15 Romantic Leads Who Had So Much Chemistry, They're Still Together In Real Life, And 10 Who Would Never Consider Dating Each Other
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Oftentimes, actors get caught up in the romantic scenes they're filming and fall in love with their onscreen love interests for real. Other times, however, any love they have for their scene partner evaporates the second the director yells, "Cut!"
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Here are 15 pairs of costars who fell in love for real:
1.Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin were both freshly out of long-term relationships when they met on the set of Once Upon a Time in 2011, and a year later, they were officially dating.
They got married in 2014, and they have two kids together.
2.Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell met on the set of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1966, but they didn't start dating until Valentine's Day in 1983, while they were starring together in Swing Shift.
In 1986, they had a son, actor Wyatt Russell. The couple went on to star in several more movies together, including Overboard, The Christmas Chronicles, and The Christmas Chronicles 2.
3.Nicole Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe met on the set of the Soul Food TV series in 2000 and started a long-distance relationship after his character was written off.
They got married in 2005 and have two kids together. They also hosted The Boris & Nicole Show together in 2015.
4.Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks met when she guest-starred on an episode of Bosom Buddies in 1981, but it wasn't until they played the romantic leads in Volunteers four years later that they "just looked at each other and — kaboing — that was that," as he told GQ.
At the time, he was still married to Samantha Lewes, but he told Express it was a "broken marriage."
Tom and Rita started dating in 1986, a year before his divorce was finalized. They got married in 1988.
5.Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys began to play a married couple on The Americans in 2013, and even though romance rumors swirled after she separated from her then-husband, they didn't start dating publicly until 2014.
They had a son in 2016.
6.Freddie Stroma and Johanna Braddy met while filming the first season of Unreal in 2015, and even though their characters called off their engagement, the actors got engaged for real in 2016.
They had a secret wedding that December, then shared their news with the world in the New Year.
7.Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley kept their relationship secret for six years while playing Clarke and Bellamy, who were never an official couple but were a popular pairing to ship, on The 100.
They surprised fans by announcing their marriage in 2019.
8.Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar's characters were just friends in I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997, but they didn't start dating until three years later when a planned dinner with a mutual friend who couldn't make it turned into an impromptu date. Soon after, they played love interests in 2002's Scooby-Doo.
They got married in 2002 and have two kids. They still like to have dinner at the restaurant where they had their first date.
9.Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons played a married couple on the second season of Fargo in 2015, and they got together after she broke up with her longtime partner a year later.
They've been engaged since 2017 and have two children together.
10.Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem met while filming 1992's Jamón, Jamón, but it wasn't until they reunited for 2008's Vicky Cristina Barcelona that they began dating.
In 2010, they had a secret wedding. They have two children together. They also costarred in Loving Pablo in 2017 and Everybody Knows in 2018.
11.In 2011, Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman met on the set of Revenge, and a year later, they publicly announced their relationship.
They got married in 2018 and had their first baby together in 2021.
12.Hugh Dancy and Claire Danes met and began dating while filming Evening in 2007.
They got married secretly in 2009, and they now have two children together.
13.Grimm costars David Giuntoli and Elizabeth Tulloch kept their real-life romance a secret until 2014.
They got married in 2017 and had a daughter in 2019.
14.Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood met when he joined the cast during the second season of Supergirl in 2017, and they started dating soon after.
They got married in 2019 and had their first child together in 2021.
15.Danneel Harris and Jensen Ackles had been friends before they were cast opposite each other in 2007's Ten Inch Hero, and after filming on the sandwich shop movie wrapped, they started dating.
They got married in 2010, and they have three children together.
And now, here are 10 pairs of costars who couldn't stand each other:
16.In his book American Rhapsody, Sliver screenwriter Joe Eszterhas alleged that Sharon Stone disliked William Baldwin so much that, during an onscreen kiss, she bit his tongue.
In a statement, Sharon said, "I think it's hilarious. I knew [Joe] was funny, but I didn't think he could write comedy."
