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.
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00:00It's hard to tell these days between a real movie kiss and one created with visual effects
00:04trickery.
00:05From extra-cautious safety protocols to the convenience of using body doubles, here's
00:09why so many actors choose to fake it when smooching on screen.
00:14Thor The Dark World sees Thor's corner of the MCU fall into crisis.
00:18Hundreds of years after the Asgardians defeated the Dark Elves, Jane Foster, played by Natalie
00:22Portman, finds a powerful weapon called the Aether, which uses her as its host.
00:26Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, must protect her from the Dark Elf Malekith before he captures
00:31her and uses the Aether to wreak havoc on Earth.
00:34During the after-credits scene, Thor returns to Earth.
00:36With the day saved and Malekith gone, he shares a passionate and celebratory kiss with Jane.
00:42Surprisingly, Hemsworth didn't actually kiss Portman during the scene.
00:46She wasn't able to make it to the reshoots, so producers decided to use a body double
00:49and shoot the scene from behind.
00:51They gave Hemsworth a list of body doubles to choose from, but Hemsworth chose his wife,
00:55Elsa Pataky, instead.
00:57She dressed up as the character, ran up to him, and they locked lips.
01:00If that isn't romantic, we don't know what is.
01:04You People follows new couple Ezra and Amira as they deal with the cultural differences
01:08between their families.
01:09After they say their wedding vows, they lock lips, and flower petals fall around them.
01:13Some might consider it the most romantic moment in the film, but comedian Andrew Schultz,
01:17who plays Ezra's cousin Avi, revealed that the kiss was actually created with CGI.
01:22Schultz said while co-hosting The Brilliant Idiots podcast,
01:25"...the final scene, they don't even kiss, it's CGI."
01:29Why didn't they go in for a real kiss?
01:31In short, because of COVID-19 safety guidelines.
01:34Filming took place in 2021, so they had to maintain a safe social distance to help prevent
01:38the virus from spreading.
01:40Accomplished firefighter Caleb Holt, played by Kirk Cameron, realizes that his marriage
01:44to Catherine, played by Erin Buffay, is falling apart.
01:48With the encouragement of his father, he reads a Christian self-help book called The Love
01:52Dare and embarks on its 40-day challenge to save his relationship.
01:55But Cameron is a devout Christian and won't kiss any woman besides his wife, Chelsea Noble.
02:00To film the scene without compromising Cameron's values, filmmakers had Noble dress up as Catherine,
02:05then shot the scene in silhouette.
02:07Cameron explained to Today,
02:08"...the reason this movie was important to me personally is because I love my wife dearly.
02:13We've been married for 17 years, and we have six children, so marriage is a very special
02:18and sacred thing to us."
02:19"...it is my great privilege to love and cherish exclusively my beautiful wife."
02:27In the end, Fireproof affirms these beliefs.
02:29Caleb and Catherine find a way to work things out.
02:32Lots of romantic movies feature happy endings, but few incorporate real-world romances in
02:36such a unique way.
02:38Will Smith rose to popularity as the star of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but he proved
02:43he could also take on serious fare when he accepted a leading role in Six Degrees of
02:47Separation.
02:48In this film, a rich couple's lifestyle is disrupted when a mysterious man named Paul,
02:52played by Smith, visits their home, claiming to be their children's friend.
02:56Paul uses his charms to take advantage of them, but his lies are eventually exposed.
03:01Smith was committed to the role, but there was just one problem.
03:04He didn't want to kiss Anthony Michael Hall, who played Trent, a student with a crush on
03:08Paul.
03:09Right before they were going to film a kiss scene, Smith told the director he wouldn't
03:12do it.
03:13Ultimately, they had to use a stand-in and shoot the scene from behind.
03:16Smith told Entertainment Weekly,
03:18"'It was very immature on my part.
03:20I was thinking, how are my friends in Philly going to think about this?
03:23I wasn't emotionally stable enough to artistically commit to that aspect of the film.'"
03:27Though he was undoubtedly angry with himself for refusing to follow through, he went on
03:31to say that the experience was ultimately worthwhile because it brought him valuable
03:35insight.
03:37There's nothing like getting cozy under your favorite blanket with a cup of hot chocolate
03:40and settling in to watch a romantic holiday movie.
