“We shot during the pandemic, and it was obviously very difficult for people to travel at the time.”
Filming a movie can take months at a time and involves hundreds of people. So many people that not everyone gets the chance to meet one another on set — and that even includes the actors! Sometimes movies are filmed in such a way that certain co-stars never cross paths. While they might have scenes together, it’s all edited with a green screen and a little movie magic. And although they don’t get to meet while they’re on set, they always have the premiere to look forward to!
Read on to find out why these co-stars never met on set…
1. John Krasinski & Elizabeth Olsen
John Krasinski and Elizabeth Olsen may have both appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness but they never actually met on set. The pair even had a fight scene together but after filming wrapped, Elizabeth revealed that she didn’t know John while taking a lie detector test for Vanity Fair. It turns out that because of COVID protocols, they had filmed separately with stand-ins.
“I don’t know him … I don’t think so … No, I’ve never met him. I’ve never met that man,” she shared in the video, noting that she had actually met his wife Emily Blunt.
2. Sam Heughan & Celine Dion
Sam Heughan and Celine Dion’s film Love Again filmed during the pandemic so they never crossed paths while working. Sam explained that both he and his co-star Priyanka Chopra filmed in a bubble in the UK while Celine shot her scenes in Canada thanks to green screens and stand-in actors.
“We shot during the pandemic, and it was obviously very difficult for people to travel at the time, so we did shoot a lot of it on sound stages and on green screen. That was one of the challenges of working during the pandemic,” Sam told EW. “It was difficult, but I think they did some great magic in the movie, and I think those scenes really worked out.”
3. Carrie Fisher & James Earl Jones
Carrie Fisher and James Earl Jones were both big parts of the Star Wars franchise — while Carrie portrayed Princess Leia, James voiced Darth Vader. Despite their starring roles, James and Carrie never crossed paths and didn’t actually meet until filming an episode of The Big Bang Theory over three decades later. During a Comic Con appearance it was revealed that when the pair met for the first time, Carrie jokingly called James “dad.”
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4. Christopher Briney & Jon Hamm
Christopher Briney may have appeared in the new Mean Girls movie, but he didn’t meet many of his co-stars, including Jon Hamm. He explained that his character Aaron just didn’t end up in many scenes so he spent a lot of time in his dressing room by himself.
“No, man. I didn’t meet anybody. I mean, Aaron — he’s important to the plot but he’s not in that much of the movie,” Christopher shared on The Tonight Show. “And so I was just in my dressing room all day. You know, I saw Jon Hamm, like, crossing the field when he was done but I didn’t [wave him down].”
5. Hugh Grant & Matthew McConaughey
While Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey knew each other before filming The Gentlemen, they didn’t end up crossing paths while on set. Hugh says the closest they got to interacting was during a table read through before filming began.
“We only met a few minutes ago,” Hugh joked during an interview with Matthew, noting, “We don’t actually have any scenes together in the movie.”
6. Jack Black & Jackie Chan
Jack Black and Jackie Chan worked together on three different Kung Fu Panda movies before they actually met face-to-face for the first time. Jack explained that over the course of a decade, the pair did their voice overs separately and never even crossed paths at a premiere. Then in 2016, while Jack was promoting Kung Fu Panda 3 in China, he finally got to meet Jackie.
“We’ve worked together literally 10 years, side-by-side, on one of the most successful franchises of all time,” Jack joked during an appearance on Conan. “Never met the man. Never so much as a high-five, not even a glance across the room. We’ve never been within 100 yards of each other.”
He continued, “I’d been dying to meet him … I see the man and his aura is just glowing. He’s like, ‘Hello, Mr. Black.’ And we had this powerful shake, and this amazing eye contact — transferal of energies — and he said, ‘Think of a movie. We do it.'”
7. Will Smith & Jared Leto
Will Smith and Jared Leto may have technically met while filming Suicide Squad, but Will doesn’t count it because Jared was in character the whole time. Looking back on their extended time on set, Will says he never got to know Jared as a person.
“We worked together for six months, and we’ve never exchanged a word outside of ‘action’ and ‘cut.’ We’ve never said hello, we’ve never said good day. I’ve only ever spoken to him as Deadshot and him as The Joker. I literally have not met him yet. Not a single word exchanged off-camera,” Will shared during a 2016 interview with Zane Lowe.
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8. Ben Affleck & Jared Leto
Ben Affleck also didn’t get the chance to meet Jared Leto while on the set of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Their one scene together, which took place in an alternate reality, was shot in 2020 when COVID protocols were in place. The actors actually shot the scene independently of each other and never ended up crossing paths.
“Zack always felt the ultimate for him was to see Batman and Joker together in a scene. It was something we thought about while working on the movie but couldn’t figure out how it would fit,” producer Deborah Snyder told Business Insider. “We actually shot Ben separate from Jared.”
9. Tom Holland & Tom Hiddleston
Tom Holland and Tom Hiddleston both appeared in Avengers: Infinity War but during the entire filming process, they never worked together. In fact, the two Toms didn’t even meet until the night before they were set to start making press appearances together.
“We only just met, like literally last night,” Tom explained during an appearance on Good Morning America. “That’s the amazing thing about these movies. You make films with some of the greatest people in the industry and you never meet them until the film comes out.”
10. Saoirse Ronan & Margot Robbie
Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie were kept separate throughout the entirety of filming Mary Queen of Scots, all leading up to the one moment they shared on screen. The pair didn’t meet until the very end of filming because they wanted the scene to truly portray how Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I hadn’t ever met in real life.
“We really, really didn’t want to see each other. I love Margot and wanted to hang out, but we wanted [the meeting] to be this special thing,” Saoirse told EW, adding that the pair “held each other for ages” and sobbed when filming wrapped.
