It's hard to tell these days between a real movie kiss and one created with visual effects trickery.
From extra cautious safety protocols to the convenience of using body doubles,
here's why so many actors choose to "fake it" when smooching on screen.
Thor: The Dark World sees Thor's corner of the MCU fall into crisis. Hundreds of years after
the Asgardians defeated the Dark Elves, Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman,
finds a powerful weapon called the Aether, which uses her as its host. Thor,
played by Chris Hemsworth, must protect her from the Dark Elf Malekith before he captures her and
uses the Aether to wreak havoc on Earth. During the after-credits scene, Thor returns to Earth.
With the day saved and Malekith gone, he shares a passionate and celebratory kiss with Jane.
Surprisingly, Hemsworth didn't actually kiss Portman during this scene. She wasn't able to
make it to the reshoots, so producers decided to use a body double and shoot the scene from
behind. They gave Hemsworth a list of body doubles to choose from, but Hemsworth chose his
wife Elsa Pataky instead. She dressed up as the character, ran up to him, and they locked lips.
If that isn't romantic, we don't know what is. You People follows new couple Ezra and Amira as
they deal with the cultural differences between their families. After they say their wedding vows,
they lock lips, and flower petals fall around them. Some might consider it the most romantic
moment in the film — but comedian Andrew Schulz, who plays Ezra's cousin Avi, revealed that the
kiss was actually created with CGI. Schulz said while co-hosting the "Brilliant Idiots" podcast:
"The final scene, they don't even kiss. It's CGI [...]"
Why didn't they go in for a real kiss? In short,
because of COVID-19 safety guidelines. Filming took place in 2021, so they
had to maintain a safe social distance to help prevent the virus from spreading.
Accomplished firefighter Caleb Holt, played by Kirk Cameron, realizes that his marriage
to Catherine, played by Erin Bethea, is falling apart. With the encouragement of his father,
he reads a Christian self-help book called The Love Dare and embarks on its 40-day challenge
to save his relationship. But Cameron is a devout Christian, and won't kiss any woman
besides his wife, Chelsea Noble. To film the scene without compromising Cameron's values, filmmakers
had Noble dress up as Catherine, then shot the scene in silhouette. Cameron explained to Today:
"The reason this movie was important to me personally is because I love my
wife dearly. We've been married for 17 years ... and we have six
children. So marriage is a very special and sacred thing to us."
"It is my great privilege to love and cherish exclusively my beautiful wife."
In the end, Fireproof affirms these beliefs: Caleb and Catherine find a way to work things
out. Lots of romantic movies feature happy endings, but few incorporate
real-world romances in such a unique way. Will Smith rose to popularity as the star
of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but he proved he could also take on serious fare when he accepted
a leading role in Six Degrees of Separation. In this film, a rich couple's lifestyle is disrupted
when a mysterious man named Paul, played by Smith, visits their home, claiming to be their children's
friend. Paul uses his charms to take advantage of them, but his lies are eventually exposed.
Smith was committed to the role, but there was just one problem: He didn't want to kiss Anthony
Michael Hall, who played Trent, a student with a crush on Paul. Right before they
were going to film a kiss scene, Smith told the director he wouldn't do it. Ultimately,
they had to use a stand-in and shoot the scene from behind. Smith told Entertainment Weekly:
"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."
Though he was undoubtedly angry with himself for refusing to follow through, he went on to say that
the experience was ultimately worthwhile, because it brought him valuable insight.
There's nothing like getting cozy under your favorite blanket with a cup of hot chocolate
and settling in to watch a romantic holiday movie. But during the pandemic,
holiday movie giant Lifetime had to figure out how to film kiss scenes while still
keeping people safe. This led to an interesting solution in Christmas Ever After. This movie
follows romance novelist Izzi Simmons, who is plagued with writer's block as she arrives at
a bed and breakfast for the holidays. The inn's owner, Matt, looks just like the main
character of her books. Izzi is finally able to overcome her writer's block as they fall in love.
Amy Winter, head of programming at Lifetime,
discussed making the movie's kiss scene happen with TheWrap, remarking:
"Everybody was incredibly concerned about ... making sure that we were
following the best possible guidelines to keep people safe. [...] And the greatest,
oddest solution I've seen so far is people kissing through plexiglass that can be removed in post."
That's just what they did for Christmas Ever After. Though the behind-the-scenes photos
might look odd, the finished kiss is just as romantic as holiday movie fans could want.
Call the Midwife follows the midwives, nurses, and nuns of Nonnatus House as
they help London families during the 1950s and 1960s. In Season 11,
widower Matthew gets closer to Nurse Trixie, and the two eventually share a
kiss. It's incredibly romantic — but things were much more awkward behind the scenes,
due to COVID-19 safety protocols. Helen George, who played Nurse Trixie, told RadioTimes,
"We became masters at kissing through Perspex. It's probably
the most unsexy thing you could ever do. A man comes along with a little
spray and a window wipe and wipes away your spit after every take. Horrific."
She went on to say,
"There were a few [takes]. It takes a while to get there. It was so mechanical, we'd turn our
head to the left or bring your cheek in a bit or your head. Awful. Awful. So embarrassing."
It's safe to say that George wasn't a fan of kissing through Perspex,
but kudos to her and her co-star for powering through these scenes. Their characters have
a special bond, and fans would've been very disappointed if they didn't end up kissing.
