The WORST onscreen couples ever

Julie Andrews and Paul Newman in Alfred Hitchock's Torn Curtain.

Ralph Fiennes and Jennifer Lopez in Maid in Manhattan.

Jane Leeves and Dave Foley in “Hot in Cleveland”.

Dawson and Top #19.

How much time do you have?

Jon Hamm and Jessica Pare. But it does help the viewer to understand why Don Draper threw the first brick at Stonewall and why today they believe a drag queen actually did it. Pare was always a bit mannish.

This is going to cause some comments, I'm sure, but Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.

They were in two movies together - Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. Honestly, Sleepless in Seattle worked because they were never onscreen together until the very end. Good Lord, did they suck together in You've Got Mail - no chemistry whatsoever.

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise “Eyes Wide Shut”

Carrie and Aiden. Just no.

R9: Hold my beer bitch.

Robert Redford and Katharine Ross (through no fault of their own) in "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid."

Ross never stood a chance; no actress would have.

Three, R7. Also in “Joe Versus the Volcano”.

Lindsay Lohan and Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap

That's right, thanks for the reminder, r12!

John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity

Babs and Walter Mathau in Hello, Dolly

Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte in I Love Trouble

R17 they hated each other

Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.

Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley

Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe in Proof of Life. Given the scandal surrounding their affair during filming (which prompted Ryan to end her marriage to Dennis Quaid}, their total lack of chemistry in the finished product was a huge disappointment to say the least.

But in the final moments of Sleepless In Seattle, Hanks and Ryan were wonderful together. I unashamedly love this movie.

Julia Robert’s and Richard Gere always made me uneasy. She was trying too hard, and he is just … cold.

r22 / Dustin: did you feel similarly about them (being "wonderful together") in "You've Got Mail"? Because they really sucked in that movie. It was such a huge let-down after how great Sleepless in Seattle was.

Liza Minnelli and every male costar.

Clifton Webb and anyone else.

Rex Harrison and anyone else.

David Niven and anyone else.

Tony Randall and anyone else.

Fred Astaire and anyone else.

Jodie Foster had more chemistry with her FBI training buddy in Silence of the Lambs.

This reminds of a line from W&G: "I haven't seen seen a kiss this awkward since Richard Gere and Jodie Foster in 'Sommersby.'"

Sommersby was so bad. "Ah never loved him the way that ah love yeeeeewww!"

R24 - I only saw You've Got Mail once and didn't care for it. I don't really remember whether they had any chemistry or not. You may be 100% correct.

Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant.

Jim J. Bullock and Hugh Grant

Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur

r31 very true.

I was thinking about Sandra Bullock and all her various starring roles and co-stars (in regard to their chemistry), and then I remembered her in the movie "Forces of Nature" with Ben Affleck. I liked that movie, and actually thought they had pretty good chemistry.

Perhaps Ben Affleck is a far better actor than we give him credit for.

Sandra and Hugh in "two weeks notice". I had to go look it up and lost my place in line

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in "Allied"

I feel like Marion Cotillard has zero sex appeal. Zilch. She's as asexual to me as Tilda Swinton is.

I put Jessica Chastain in the same boat as Marion Cotillard...not sexy at all, so they only really do well when their roles are not heavily involved or reliant with another character.

Andy Garcia and Sofia Coppola in The Godfather 3

I disagree, R26. David Niven and Maggie Smith were great together in Murder By Death.

I didn't think so back in 1979, but looking back now, Manhattan's Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway creeps me out

Woody Allen and anyone

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon in Four Christmases. Harrison Ford and Anne HeeHee in Six Days, Seven Nights. Let's also not forget Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane in Bros.

But, R19, it did lead to gems like "I don't like sand..." and "Anakin, you're breaking my heart!"

R24 That's because the movie sucked, not them necessarily.

R38 Jessica Chastain made fireworks with Oscar Isaac in Scenes from a Marriage.

[quote] Julie Andrews and Paul Newman in Alfred Hitchock's Torn Curtain.

This will inevitably be the first response in any thread involving the worst chemistry between two people in a movie.

Hm, okay r46 - I didn't see that movie (I've actually never heard of it, either, but that's neither here nor there).

Greta Garbo and Arnold Stang.

r45 - no, the movie sucked AND they had no onscreen chemistry. At all. None. Zero.

R47 You can see Julie trying and Paul, partly because of his character's intentions and partly because of his unhappy relationship with Hitchcock, moving through the whole movie like an iceberg.

SJP and Matthew McConaughey in Failure to Launch.

SJP and Dylan Mulroney in Family Stone, but that was the intent. Then she met the brother (Luke Wilson) who let her fly her freak flag.

