Why Gwyneth Paltrow Refused This Sex Scene With Ethan Hawke

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Expect Gwyneth Paltrow to stick to her principles.

In Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 film Great Expectations, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke shared several sweet and close moments. However, Paltrow decided not to film a much more explicit love scene, as the actors recalled 27 years later.

In a December interview with Vanity Fair, Ethan Hawke asked Gwyneth Paltrow if she recalled Alfonso Cuarón discussing the filming of their love scene with her.

She remembered him imitating the director’s accent, saying, ‘And then he’s going to perform oral sex on you,’ which shocked her. She thought, ‘Oh my god, my father is going to have a heart attack!’ Gwyneth Paltrow was very close to her father, Bruce Paltrow, who passed away in 2002.

Oh my god, Hawke was channeling Cuarón, calling him this amazing, brilliant madman, and then he just launched into this unbelievably vivid description. He was acting it out, saying how the camera was going to move down on the actress, right over her body, and then up… and then right into her face as she… you know. He said when she climaxed, the light would just explode like the sun! It was… intense. I’ve replayed it in my head a million times, honestly. It was pure cinematic poetry!

“And,” the Blue Moon star added, “I remember Gwyneth is like, ‘Alfonso, I’m never going to do that.'”

Gwyneth Paltrow, who starred as Stella alongside Ethan Hawke’s character Finn (Pip in the original Charles Dickens story) in the movie, hasn’t ruled out a potential return to the project.

When I was starting out, I used to worry a lot about what my father and grandfather would think if they saw things like this. It really bothered me back then, but now I wouldn’t even give it a second thought.

Hawke, 55, complimented Paltrow for being “amazing” about it.

He told her she wasn’t being childish, just clearly stating she wouldn’t do it.

Gwyneth Paltrow wondered if she’d overreacted at the time, but Ethan Hawke disagreed, saying he didn’t think she had.

“I was definitely worried about,” she reiterated.

More importantly, Paltrow made sure Hawke knew that the kiss she shares with Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme happened in a different location in Central Park than the kiss between Stella and Finn by the fountain in Great Expectations.

“I think it’s the same damn location,” Hawke said, feigning scorn. 

“Absolutely not,” Paltrow stated firmly. “I would never do something like that to our special place.”

This wasn’t their first kiss, actually. They’d first kissed at Gwyneth Paltrow’s apartment on Prince Street while playing Truth or Dare. They were all part of the same group of friends back then, having met through Paltrow’s boyfriend at the time, Robert Sean Leonard, who also acted with Ethan Hawke in Dead Poets Society.

“What a highlight,” Paltrow recalled.

Hawke confessed he was upset about how things unfolded during the game, explaining he’d envisioned a different outcome for that particular scene.

The kisses in Great Expectations were reportedly perfect, but not all movie kisses go so smoothly. Here are some stories of on-screen kisses that didn’t quite go as planned.

Despite often complaining about her on-screen romantic partners, Kate Hudson seems to be quite skilled at quickly ending relationships, at least according to Dane Cook. He recently told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that during the filming of the 2008 movie My Best Friend’s Girl, he believes Kate intentionally ate a lot of onions before their love scene, forcing him to playfully call her out on it.

Oh my gosh, you will NOT believe what I just read about Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson! Apparently, during that Water for Elephants scene, Robert had a terrible cold! He said on MTV that his nose was running everywhere and, get this, he actually wiped his nose on Reese’s wig during a reshoot! A wig! Can you even imagine? It’s a little gross, honestly, but also… iconic? I’m obsessed with this story now. Reese is a queen and Robert… well, he’s just adorable even while being sick and accidentally snotting on her hairpiece! It’s the best behind-the-scenes story ever!

Witherspoon admitted the situation was a little messy. “He was definitely running a lot of mucus,” she said. “It wasn’t a pretty sight, and it wasn’t enjoyable to deal with.”

Selena Gomez has admitted her experience filming The Suite Life of Zack & Cody wasn’t entirely pleasant. She remembers her first on-screen kiss, with Dylan Sprouse, being quite awkward. She told Tiger Beat that she closed her eyes too soon and ended up missing most of his lip! Despite the mishap, she added that it was okay because she was only 12 years old at the time.

She shared on The Kelly Clarkson Show that the most awkward part of the experience was having a big crush on Cole Sprouse, only to end up kissing his brother while guest-starring on his show.

When Emma Watson and Rupert Grint’s friendship started to become romantic during the seventh Harry Potter film, it wasn’t quite the magical moment everyone expected. Emma, who was 19 at the time, told MTV News she felt really anxious because there had been so much anticipation.

She remembered agonizing over the details before the scene, wondering things like whether to use tongue and if she should cover her teeth. ‘I was so nervous,’ she said, recalling the 2009 chat. ‘I just rushed in and kissed Rupert, wanting to get it over with.’ After the first attempt, he was surprised and asked what had happened. She immediately apologized.