Freddie is a short-lived 2000s sitcom following Freddie Moreno,
played by Freddie Prinze Jr. Freddie is a chef who takes in his older sister,
niece, sister-in-law, and grandmother after times get tough.
"Women, wear your women things. I'll wear the man things."
The show's opening sequence features numerous Freddie clones interacting
with many different characters: They make out with women, argue with grandma,
and help Freddie's niece with her homework. Visual effects supervisor Jeff Okun explained to vfxblog:
"The premise here is that Freddie is all things to all his family and friends. They
wanted a main title to reflect this, so [the show's creators] came up with the
idea of having Freddie continually clone off into a new Freddie for EACH person's needs."
To create the multiplying Freddies' smooching, the visual effects crew created a mish-mash
of partially real and partially fake kissing. First, the crew filmed Prinze actually kissing
the actress. After that, they did another take with Prinze pretending to kiss her,
so he could play the part of the different clone that splits off at that moment. Okun said:
"We used the frozen video to position him to match himself.
That way the clone would start on the movement of splitting apart,
and all we needed to do was use an articulated wipe to reveal the new Freddie."
It took many tries to get everything lined up properly, but in the end, they pulled it off.
EastEnders is a long-running soap opera exploring the drama-filled relationships
between the people of London's East End. And what would a soap opera be without
plenty of kissing scenes? Filming intimate moments during the pandemic was a challenge,
however. Luckily, the crew found multiple ways to get around this issue while still
following COVID-19 protocols. In 2020, executive producer Jon Sen told Sky News,
"For those really crucial moments where two characters kiss, we've actually invited the
real-life partners of the actors on to the set to be able to cheat those kind of moments."
These scenes were also shot from specific angles, to obscure the fact that body doubles
were used.This wasn't the only bit of clever trickery the creators of EastEnders employed.
To film scenes involving characters who live together, producers used Perspex to
make close proximity COVID-safe. At other times, they used plate shots, which combine
separately-filmed actors into one coherent shot. British soap opera Coronation Street follows the
working-class residents of Weatherfield, England as they navigate family life, romance, work,
and various personal issues. During the pandemic, producers had to figure out how to film a scene
in which Tyrone, played by Alan Halsall, and Alina, played by Ruxandra Porojnicu,
share a kiss. They managed to fake the lip-lock with the help of Alex Mulvaney,
a regular extra on the show, and his wife Hannah. Mulvaney told the BBC during a 2021 interview:
"My agent said that 'Coronation Street' needed extras [...] My partner Hannah
hadn't done any extra work before, but my agent knew she had dark hair like Alina's,
so I asked her if she wanted to do it."
Despite some initial nervousness — she's a big fan of the show — Hannah was up for
it. To create the non-kissing parts of the scene, Halsall and Porojnicu were
each filmed separately. Because they couldn't gaze into each other's eyes,
the actors looked at a pair of sunglasses taped to a pole. Once everything was filmed,
visual effects artists brought these disparate shots together into a coherent whole.
In this long-running Australian soap opera, the residents of Ramsay Street face challenges
involving work, love, their pasts, and much more. Like many other shows filmed during the pandemic,
the makers of Neighbours didn't want to exclude kiss scenes, leading them
to explore unique approaches. Colette Mann, who plays Sheila Canning, revealed one way they made
the smooches happen: Each actor kissed a mirror. Then the visual effects team worked their magic,
making it seem like the characters were kissing each other. Smooching a mirror
isn't exactly romantic, but hey — crazier things have happened on soap operas before.
For the scene in which Pierce Greyson, played by Tim Robards, kisses Dipi Rebecchi,
played by Sharon Johal, the Neighbours crew left the mirror behind and brought in Johal's
husband. As Johal told Herald Sun, she even made him practice the night beforehand:
"I thought my kissing skills were up to scratch, but obviously not."
Johal's husband Ankur also remarked:
"She told me it was more for blocking ... so she was experimenting with different angles."
The pandemic made lots of couples do weird things, but this is definitely one of the strangest.
Plan A Plan B centers around matchmaker Dr. Nirali Vora, played by Tamannaah, who opens up a business
next to cynical divorce lawyer Kaustubh Chougule, played by Riteish Deshmukh. They
constantly butt heads, but have so much chemistry that they end up falling in love. Though Deshmukh
refuses to do on-screen lip-locks, the two characters manage to have a lengthy kiss scene.
Filmmakers made this happen by using certain camera angles to create the appearance of kissing,
without Deshmukh and Tamannaah ever actually making contact. Some viewers
find the faux-smooch convincing, but others think it looks laughably fake. Why the deception? Fans
speculate Deshmukh believes kisses are meant to be private moments between two people.
Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen don't play the leading roles in Scary Movie 5,
but they still have some funny moments together on screen.
"I'm going to blow you across the room!" "Sounds awesome."
Charlie brings Lindsay to a
cabin to film a racy tape. They make the adults-only entertainment with gusto — but
in truth, no actual kissing takes place. According to TMZ, Lohan was supposed to kiss Sheen multiple
times, but refused to do so. Allegedly, she made this stance clear well before filming took place,
but changes weren't made until shooting was set to commence. Rumor has it they
brought in a body double and did what they could to cut unnecessary kiss scenes out
of the script entirely. Does this result in a convincing scene? Your mileage may vary,
but you're probably not judging a Scary Movie installment based on its convincing smooches.