17.Jay Mohr told Elle that his "most awkward interaction with a female celebrity" was "being on the set of a movie where the leading woman was unhappy with my presence and made it clear from day one," and a few years later, he revealed on his podcast that he'd been talking about Jennifer Aniston, his Picture Perfect costar.
He told Elle, "I hadn't done many movies, and even though they screen-tested some pretty famous guys, I somehow snaked into the leading role. The actress said, 'No way! You've got to be kidding me!' Loudly. Between takes. To other actors on set. I would literally go to my mom's house and cry."
18.Pierce Brosnan told Vanity Fair that he "let slip a few words which weren't very nice" to Teri Hatcher on the set of Tomorrow Never Dies because she was "always keeping [him] waiting for hours."
However, Pierce later found out that the reason for Teri's tardiness was the morning sickness she'd been suffering from. He said, "Then it came out one morning that Teri was pregnant and she hadn't been feeling very well — still, these things happen."
19.I Love Trouble costars Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte "gave each other a hard time" from the moment they met, and she told the New York Times he was "completely disgusting."
She said, "He's going to hate me for saying this, but he seems to go out of his way to repel people."
20.Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey's contentious relationship began while they were filming Red Dawn, and when they worked together on Dirty Dancing, he grew frustrated with what he perceived as a difference in maturity.
In his autobiography, Patrick wrote, "She seemed particularly emotional, sometimes bursting into tears if someone criticized her ... Other times, she slipped into silly moods, forcing us to do scenes over and over again when she’d start laughing.”
Jennifer told the Hollywood Reporter, "His fearlessness with my fearfulness … together was like a marriage where you have two opposites. He’d do anything, and I’d be scared to do anything.”
21.After they costarred in A Change of Seasons in 1980, Anthony Hopkins said that Shirley MacLaine was "the most obnoxious actor" he'd ever had to work with.
In 2014, she told the New York Post, "I didn’t like him, either, but he was on the wagon at that time, and it was hard on him."
22.According to costar Louis Gossett Jr.'s autobiography, An Actor and a Gentleman, Debra Winger and Richard Gere kept their distance from each other when they weren't actively filming a scene during An Officer and a Gentleman.
Debra compared Richard to "a brick wall."
23.After they starred in The Boost together, James Woods sued Sean Young for allegedly stalking him and his then-fiancé and leaving a disfigured doll outside his house, but Sean won the suit, and as she told the Daily Beast, "[James] not only paid for [her] legal fees, but [she] had a liability clause in [her homeowners insurance] and ... ended up getting paid by them, too."
In 2007, she told Entertainment Weekly, "It boils down to two people plotting to set me up and make me look like I was a crazy person, partially because of their own mental illness, partially because of revenge."
In the same article, James commented, "I love and admire Sean, and she’s actually half right."
24.After Marlon Brando put his hands on Sophia Loren without her consent on the set of A Countess From Hong Kong, she "turned in all tranquility and blew [in] his face, like a cat stroked the wrong way, and said, ‘Don’t you ever dare to do that again. Never again!’”
She told the Independent, "As I pulverized him with my eyes, he seemed small, defenseless, almost a victim of his own notoriety. He never did it again, but it was very difficult working with him after that.”
25.And finally, on the set of Kramer vs. Kramer, Dustin Hoffman slapped Meryl Streep across the face and taunted her about the recent death of her first love to elicit a reaction he thought was appropriate for her character, but she refused to stoop to his level, instead focusing on rewrites that made Joanna a richer and more meaningful character.
According to director Robert Benton, "There was no way Dustin could shake her. No way he could do anything to shake her. She was just there, and she was an incredible force.”
In 2018, Meryl told the BBC, "This is tricky because when you're an actor, you're in a scene, you have to feel free. ... This was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie. It was overstepping. But I think those things are being corrected in this moment. And they're not politically corrected; they're fixed. They will be fixed, because people won't accept it anymore. So that's a good thing."
