Hollywood actors often find it difficult to film intimate scenes with their co-stars. There have been instances of actors refusing to film even kissing scenes in movies for various reasons. Some actors refuse to film them based on their beliefs, while others just don’t trust their on-screen partners.
A few refusals of kissing scenes have turned controversial, due to problematic behavior on the part of the actors or issues with the kiss itself. Forget kissing scenes; some actors couldn’t just stand each other on set, so they hardly appeared in scenes together. Here are some instances of actors refusing to film kissing scenes with their co-stars.
1. Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough in Yellowstone | Credits: Paramount Network
During his appearance on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast, Yellowstone‘s Neal McDonough shared that Hollywood shut him out for allegedly refusing to kiss a woman. McDonough shared that he had one rule for his acting roles: he wouldn’t kiss other women on screen.
He has been married to his wife, Ruvé Robertson, for 22 years, and the couple has five children together. He shared that his wife didn’t have a problem with it, but that he didn’t feel comfortable filming kissing on screen. He shared:
I’d always had in my contracts I wouldn’t kiss another woman on-screen. My wife didn’t have any problem with it. It was me, really, who had a problem with it.
He further shared that this rule didn’t sit well in Hollywood, and the industry allegedly turned against him. He shared, “When I couldn’t do it, and they couldn’t understand it, Hollywood just completely turned on me. They wouldn’t let me be part of the show anymore.”
While McDonough didn’t reveal when or which particular project got him blacklisted, fans on Reddit did some digging. It was reported that David James Elliot replaced McDonough on the 2010 show, Scoundrels, after the latter refused to film s*x scenes (via Coming Soon).
He opened up with Closer Weekly about the Scoundrels situation in 2019, “After that, I couldn’t get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot.” He shared with the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast that it was a low point in his life and that the incident not only cost him jobs but also his confidence. He shared that it was his wife who helped him recover from this ugly mess.
2. Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron in Mean Girls | Credits: Paramount Pictures
Lindsay Lohan had an issue with doing intimate scenes with Charlie Sheen, who had the reputation of being problematic on sets. Lohan appeared alongside Sheen in Scary Movie 5 in 2013. She was reportedly not a fan of Sheen’s past and insisted that the filmmakers took out all the kissing scenes from the movie (via TMZ). She also reportedly cited Sheen’s dental work as a reason.
She was supposed to have three kissing scenes with Sheen, but her refusal prompted the filmmakers to use a body double. Interestingly, Sheen didn’t enjoy working with Lohan on his sitcom, Anger Management. During an interview with Australian FM station, KIIS 1065, Sheen revealed that Lohan had a wild night out and arrived late and hungover on set the next day.
He shared that Lohan had spent the entire day puking into a garbage bin, leading the crew members to dub it the ‘Lindsay’ bin. Sheen told KIIS 1065:
She must have had a big night one time, and we had this garbage bin on the set, and the crew and cast named it the ‘Lindsay’ bin because she was puking into it.
Interestingly, they eventually became friends. Sheen allegedly gave Lohan $100,000 to lighten the load of her tax debt. She then sent him flowers and a thank-you note.
3. Luke Grimes
Luke Grimes in a still from American Sniper | Credits: Village Roadshow Pictures
Yellowstone star Luke Grimes left a show because he refused to kiss a male co-star. Grimes was part of the sixth season of True Blood and initially played the love interest of Deborah Ann Woll’s Jessica. However, the seventh season revealed another male romantic interest for his character, played by Nelsan Ellis. Grimes exited the show, and Nathan Parsons replaced him in the finale season.
Initially, Grimes’s exit was attributed to scheduling issues. However, a report on BuzzFeed suggested that he left the show because he didn’t want to portray a gay character. He reportedly refused to do intimate scenes with his male co-star. Later, Ellis criticized Grimes’s decision to walk away from his character. He shared with Vulture:
I can’t approach a character with judgment. I certainly can’t tell my boss, ‘I can act what I want to act, but not what you tell me to act,’ especially on a show where you come in, knowing what it is.
HBO maintained that they recast his character because of the new creative direction of the character. Grimes received immense criticism from fans for refusing to appear in the role.
4. Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts as Alma Imhoff in After the Hunt | Credits: Amazon MGM Studios
Julia Roberts was a sensation back in the ’90s and 2000s. She was cast opposite Nick Nolte in the 1994 movie, I Love Trouble. What could have been a dream role for Roberts turned into a nightmare. The two actors played rival reporters who are forced to work together. However, Roberts and Nolte hated each other in the movie.
Their clash on the set led to huge trouble during production. They refused to appear together in scenes, and the filmmakers had to use stand-ins opposite them. According to the LA Times, the publicists of both actors stated that it was just playful antics. However, Roberts shared that Nolte was “charming and nice, [but] he’s also completely disgusting.”
Nolte clarified his side in 2022, sharing with Insider, “It was absurd what we went through. Julia got married at the beginning of that film and it was one of those things where I just approached it all wrong.” It appears that they have gotten past the tensions between them.
5. Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief | Credits: Warner Bros.
Not only did Julia Roberts reject a kissing scene, but another co-star refused to kiss her in a movie. 1993’s The Pelican Brief starred two acting powerhouses, Denzel Washington and Roberts. The film was a legal thriller based on John Grisham’s book of the same name, and it also happened to be the last film of director Alan J. Pakula.
