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What Actors Have Said About Kissing Blake Lively
Kissing other people as a working actor has to be a pretty weird situation, all things considered. The situation isn’t exactly romantic; you’re surrounded by cameras, harsh lighting, and crew members while you lock lips with your co-star and try to sell the intense physical connection. One person who might know a thing or two about this process? Blake Lively, who’s been lighting up the big and small screen for years.
After getting her start in teen fare like “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the campy primetime soap “Gossip Girl,” Lively moved on to more adult projects like Ben Affleck’s Boston-based drama “The Town,” Rebecca Miller’s dramedy “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” the survival thriller “The Shallows,” and many more; plenty of these movies and TV shows have put her in a position where she needs to smooch someone on set. So what have Lively’s co-stars revealed about what it’s like to make out on-screen with the Los Angeles native? From minty-fresh kisses to her real-life husband’s initial rating of their big screen kiss, here’s what actors have said about kissing Blake Lively for a living.
Penn Badgley said kissing Blake Lively was both a major career high and low for him
The CW
Penn Badgley knows a thing or two about kissing Blake Lively. Not only did he do it on-screen for six seasons from 2007 to 2012 as Dan Humphrey, the on-again, off-again paramour to Lively’s socialite Serena van der Woodsen, but the pair also dated in real life from 2007 to 2010. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live in 2015, a fan called in to ask Badgley about his best and worst on-screen kisses, and he was pretty blunt.
“I’ll say Blake because we actually had a relationship at the time,” Badgley quipped. “And worst? Maybe Blake after we broke up.”
The two kept things professional — apparently hiding their breakup from the “Gossip Girl” cast and crew for quite some time — as the show eventually came to a close in its sixth season, finally revealing the identity of the titular blogger who spends the series spreading salacious rumors about all of the wealthy, privileged characters. As it happens, it’s Dan Humphrey himself, which means that he was cyberstalking and insulting all of his friends for years; Badgley ultimately moved on to “You,” a series that answers the question “what if Dan Humphrey also murdered people?”
Serena and Dan end up getting married during the last moments of “Gossip Girl’s” series finale, but the two didn’t end up together in real life. Still, Badgley looks back fondly on their time together. As he told Variety in 2023, he thinks their relationship stopped him from indulging in dangerous vices as a young star: “To be honest, I never struggled with substance. Blake didn’t drink, and I think our relationship in some ways saved me from forcing myself to go down that road.”
Anna Kendrick thinks her kiss with Blake Lively on A Simple Favor set some sort of record
Lionsgate
In the 2018 film “A Simple Favor,” Blake Lively stepped into a sky-high pair of Christian Louboutin heels — several pairs, actually — to play Emily Nelson, a working mom living in a sleepy suburban town who attracts the attention of mommy blogger Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick). When their two sons start playing together, Emily and Stephanie spend a lot more time in each others’ company … and thanks to Emily’s affinity for an ice-cold martini, they throw back a lot of stiff drinks in the process. On one gin-soaked afternoon, Emily and Stephanie share a kiss … and as Kendrick told PrideSource in 2018, she felt that their kiss scene set some sort of record for one very specific reason.
“I mean, all I’m ever thinking about in [kissing] scenes is, ‘who has gum? Who has a mint?'” Kendrick said. “And I think Blake is probably the same because I’ve never experienced a guy, searching for gum. So, we were the mintiest, freshest two people to have ever kissed in the history of America.” When interviewer Chris Azzopardi congratulated her on this “record,” Kendrick joked, “Thank you. Call Guinness.”
Kendrick reiterated this point while speaking to Robin Roberts on Good Morning America to promote the film, once again illustrating the apparent difference between men and women as far as they approach kiss scenes. “I will say, when I have an on-screen kiss with a guy, I’m loaded up with gum. I’m flossing, mouthwash, everything,” Kendrick noted. “And the guy’s just like, ‘You ready? Let’s go. Anytime. Whatever.’ So having a kiss with a female actress, I was like, this is the mintiest kiss in the history of cinema.” Sounds like Kendrick … got a little fresh with Lively.