It was always going to be difficult for Liam Hemsworth to develop a connection with Jennifer Lawrence, given that they worked so closely together on The Hunger Games.

He described the on-screen chemistry between Katniss and Gale as seemingly perfect, but revealed a funny quirk from working with his co-star. Apparently, whenever a kissing scene was scheduled, she’d deliberately eat something with a strong odor, like garlic or tuna, and then proudly announce it to him right before they filmed. He jokingly said he’d then be ‘thrilled’ to kiss her anyway.

Josh Hutcherson admits the kissing scenes with his Hunger Games co-star weren’t the best (“There was a lot of slobber”), but he says they were nothing compared to a particularly awkward experience filming Little Manhattan in 2005.

He recalled having his first kiss at age 11, describing it as an awkward experience. He told Seventeen magazine in 2013 that it happened with around 50 people watching, making it feel completely unnatural and lacking any intimacy.

Ashley Tisdale recently shared with Elle magazine a story about filming an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody with her friend, Zac Efron. She admitted she felt awkward having to act romantically with someone she considers “like a brother,” and was especially surprised and uncomfortable when he attempted to kiss her during the scene.

She explained that her High School Musical co-star was accustomed to a different style of acting from his work with Warner Bros. and The CW. She jokingly recalled being shocked by his approach, quickly shutting her mouth and exclaiming, ‘This is Disney Channel! We don’t do kissing scenes like that here!’

Zac Efron had a funny experience while filming the 2020 movie Summerland. He was about to film a kissing scene with Kay Panabaker when something unexpected happened. He explained on The Graham Norton Show that lunch included fish, and as he leaned in for the kiss, he realized Panabaker wasn’t responding. He kept getting closer and closer, anticipating contact, but nothing happened. Finally, she asked if he’d eaten salmon for lunch, completely breaking the moment!

Harsh, but he learned a valuable lesson: “I carry a toothbrush everywhere I go now.”

One of the most nerve-wracking moments for Tobey Maguire while filming Spider-Man was filming the famous kiss with his then-girlfriend, Kirsten Dunst.

He described a frightening experience to Parade magazine in 2007, recalling being suspended upside down in the rain late at night with water running up his nose. He said the situation became even more intense when Kirsten removed the wet mask, cutting off his air supply.

It’s not something you hear every day, but Kirsten Dunst has said that kissing Brad Pitt wasn’t actually that great. It’s understandable, though – she was only eleven years old when they filmed Interview With the Vampire in 1994, and he was already in his thirties.

She explained to ET that filming the kiss with Brad Pitt was uncomfortable, describing him as a brother figure on set. She said it felt strange and unpleasant to kiss someone she saw as family, especially given their age difference.

She firmly believes what she said back in 2019: “It was disgusting, and I still feel that way! It would have been much more disturbing if an eleven-year-old had said they enjoyed it. That would raise serious concerns.”

For Penn Badgley and Blake Lively, their time on Gossip Girl had its highs and lows. Penn Badgley once told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that he considered Blake Lively the best onscreen kiss he ever had, explaining they were actually dating at the time.

As for his worst, he quipped, “Maybe Blake after we broke up.”

Colin Farrell admitted that kissing Kate Beckinsale during filming of the 2012 movie Total Recall was a bit awkward. He explained to Conan O’Brien that it was ‘moderately uncomfortable’ because Beckinsale was married to the film’s director, Len Wiseman, at the time.

He described the situation as slightly uncomfortable, explaining that the director’s husband stayed in the room even though he should have given them privacy. He wondered if he should have asked the husband for feedback instead.

Is there anything worse than a surveilling husband? Millie Brown Brown would hazard so.

When Sadie Sink first kissed Finn Wolfhard on the set of Stranger Things, it happened with a very awkward audience: her whole family! She shared that her dad and the rest of her family were watching the entire time. It seems like that first kiss was a bit of a disaster – maybe one successful attempt out of eleven!

Though it might seem glamorous to kiss Ryan Reynolds, his Deadpool co-star Morena Baccarin says it wasn’t ideal. She jokingly told People Now that kissing him while he’s in the Deadpool mask felt like kissing a large latex condom, and it just smelled like rubber the whole time.

James Franco recently shared that filming a romantic comedy with Sienna Miller in 2008, called Camille, wasn’t as glamorous as it seemed. He said their only kiss in the movie wasn’t very passionate because Miller was actually experiencing tooth pain and had to call her dentist during filming.

In 2013, after filming the romantic movie The Spectacular Now with Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller openly discussed intimate details about the experience during a screening of the film.

He remembered that before their first kiss, Shailene Woodley took some Chinese dirt supplements and swallowed them. He described them as smelling terrible, like a ‘dirt pouch.’ A rather unusual way to set the mood, he joked.

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2025-12-28 04:18