The fact that the two leads didn’t kiss in the movie caught significant attention. Years later, Roberts shared with Newsweek that she wanted to kiss Washington, but it was his idea not to have that scene in the movie. She shared:
I have taken so much sh*t over the years about not kissing Denzel in that film. Don’t I have a pulse? Of course I wanted to kiss Denzel. It was his idea to take the damn scenes out.
The outlet also shared Washington’s side of the story, sharing that he didn’t want to alienate the Black women by kissing a White woman. He was quoted as saying, “Black women are not often seen as objects of desire on film. They have always been my core audience.”
He further shared that during the test screening of The Mighty Quinn in 1989, the Black women in the audience booed at his kiss scene with Mimi Rogers.
6. Thandiwe Newton
Thandiwe Newton and Tom Cruise in a still from Mission: Impossible 2 | Credits: Paramount Pictures
Mission: Impossible star Thandiwe Newton was not comfortable kissing Gerard Butler in their movie RocknRolla. She had a valid reason not to kiss her co-star, who was very sick during the filming of the movie. Newton didn’t want to catch whatever Butler had and refused to kiss him in the movie.
Director Guy Ritchie eventually worked around the issue, and Newton shared that the scene came out brilliantly. She shared about the situation:
Gerry was very unwell indeed, so I wouldn’t kiss him. Guy [Ritchie] had to improvise. I don’t know how he coped with those problems, but it ended up being one of the most brilliant scenes.
Butler also praised Ritchie and Newton for how they professionally handled the scenes when he was sick. He shared with TODAY, “That was the day I realized how professional Thandiwe is. I was so impressed. But that was Thandiwe — Bang on it every time and just a great girl.”
7. Kimberly McCullough
Kimberly McCullough as Robin Scorpio in General Hospital | Credits: ABC
In a disturbing turn of events, General Hospital star Kimberly McCullough shared that she was supposed to share a long kiss with a 22-year-old on the show when she was just 14 years old. According to her blog post, McCullough shared that she was told her partner in the scene would be an older boy (via Soaps in Depth).
It was only when she arrived on the set that she realized that it was an adult man. She shared that she felt the scene was “dangerous and wrong.” She even shared that the male co-star joked about having condoms ready for the scene. McCullough eventually opted out of the scene, but didn’t speak out against the incident publicly.
After McCullough’s insistence, the scene was turned from a make-out scene to a simple kiss on the cheek.
8. Kirk Cameron
Kirk Cameron in a still from Fireproof | Credits: Samuel Goldwyn Films
TV star Kirk Cameron refused to do kissing scenes on screen after his marriage to actress Chelsea Noble. Being an evangelical Christian, he vowed not to kiss other women out of respect for his wife. During the filming of Fireproof, the actor refused to kiss co-star Erin Bethea.
Instead, his wife came as a body double for Bethea, and they shot the scene in silhouette. He later told TODAY:
I have a commitment not to kiss any other woman. So when I’m kissing my wife, we’re actually husband and wife honoring marriage behind the scenes.
It wasn’t just Kirk who ruled out kissing scenes. His sister and Full House star, Candace Cameron Bure, also recently revealed that she was “kind of over” having to kiss actors on-screen. She revealed during a panel at The Paley Center (via UsWeekly):
Sometimes I’m doing my Hallmark movies and we’ve got a new guy in each movie. I’m getting more uncomfortable with it the older I’m getting. I’m like, ‘I don’t want to keep doing this!’
It was also revealed that her husband avoided watching her work because it made him uncomfortable seeing her with other men.
9. Will Smith
Will Smith refused to kiss his male co-star, Anthony Michael Hall, during the filming of Six Degrees of Separation. The movie came after his famous role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He played a young con man in the movie. During a scene, Smith was supposed to kiss Hall. However, he refused to do it at the last minute and requested a body double.
Director Fred Schepisi went on to film the scene from a different angle that showed only the back of Smith’s head. The Bad Boys actor later regretted not filming the kiss scene in the movie. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he called himself immature for backing out of the scene. He shared:
It was very immature on my part. I was thinking, ‘How are my friends in Philly going to think about this?’ I wasn’t emotionally stable enough to artistically commit to that aspect of the film. This was a valuable lesson for me. Either you do it or you don’t.
While it was a compelling performance from Smith, the movie will be remembered for his immaturity in filming the kiss scene.
10. Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt was once so much in love with Angelina Jolie that he refused to film a kiss scene out of respect for his wife. When he was starring in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the actor did not want to kiss his co-star Cate Blanchett.
The actress addressed the issue during an interview with The Telegraph and joked that it was “really quite disgusting” to see “how in love with Angelina he is.” However, David Fincher eventually had to intervene and convince Pitt that he had to kiss Blanchett for the love story between Benjamin Button and Daisy Fuller to be impactful.
Blanchett further joked, “It’s in my contract now: I won’t ever work with him again.” As for Pitt and Jolie’s marriage, the couple separated a few years after this movie. Benjamin Button’s kiss surely had nothing to do with their ugly divorce.
What do you think of these actors’ decisions about not kissing their co-stars? Let us know in the comments below!
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