Angie Jo and Denzel in The Bone Collector (although I love the movie - them having a romance just doesn't work).

A film I brought up here a few days ago because I was gobsmacked at how bad it was- across the board.

100-% Denzel Washington and IIfenesh Hadera as husband and wife in Highest To Lowest-

3 fucking 5 year age difference and both gave not their greatest- to a truly godawful performance.

Zero chemistry in a headscratcher fuck up of a film with high caliber talent behind it.

R53 Highest 2 Lowest is a terrible, self-indulgent, stupid movie.

Romance is far less important in blockbuster action movies, but in Captain America: Civil War Emily VanCamp and Chris Evans had the vibe of a kid smacking her Barbie and Ken dolls together to make them kiss. It just came out of the blue and made no sense. (Yes, I know Sharon is Steve's longstanding love interest in the source material, but none of that background actually appeared in the film adaptations.)

The horrid and annoying love triangle in Pearl Harbor. (Affleck, Beckinsale and Hartnett)

Jodie Foster and every male she played opposite.

Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt in "What Women Want".

Same with Jodie Foster. And Helen Hunt.

I meant same with Ellen Degeneres.

Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane in Bros

R60 The Sapphic Three

Not an onscreen couple but still, Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenoweth.

I don't think Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman had romantic chemistry in any of the films they made together, not just "Eyes Wide Shut" (so pretentious), but also "Far and Away" (embarrassing for them, trying to do the Irish thing), and "Days of Thunder" (ugh).

[quote] Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane in Bros

"Bros" has done for gays what "The Birth of Nation" did for African Americans.

Garbo and Clark Gable in Susan Lennox. He was too earthy for her. she was best with a softer man.

Jodie Foster and Richard Gere in Sommersby

Bette Davis and James Cagney in The Bride Came C.OD. I love both of them individually, but together? In a row.amtix comedy? Just . . . no!

Kathleen Turner and Burt Reynolds in Switching Channels

Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron in a family affair. You can't be asking what have you done to yourself of both leads.

Blake Lively and the shark in The Shallows.

Roy Scheider and that unpleasant frump who played his wife in JAWS

[quote] Blake Lively and the shark in The Shallows.

I'm surprised those sharks haven't joined Justin Baldoni to support him on the defamation lawsuits.

Shelley Winters and anyone.

Debra Messing and Harry Connick Jr in Will & Grace.

Mariska Hargitay and any male SVU character that wasn't Stabler.

Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in A Star is Born

[Quote] Jodie Foster and every male she played opposite.

Hey what about me!

[quote] Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in A Star is Born

Back then there was a rumor that they hated each other, and that the "rolling in the mud" scene was really cowshit arranged by Kristofferson and the crew.

[quote] Not an onscreen couple but still, Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenoweth.

What does this mean? Not an onscreen couple, but Henry Kissinger and Amy Poehler.

James Stewart and Kim Novak.

James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

James Stewart and just about anybody, really. He was incapable of acting romantic.

In both Vertigo and Rear Window Stewart and his leading ladies and he certainly had chemistry with Margaret Sullivan in the shop around the corner

He had chemistry with Lee Remick playing Ben Gazzara's flirtatious wife

John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney in Saturday Night Fever

R82, I don't think Stewart had any chemistry with Sullavan, either. That was yet another movie of his that I could not see what the leading lady's character saw in him at all, he was so nasty to her. I know his character was written that way, but he really threw himself into it. His characters always act thisclose to contemptuous of the female characters they are paired with.

Jack Nicholson and Shirley Maclaine in Terms of Endearment. As if he wouldn't be going for someone half Shirley's age.

Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart are the employees who bicker with each other and in no other movie has this kind of love-hate been made so convincing. Their performances are full of grace notes-Pauline Kael

Patty Duke and Martin Milner

Julie Andrews and Dusley Moore 10

I know the cult will disagree but Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I saw it during the first run and audiences thought she was retarded, or it was some kind of a joke on Morticia Addams.

She did Olive Oyl the same year.

Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed have great chemistry in It's a Wonderfuly Life. You know he effed the crap out of her after the scene where he stops at her house and they both get on the phone to talk to Sam Wainwright.

Stewart had chemistry with Kim Novak in Bell Book and Candle

Bullock and Jeremy Northam in The Net. He's quite sexy (and dig the swing in his pants in Emma!) but he had nothing to play against.

Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler.

Woody Allen and Helena Bonham Carter in Mighty Aphrodite

Disagree that Woody Allen never had chemistry with any female costars. He had excellent chemistry with Dianne Weist in Hannah and Her Sisters

Harris Dickinson and Nicole in baby girl.. why would that young guy want that Halloween mannequin?

