf's best on-screen kiss was, to which the actor — after some prolonged hesitation and groaning — blurted out, "Dakota Johnson! She's a sweetheart." (Johnson and LaBeouf starred alongside each other in the 2019 indie comedy-drama, The Peanut Butter Falcon.)

Morena Baccarin

The Gotham actress sat down with PEOPLE Now to discuss her role in Deadpool 2 when she admitted that it isn't really great getting to kiss Ryan Reynolds, who stars as the superhero Deadpool and wears a full body suit for most of the film.

"I keep saying that kissing him in that mask is like kissing a giant latex condom," she said laughing. "It basically just smells like rubber the entire time."

Zac Efron

Efron has had his fair share of on-screen kisses, but the one he shared with Zendaya in The Greatest Showman might just top his list. "This might be my favorite kiss, I think ever," he said during an interview, adding that what was happening between their characters added to the magic. "Just because at this point for these characters, it's so built up, the tension between them is so strong, and literally, just a glance between them is electric."

Paula Patton

When asked about her best on-screen kiss during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan, Patton was quick to mention Tom Cruise, whom she starred alongside in 2011's Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. "It's not the best, but it was great," she said of kissing Cruise. "I will tell you that the kiss from Tom Cruise was a surprise." Patton added: "He had amazing breath. It wasn't minty. It was just perfect."

Liam Hemsworth

"Anytime I had to kiss [Jennifer Lawrence] was pretty uncomfortable," Hemsworth said of his Hunger Games costar. "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. 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!'"

Bryce Dallas Howard

When it came to kissing Matthew McConaughey in her film Gold (2016), Howard actually benefited from her costar's character's drinking problem. "He was drinking a lot of, I think it was tea stuff, a lot of fake alcohol, so it was pretty good," she told PEOPLE Now host Jeremy Parsons about McConaughey's breath. "It was like some sort of good, healthy aesthetic substitute for alcohol." While 'pretty good' isn't bad, it's hardly the ringing endorsem*nt Howard gave her Jurassic World costar Chris Pratt, whose breath she said was "like Starburst." She added, "He's perfect in every way."

Selena Gomez

Think your first kiss was awkward? Gomez had hers on TV with Dylan Sprouse when she was 12 years old and guest-starring in an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. "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," she later said. "But I was 12, so it was okay and it was good."

Josh Hutcherson

Another star who had their first kiss on-screen: Hutcherson! He was 11 years old at the time and filming for Little Manhattan. "It was horrible," he told Seventeen. "I had a crew of, like, 50 people standing around watching me, and it was the most non-real, non-intimate [setting] that I could possibly have for my first kiss, I think." Awwww.

Emma Watson

Our beloved Hermione and Ron's Harry Potter kisses were easier said than done, and the two described the challenges of filming Deathly Hallows in an interview with MTV News.

"I was like, 'Do I use tongue?'" Watson said. "'Do I not use tongue? Do I cover my teeth? What do I do? Do I go first? Oh my God!'" A bit stressed out, she "ended up pouncing on Rupert [Grint]."

She added: "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!'"

Miles Teller

Yikes! Teller had a somewhat gross tale to share about kissing Shailene Woodley in The Spectacular Now. "Before our first kissing scene, Shailene took these Chinese dirt supplements and shoved them in her mouth," he said. "It's like a dirt pouch, and it smells like crap."

He continued: "She always has a mason jar, and 100 percent of the time it smells like crap."

Penn Badgley

When asked on Watch What Happens Live about his best and worst on-screen kisses, he threw it back to Gossip Girl. "I'd say best ... I'll say it was [Blake Lively], because we actually had a relationship at the time." And as for his worst? "Maybe Blake after we broke up," Badgley added with a smirk.

Ryan Reynolds

When a fan tweeted at Reynolds what it was like to kiss his costar, Anna Kendrick, in 2014's The Voices, he said it's "like taking your face to Awesometown."

Kendrick hilariously replied, "That IS the Kendrick-train guarantee. With local stops in Awkwardville and Tolerableshire."

Reese Witherspoon

Kissing Robert Pattinson definitely sounds wonderful … unless he's under the weather. During filming for Water for Elephants, Pattinson developed a bad cold — with a dripping nose, no less. When asked about kissing him for the role, Witherspoon said, "It wasn't appealing; it wasn't pleasant." Rough.

Tobey Maguire

Maguire and Kirsten Dunst's upside-down Spider-Man kiss is iconic in every sense of the word, but the real story behind the smooch was not quite as romantic as it may seem on-screen. "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 told Parade. "Then, when Kirsten rolled back the wet mask, she cut off the air completely."

Dane Cook

Kissing Kate Hudson might just be every man's dream come true, but her former costar, Cook, felt otherwise. While appearing on Watch What Happens Live, he told Andy Cohen, "Did a movie with her — My Best Friend's Girl — and I think she purposely ate a feast of onions right before the scene. I had to burn her on that one."