03:43But during the pandemic, holiday movie giant Lifetime had to figure out how to film kiss
03:47scenes while still keeping people safe.
03:49This led to an interesting solution in Christmas Ever After.
03:52This movie follows romance novelist Izzy Simmons, who is plagued with writer's block
03:56as she arrives at a bed-and-breakfast for the holidays.
03:59The inn's owner, Matt, looks just like the main character of her books.
04:02Izzy is finally able to overcome her writer's block as they fall in love.
04:06Amy Winter, head of programming at Lifetime, discussed making the movie's kiss scene happen
04:10with The Wrap, remarking,
04:12"...everybody was incredibly concerned about making sure that we were following the best
04:16possible guidelines to keep people safe.
04:18And the greatest, oddest solution I've seen so far is people kissing through plexiglass
04:22that can be removed in post.
04:24That's just what they did for Christmas Ever After."
04:26Though the behind-the-scenes photos might look odd, the finished kiss is just as romantic
04:30as holiday movie fans could want.
04:33Call the Midwife follows the midwives, nurses, and nuns of Nonnata's house as they help London
04:38families during the 1950s and 1960s.
04:41In Season 11, widower Matthew gets closer to Nurse Trixie, and the two eventually share
04:45a kiss.
04:46It's incredibly romantic, but things were much more awkward behind the scenes due to
04:50COVID-19 safety protocols.
04:52Helen George, who played Nurse Trixie, told Radio Times,
04:55"...we became masters at kissing through Perspex.
04:58It's probably the most unsexy thing you could ever do.
05:00A man comes along with a little spray and a window wipe and wipes away our spit after
05:04every take.
05:05Horrific."
05:06She went on to say,
05:07"...there were a few takes.
05:08It takes a while to get there.
05:10It was so mechanical.
05:11We turn our head to the left or bring your cheek in a bit or your head.
05:15Awful.
05:16Awful.
05:17So embarrassing."
05:18It's safe to say that George wasn't a fan of kissing through Perspex, but kudos to her
05:21and her co-star for powering through these scenes.
05:23Their characters have a special bond, and fans would have been very disappointed if
05:27they didn't end up kissing.
05:29Freddie is a short-lived 2000s sitcom following Freddie Moreno, played by Freddie Prinze Jr.
05:34Freddie is a chef who takes in his older sister, niece, sister-in-law, and grandmother
05:39after times get tough.
05:40"...women, wear your women things.
05:43I'll wear the man things."
05:45The show's opening sequence features numerous Freddie clones interacting with many different
05:49characters.
05:50They make out with women, argue with grandma, and help Freddie's niece with her homework.
05:54Visual effects supervisor Jeff Okun explained to VFXblog,
05:57"...the premise here is that Freddie is all things to all his family and friends.
06:01They wanted a main title to reflect this, so the show's creators came up with the idea
06:05of having Freddie continually clone off into a new Freddie for each person's needs."
06:09To create the multiplying Freddie smooching, the visual effects crew created a mishmash
06:13of partially real and partially fake kissing.
06:16First, the crew filmed Prinze actually kissing the actress.
06:20After that, they did another take with Prinze pretending to kiss her, so he could play the
06:23part of the different clone that splits off at that moment.
06:26Okun said,
06:27He used the frozen video to position him to match himself.
06:30That way, the clone would start on the movement of splitting apart, and all we needed to do
06:34was use an articulated wipe to reveal the new Freddie.
06:37It took many tries to get everything lined up properly, but in the end, they pulled it
06:41off.
06:42EastEnders is a long-running soap opera exploring the drama-filled relationships between the
06:46people of London's East End.
06:48And what would a soap opera be without plenty of kissing scenes?
06:51Filming intimate moments during the pandemic was a challenge, however.
06:54Luckily, the crew found multiple ways to get around this issue while still following COVID-19
06:58protocols.
06:59In 2020, executive producer John Sen told Sky News,
07:02For those really crucial moments where two characters kiss, we've actually invited the
07:06real-life partners of the actors onto the set to be able to cheat those kind of moments.
07:11These scenes were also shot from specific angles to obscure the fact that body doubles
07:14were used.
