17 Famous Actors Talk About Their Most Memorable On-Screen Kisses

The upside-down kissing scene in the pouring rain between Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) and his high school crush Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) in Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man has become one of most legendary (and parodied) images from any superhero movie. The logistics of capturing that pop culture-defining moment were memorable for the actors - just not in a good way. 

The scene was filmed at night in cold weather. "You do take after take and they're being doused in kinda cold water. And it can become shivering... I mean, it can become really chilling," described Raimi. "They had to endure that the whole night, I remember. Kirsten Dunst never said anything, but she was always shivering when we were discussing the scene. And so was Tobey, but they never complained about it."

The scene wound up being dangerous for Maguire. "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," revealed Maguire. "Then, when Kirsten rolled back the wet mask, she cut off the air completely."

The actors were rewarded for their effort. The scene helped to make Spider-Man a massive box-office hit and breathed new life into the superhero genre. The actors also took home the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. 

Two former Disney stars, Zac Efron and Zendaya, got the chance to lock lips in the 2017 musical drama The Greatest Showman. Efron said that the romantic tension between the characters in the story became "electric."

"This might be my favorite kiss, I think ever," said Efron. "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."

Zendaya also talked about the special chemistry between their characters. "You're into the moment! When you're into a character, the whole time, they're not allowed to as much as touch, talk, speak, have a moment between each other," said Zendaya. "So every moment, even if they're just touching, is really, really, incredibly special. It's not just another kiss. It's different. We try to take ourselves out of it and become these two characters, and that's their moment."

In the 1999 hit teen drama Cruel Intentions, there is a now-famous scene where bad-girl socialite Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) teaches young naive Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair) how to French kiss. It is a sensual open-mouthed kiss that lasts over 20 seconds. Gellar and Blair won the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss the following year. 

In 2014, during an interview with an Australian radio station, Gellar admitted that Blair's smooch topped her personal list of all-time favorite on-screen kisses. "That's easy," Gellar replied when a caller asked about her favorite on-screen kiss. "Obviously. Have you watched that scene? Come on, people."

Hopefully her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., doesn't mind not being No. 1. The pair kissed on-screen in the 2000 live-action movie Scooby-Doo. Gellar and Blair remain friends over two decades later. 

Ethan Hawke has done a lot of lip-locking with sexy big-screen sirens over the course of his prolific acting career. When asked about his favorite on-screen kiss on Watch What Happens Live, the Before Sunrise actor quickly responded with his sultry co-star from the 2004 movie Taking Lives.

"With all due respect... I will say the best on-screen kiss I've ever had is Angelina Jolie," revealed Hawke.

"Why is Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart a genius? I'm talking. Angelina Jolie was born to whittle men... to make them weak," added the actor. "When she kisses you, you don't know your name. I'm just telling the truth here."

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet became great friends while making the hit movie Titanic. The pair played a young couple madly in love in the 1997 tragic epic. The story of Jack and Rose's brief but passionate love affair will always be considered one of the most memorable and heartbreaking on-screen romances in movie history. 

Leading man DiCaprio has had the privilege of locking lips with several sexy screen sirens. However, the actor revealed during an interview with Oprah that his favorite big-screen smooch was with his BFF Winslet. "I'm going to go with Kate Winslet," he said. "Good old, classic."

A few years later, Winslet and DiCaprio ran into each other on the red carpet at the SAG Awards. "I can tell you right now that he hated it," said Winslet of their kissing scenes. "And he would complain bitterly."

Bryce Dallas Howard didn't mind locking lips with co-star Matthew McConaughey on the set of 2016's crime drama Gold. In the film, McConaughey's character is a heavy drinker. The Academy Award-winning actor wound up consuming a lot of movie booze. 

“He was drinking a lot of, I think it was tea stuff, a lot of fake alcohol, so it was pretty good,” said Howard of McConaughey's breath. “It was like some sort of good, healthy aesthetic substitute for alcohol.”

The actress used a much more exuberant response to kissing co-star Chris Pratt on the set of Jurassic World. She said Pratt's breath "was like Starburst." Howard also added, "He's perfect in every way."

Interestingly, Pratt and Howard's kiss was not even in the original script. Their characters build up plenty of romantic tension throughout the story. The kiss only came to fruition after the scene had already been filmed. 

"The kiss was spontaneous. That wasn’t written in there... By the time we shot, Colin (director Colin Treverrow) said, ‘I think the characters are going to earn this. I think that it’s good to have a moment like this.’ It was funny because that day we were shooting there were 800 background artists," said Howard. "We had shot the scene in the way that it was written - there was no kiss. And then on the last day, that happened - what you see in the movie. After Colin yells cut, there was mountainous applause. Everyone was cheering. It was great!"