Harrison Ford and Greta Scacchi in presumed innocent. He cannot play a man with a sexual obsession. Has Harrison ever had chemistry with a woman?

Julia Roberts and George Clooney in Ticket to Paradise (2022). They were playing ex-spouses but I didn't believe for a second that they had ever fucked. Total sibling energy.

It's strange because they had chemistry in Ocean's 11.

[quote] he certainly had chemistry with Margaret Sullivan in the shop around the corner

He was in love with her in real life.

Carol Channing and Clint Eastwood in The First Traveling Saleslady

If not the worst, at least the weirdest

R41 "Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway"

But HE was really into HER tho!

Don't make us slap ya!

[Quote] "Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway"

[Quote] But HE was really into HER tho!

How can you tell with sexless Woody Allen. He doesn't give off heat or sex.

The worst was when he was nuzzling Bette Midler in Scenes from a Mall. Yeech.

R57 Jodie and Mel had real chemistry in Maverick.

I think a lot of posters here don't understand what chemistry means. It doesn't just mean they looked good as a couple, it means their playing together in a movie worked for the movie even if they played mortal enemies. Roy Scheider and Lorraine Gary had perfect chemistry in Jaws even if you think he would have never married her or she him.

Faye Dunaway and Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor. Too cold, no heat.

R79, that’s a common rumor applied to numerous movie scenes, made up by writers/critics and disgruntled people who worked on the movie in question. Total bullshit, if you’ll excuse the expression.

I see the Jimmy Stewart was a handsome stud troll is active here. Stewart was a non-threatening every man who got the girl - any girl - to please the male audience. He was never sexy, never handsome or ugly. Certainly never someone who in real life would get 75% of the women he got in movies. The fact that he rarely had chemistry with a younger much better looking female chasing him WAS his appeal.

Margot Robbie and Will Smith

Not a movie, but Anne Murray did a music video in the mid 80's, where she was all glammed up (fur and power pantsuit) and seducing a hot young guy.

It was clear they were trying to MTV her style, but it came across painfully awkward.

Midler and Ken Wahl in Jinxed. Bette was so delusional that she felt she could play a sexy femme fatale. They hated each other off camera and boy, you really could tell.

No..

Jodie Foster and Richard Gere in Somersby.

Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey in Contact.

[quote]Midler and Ken Wahl in Jinxed. Bette was so delusional that she felt she could play a sexy femme fatale. They hated each other off camera and boy, you really could tell.

I wonder if it was the same for James Caan in For The Boys?

R116 Actually, Bette and James Caan were very fond of each other, which kind of surprised me.

James Caan said Bette was dumb and lacked gray matter in her brain. Bette said on Larry King that Caan's performance wasn't very good and he wasn't funny. She implied that it wasn't a good experience working with him.

Bette also disliked working with Shelley Long and Nick Nolte as well.

James Caan loved being in musicals; James Caan loved fast talking Jewish girls. He was a fast talking New York Jewish boy, not the Italian everyone thinks he was.

James Coco and Raquel Welch

Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffith in Bonfire of the Vanities.

R120, ironic because Coco publicly said many times how much he loved Raquel.

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in Mr and Mrs Smith were quite dreadful

Elizabeth Berkley and Gina Gershon in Showgirls.

[quote] "Far and Away" (embarrassing for them, trying to do the Irish thing),

"Ye know how foine ye are t' me, woman?"

--"Lucky Charms" O'Cruise

Didn't think Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt had chemistry in The Mexican

[quote] Bette also disliked working with Shelley Long..,

Which is interesting because I really thought they DID have great chemistry.

R110 No one said Jimmy Stewart was a stud, but he appeals to many women. In the other Hitchcock film Grace Kelly did in 1954 she had absolutely no chemistry with Robert Cummings who was playing the man she was having an affair with in Dial M for Murder but she had chemistry with Stewart in Rear Window.

I didn't think she had any chemistry at all with Stewart

well that's a matter of opinion R129 Grace Kelly was an ice Princess and did she have chemistry with Bing Crosby, Stewart Granger, Cary Grant, Clark Gable or Gary Cooper? There was quite an age gap with almost all of her leading men

he enduring legacy of Grace Kelly paints a picture of Old Hollywood's most beautiful and sophisticated ice queen, though that ice queen is rumored to have had a rather steamy love life. Because of her royal title, Grace Kelly’s scandals were largely covered up and forgotten, and Ice Queen Kelly sure did have some outrageous scandals. During the prudish 1950s, Kelly bedded many of her costars, who were frequently married and much, much older than she was. This behavior is often linked to Kelly’s relationship with her father, who allegedly said he didn't expect her to become much more than a housewife and referred to her acting as only "a slim cut above [being a] streetwalker."