07:15This wasn't the only bit of clever trickery the creators of EastEnders employed.
07:19To film scenes involving characters who live together, producers used Perspex to make close
07:23proximity COVID-safe.
07:25At other times, they used plate shots, which combined separately filmed actors into one
07:29coherent shot.
07:31British soap opera Coronation Street follows the working-class residents of Weatherfield,
07:35England as they navigate family life, romance, work, and various personal issues.
07:40During the pandemic, producers had to figure out how to film a scene in which Tyrone, played
07:44by Alan Housel, and Alina, played by Roxandra Porrejonico, share a kiss.
07:48They managed to fake the lip block with the help of Alex Mulvaney, a regular extra on
07:52the show, and his wife, Hannah.
07:54Mulvaney told the BBC during a 2021 interview,
07:57"[My agent said that Coronation Street needed extras.
08:00My partner Hannah hadn't done any extra work before, but my agent knew she had dark hair
08:04like Alina's, so I asked her if she wanted to do it."
08:07Despite some initial nervousness — she's a big fan of the show — Hannah was up for
08:10it.
08:11To create the non-kissing parts of the scene, Housel and Porrejonico were each filmed separately.
08:16Because they couldn't gaze into each other's eyes, the actors looked at a pair of sunglasses
08:20taped to a pole.
08:21Once everything was filmed, visual effects artists brought these disparate shots together
08:25into a coherent whole.
08:27In this long-running Australian soap opera, the residents of Ramsey Street face challenges
08:31involving work, love, their pasts, and much more.
08:35Like many other shows filmed during the pandemic, the makers of Neighbors didn't want to exclude
08:39kiss scenes, leading them to explore unique approaches.
08:42Colette Mann, who plays Sheila Canning, revealed one way they made the smooches happen.
08:46Each actor kissed a mirror.
08:48Then the visual effects team worked their magic, making it seem like the characters
08:52were kissing each other.
08:53Smooching a mirror isn't exactly romantic, but hey, crazier things have happened on soap
08:57operas before.
08:58For the scene in which Pierce Grayson, played by Tim Roberts, kisses Dippy Rebecca, played
09:02by Sharon Johal, the Neighbors crew left the mirror behind and brought in Johal's husband.
09:07As Johal told Herald Sun, she even made him practice the night beforehand.
09:11I thought my kissing skills were up to scratch, but obviously not.
09:14Johal's husband Ankur also remarked,
09:16"...she told me it was more for blocking, so she was experimenting with different angles."
09:20The pandemic made lots of couples do weird things, but this is definitely one of the
09:24strangest.
09:26Plan A, Plan B centers around matchmaker Dr. Nirali Vohra, played by Tamina, who opens
09:30up a business next to cynical divorce lawyer Kastab Chagule, played by Ritesh Deshmukh.
09:35They constantly butt heads, but have so much chemistry that they end up falling in love.
09:39Though Deshmukh refuses to do on-screen lip locks, the two characters manage to have a
09:43lengthy kiss scene.
09:44Filmmakers made this happen by using certain camera angles to create the appearance of
09:48kissing, without Deshmukh and Tamina ever actually making contact.
09:51Some viewers find the faux smooch convincing, but others think it looks laughably fake.
09:56Why the deception?
09:57Fans speculate Deshmukh believes kisses are meant to be private moments between two people.
10:02Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen don't play the leading roles in Scary Movie 5, but they
10:06still have some funny moments together on screen.
10:08I'm going to blow you across the room!
10:12Sounds awesome.
10:13Charlie brings Lindsay to a cabin to film a racy tape.
10:16They make the adults-only entertainment with gusto, but in truth, no actual kissing takes
10:20place.
10:21According to TMZ, Lohan was supposed to kiss Sheen multiple times, but refused to do so.
10:25Allegedly, she made this stance clear well before filming took place, but changes weren't
10:30made until shooting was set to commence.
10:32Rumor has it they brought in a body double and did what they could to cut unnecessary
10:35kiss scenes out of the script entirely.
10:37Does this result in a convincing scene?
10:39Their mileage may vary, but you're probably not judging a Scary Movie installment based
10:43on its convincing smooches.