Anne Hathaway has revealed that she was once asked to kiss 10 men (strangers, presumably) for a chemistry test as part of a role she had in a film in the 2000s.
Speaking with fashion pop culture publication V magazine, the 41-year old actor revealed that she subjected herself to the task because she didn’t want to be seen as “difficult.”
“Back in the 2000s—and this did happen to me—it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry,” she said. “Which is actually the worst way to do it.”
“I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited.”
“I thought it sounded gross,” she continued. “And I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labeled ‘difficult,’ so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it. It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me. It was just a very different time and now we know better.”
For actors, chemistry tests are a requirement for landing any role involving characters who have or develop intimate relationships with each other in the movie.
In the past [ie. before #MeToo and before intimacy coordinators were an industry standard] these tests often asked actors to do one of the intimate acts you can do with another human — kissing.
Now, Hathaway believes that there are better ways to register the romantic chemistry between prospective co-stars. Speaking about her forthcoming romantic movie, The Idea of You (based on the 2017 novel by Robinne Lee) — where she plays a 40-year old single mother who falls in love with a Harry Styles-eque famous singer, Hathaway revealed that she asked the auditioning male actors to choose a song to accompany an improv scene they would do with her.
The actor who ultimately landed the role of her romantic interest, Nicholas Galitzine, chose a song by The Alabama Shakes.
“And it was just easy,” Hathaway reflected. “I heard [the lead singer of Alabama Shake’s] Brittany’s voice and I just started smiling. And [Nicolas] saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing. Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”
It helped that Hathaway was also a producer on the film — which means she has more leverage in advocating for herself.
This week, another Hollywood A-lister also spoke out about kissing. Promoting her latest movie, Challengers, Zendaya revealed the “weird” level of attention she gets surrounding her kissing scenes.
“I don’t know if it’s because [interviewers] want it to be, like, a viral thing, I don’t know. But I have noticed that, with me specifically,” Zendaya said.
“I feel like other actors don’t… if it was somebody else here, you probably wouldn’t [have] asked that question.”
“But yeah, it is a part of my job, and it is a completely normal part of the job despite, I think, maybe other people’s perception of our job. But yeah, it is odd.”
In recent years, female actors have opened up about their uncomfortable experiences kissing male co-stars; by today’s standards, the actions would be illegal.
Consider Kirsten Dunst’s kiss with Brad Pitt in the 1994 movie, Interview with the Vampire. Dunst was 11. Pitt was 30.
During the promotional tour for the movie, Dunst was even asked by a female journalist: “Did you really hate kissing Brad Pitt?”
“Well you know…it feels awkward, I’m 12, he’s 31 now…it’s like, he’s a man, so why would I enjoy kissing him?” she said.
In 2021, Dunst told Vanity Fair that when she starred in the movie, she was “a little girl.”
“[Brad] was like a brother to me,” Dunst said. “And it was very weird even though it was a peck. I was just very not into it.”
Other instances of underaged actors kissing adult co-stars include Mila Kunis, who was 15 when she kissed then co-star Ashton Kutcher, 20, in That 70s Show; Emmy Rossum, who was 17 when she kissed Patrick Wilson and Gerard Butler, were 30 and 33, respectively in The Phantom of the Opera; Mariel Hemingway, who was 16 when she kissed Woody Allen, 44, in Manhattan; and Keira Knightley, who was 17 when she kissed the 40-year old Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.