Henry Golding felt lucky that he got to kiss two gorgeous women while working on A Simple Favor
Lionsgate
As it happens, Anna Kendrick wasn’t the only person who kissed Blake Lively while filming “A Simple Favor.” When Kendrick’s character Stephanie first visits Emily’s house, she also meets Emily’s dashing husband Sean Townsend, played by “Crazy Rich Asians” standout Henry Golding. Sean and Emily have a pretty clear physical connection right off the bat, making Stephanie visibly uncomfortable when the two kiss passionately in front of her; when Emily disappears partway through the film, Sean and Stephanie strike up a relationship under the assumption that Emily is dead. So what did Golding think of kissing both Lively and Kendrick? As he told Grazia Magazine, he had no complaints.
“For me, going into it, it was really a joy not only because I get to make out with Blake and Anna but because there was no nervousness, it was really art that we were trying to portray and make a beautiful film,” Golding told the outlet. “So, yes of course, I’m not complaining. It was really nice to be able to not go into it feeling like I was doing something wrong or that I had to explain myself. So there was a joy in that.”
Not only that, but Golding said that his first meeting with Blake helped him be as comfortable as possible; when they first met, Golding was starstruck, so Lively suggested that he join her in her car and read their scripts together. “It was just like we had known each other for years,” Golding said. “It’s that comfort and familiarity that Blake gives everybody. You could be a stranger and Blake sets you at ease. There’s that joy in meeting Blake.”
Michiel Huisman said his chemistry with Blake Lively was easy during Age of Adaline
Lionsgate
Blake Lively’s 2015 romantic drama “The Age of Adaline” is definitely one of her stranger movies, but there’s also a lot of kissing in it. Lively plays the titular Adaline, a woman who, after a car accident and a lightning strike in 1937, simply stopped aging; apparently, her curse is that she has to go through life looking like Lively. (Rough stuff.) Though she largely keeps to herself for fear of anyone realizing that she’s seemingly immortal Adaline ultimately strikes up a romantic connection with handsome philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman). One problem, though, is the fact that Adaline eventually meets Ellis’ parents … and realizes she once had a relationship with his father William (Harrison Ford).
So how did Huisman feel about working with Lively and kissing her on-screen? As he told AOL Build in an interview, the chemistry was immediately there. “When you’re doing a romantic movie like The Age of Adaline, I feel that it’s very important that there’s … some sort of … whatever you want to call it, chemistry or something, between the two characters that are falling in love with each other,” he said. I don’t think that’s something you can really create.”
Huisman also told PopSugar that one of his favorite scenes with Lively involved a kiss. Asked about a scene he loved shooting, Huisman pointed to a specific one: “When she’s finally at my house and we’re about to kiss and then she holds back and she says, ‘Tell me something to hold on to forever and never let go.'” Clearly, Huisman had a perfectly good time kissing Lively on-screen.
Ryan Reynolds is married to Blake Lively — and he’s also kissed her on-screen
Gotham/Getty Images
Everyone knows Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who got married in 2012, are an iconic Hollywood couple; both of them would probably rather that everyone forget they both appeared in “Green Lantern” in 2011 … and kissed in it. In a 2011 video on Facebook from Mediacorp, Reynolds is asked to rate his on-set kiss with Lively on a scale from one to ten … and puts it at an “eight point five.” The clip then immediately cuts to a shocked Lively, who incredulously repeats, “eight point five?!”
On the SmartLess podcast in 2021, however, Reynolds was singing a very different tune when he spoke to hosts Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman, and Will Arnett. After explaining that they became friends but dated other people after filming “The Green Lantern,” Reynolds revealed that he was so into Lively that he put everything on the line: “Next thing you know, she was going to Boston, and I was going to Boston. So we got on a train and rode together and then, you know, I was just begging her to sleep with me. A week later, I was like, ‘we should buy a house together,’ and we did.”
So what does Reynolds think of his wife kissing other co-stars on screen? He’s okay with it; after all, he understands the demands of the job. “I don’t mind that as much,” he told Elle Magazine. “I don’t mean that in a creepy way. What people don’t realize is, there are 50 or 60 tired, hungry, overworked crew members standing directly behind them.” That’s a good perspective to have … and by all appearances, Lively and Reynolds, along with their four daughters, are living out their best lives off-screen.