The Dark Side of Actors Who Refuse To Kiss

Did you know that, when filming The Pelican Brief, Denzel Washington declined the opportunity to kiss Julia Roberts because he didn’t want to offend moviegoers who’d have issues with seeing interracial relationships? That released in 1993, the same year Will Smith used a stand-in for kissing Anthony Michael Hall on Six Degrees of Separation because of discomfort with kissing another man, something he’s since said he regrets.

Kissing in movies feels like par for the course, and something actors would be comfortable with and do frequently as a part of their jobs. It’s an occupational hazard, you could say. But there are many examples out there of times actors nix a kiss. Lindsay Lohan declined kissing scenes with Charlie Sheen in 2013’s Scary Movie 5 because of Sheen’s past––specifically, drug use and womanizing.

The famous kiss in The Notebook between Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling almost didn’t happen because they both loathed each other. Gosling even tried to have McAdams removed from the set. They literally had to go to counseling for that scene to happen. Maybe that’s a tip for struggling relationships out there.

Neal McDonough has over acting 130 credits, like Suits, Yellowstone, Walking Tall, and Desperate Housewives, and refuses to kiss on screen because of his religious beliefs. There are also actors who refuse to kiss out of respect to their partners, like Penn Badgley ruling out intimate scenes for any new seasons of You out of respect for his marriage with Domino Kirke, and Kirk Cameron doesn’t do kissing scenes for the same reason – his marriage to Chelsea Noble.

Reasoning behind not kissing can be as simple as to avoid catching a contagion: Reese Witherspoon refused to kiss Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants because he had a really bad cold. That would be enough of a reason for me! Although…Reese Witherspoon…Hmmm…

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