The James Stewart Troll is BACK!

Nobody had better chemistry in the history of the cinema than when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced. It was breathtaking and not to be believed. It helps when you're making love to Jerome Kern at his greatest.

Wonderful, R133. But we’re talking about actors who DIDN’T have chemistry.

Stewart fared better when his character was married or someone who wasn't his love interest. I think he had chemistry with Reed, Allyson, Day, etc. Stewart had no chemistry with Kelly, but he did with Thelma Ritter. Same in Vertigo, none with Novak but tons with Bel Geddes.

I don't believe in chemistry between actors. If they're good enough, it's not the world's greatest acting challenge to pretend to like one another even if they don't.

Prince and anybody.

[quote] What does this mean? Not an onscreen couple, but Henry Kissinger and Amy Poehler.

R80 They headlined Promises Promises on B'way and judging from their attempt to prove that Sean could play straight on the Tonys, which was nothing short of embarrassing, they had zero romantic chemistry (also according to just about every critic, although that was not the reason for the show's failure)

Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin in Making Love

Peter Sellers and Shirley McLaine in Being There. I think that was on purpose, though.

R136 Your beliefs aside, chemistry is in actuality the only thing that can't be compensated for with technique alone. Human chemistry is wholly organic and ineffable. If you've ever met someone you instantly jived with or instantly hated you know this very well. That biological secret sauce works the same way with actors.

Also, yes, there have been many actors who played convincing best friends or lovers that you later learned hated each other's guts in real life, but hatred is still chemistry. It's got just as much heat as lust or devotion and so the audience still picks up that friction and can make it mean anything they need it to be. It's when the actors cannot produce ANY kind of heat (good or bad) that it reads as inauthentic /unearned intimacy. This isn't a failure of craft on the part of the actors--it's just...well...chemistry. It can't be helped.

hatred is still chemistry. It's got just as much heat as lust or devotion a

Hate is a very exciting emotion. Very exciting.

R134 Yes I know but somebody wrote Fred Astaire never had chemistry with anybody. I felt it my duty to stand up for Fred. And by the way I've heard a number of times he was a genuinely nice person. Burton Lane (the composer of Royal Wedding, On a Clear Day and Finian's Rainbow)said he was the nicest person in show business. I was there when he said it. Very unusual.

Hatred is chemistry! I always wished that enemies Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne had sang a lengthy angry medley.

R143, Astaire did have chemistry, he just had no sex appeal.

Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty The Only Game in Town 1970

From the New York Times Review of Moment by Moment on John Travolta and Lily Tomlin

That the two stars look enough alike to be brother and sister is no help, and though Miss Wagner's camera comes in for some tactful close-ups of flesh in the love scenes, they are singularly unerotic.

R137 Prince and Sheena Easton certainly had chemistry...

R147 Oh, please...

Actors frequently have sex with each other in order to generate romantic chemistry for the screen, it's an old Hollywood tradition that their spouses hate but accept. And actors who play antagonists often stay distant or even provoke each other in order for that to translate into genuine chemistry on the screen.

It’s more the other way around, R149. The romantic situation in the script causes romantic contact between the actors on occasion.

I think it goes both ways, R150 but I see your point.

Sly Stallone and Dolly Parton in RHINESTONE.

R88- I found Martin Milner so attractive in that movie.

How nice, R153. That doesn’t answer the question.

Sly and Sharon Stone in The Specialist.

I disagree and think Kidman and Cruise had great chemistry in Far and Away and Days of thunder. Eyes wide Shut is such a weird film but I did find the marriage felt authentic.

Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche in Damage (1992).

Julia Roberts and Dylan McDermott in Steel Magnolias (1989)

The men were pretty nonexistent in the film

[quote] Certainly never someone who in real life would get 75% of the women he got in movies

But he did. He and Fonda caroused and bedded many.

Redford and Babs in The Way We Were.

Laverne and Shirley

R160 I have yet to see the movie, but when Redford died two weeks ago, many were saying his best on-screen 'lover' was Streisand back in 1973. They thought they made the most romantic couple as compared to the other women (including Fonda and Streep)he was coupled with.

Ann B Davis and Allan Melvin. Not even Melvin could make Davis look feminine.

Shirley MacLaine and Tom Skerritt in The Turning Point (1977)

R159, do you know that Stewart and Fonda were MOVIE STARS? Apparently not.

R162, R160 was joking, duh.