10 Movie Couples With Fizzling Onscreen Chemistry

Some movie couples have sizzling onscreen chemistry... but these couples had fizzling onscreen chemistry.

Jason Momoa and Amber Heard in Aquaman

If there was an award for awkward onscreen kisses, Jason Momoa and Amber Heard would certainly be nominees for 2018's Aquaman.

Momoa plays Arthur Curry, also known as Aquaman, and Heard plays his love interest, Mera, princess of Xebel. Even though Mera is engaged to King Orm (Patrick Wilson), she sides with Aquaman and helps him save Atlantis from Orm's evil plans.

Mera and Aquaman kiss during the big battle scene in the movie's third act, but it's quite devoid of any real romance. Maybe it's because they're on a giant green screen pretending to be underwater?

Katie Holmes and Christian Bale in Batman Begins

Great movie, but unconvincing chemistry between Christian Bale as Batman and Katie Holmes as his love interest, prosecutor Rachel Dawes.

In the final scene when Rachel comes to tell Bruce Wayne she can't be with him as he's sifting through the burned out rubble of Wayne manor, the spark is all but non-existent. Neither of them seem heartbroken at all over breaking up, which is weird considering he just saved her life twice and revealed his secret identity to her.

Bale's chemistry with the next actress who played Rachel, Maggie Gyllenhaal, in 2008's The Dark Knight was a lot more believable, as was his chemistry with Marion Cotillard as Talia al Ghul and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.

Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist

Johnny Depp and Angeline Jolie are both great actors, but put them together on 2010's romantic thriller The Tourist and sparks just did not fly.

The film follows Depp as a math teacher on a European vacation who gets swept into a dangerous game by Jolie's character Elise. Although both Depp and Jolie were nominated for Golden Globes for their acting performances, the film got just a 21% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which blamed its problems in part on a lack of chemistry between the two actors.

Chris Evans and Ana de Armas in Ghosted

In this 2023 action-romance, Chris Evans' character Cole falls for Ana de Armas' Sadie — but then he finds out that she's a secret agent. Shocking!

Unfortunately, neither critics nor audiences found their chemistry very convincing, and the movie got a mere 25% on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomato Meter and just a 55% audience score.

Even Chris Evans admitted to Variety: "We could have been better." If you dare look up the multiple montages of all of Evans and de Armas' kissing scenes in the movie on YouTube, you'll see what he means.

Jonah Hill and Lauren London in You People

If you've seen Netflix's rom-com You People, you probably questioned the believability of the relationship between Jonah Hill and Lauren London's character. And according to Andrew Schulz, who played the cousin of Jonah Hill's character in the movie, the two never actually kissed on set — instead, he says, the final scene was actually created in post using CGI.

"There’s a hilarious thing — I don’t even know if I should share this shit — but the final scene, they don’t even kiss,” Schulz said on The Brilliant Idiots podcast he co-hosts with Charlamagne Tha God. “It’s CGI. Swear to God.”

Representatives for Netflix did not return MovieMaker's request for comment about whether the kiss was really CGI or not. However, The Los Angeles Times pointed out that the movie was filmed during the Omicron variant surge in late 2021, so the no-kissing thing could have been due to COVID-19 precautions.

Billy Baldwin and Sharon Stone in Sliver

The chemistry between Sharon Stone and Billy Baldwin was so bad on the set of the 1993 mystery-thriller Sliver that over 30 years later, the two were still bickering about it.

Stone played book editor Carly who moves into an apartment building, not realizing that women keep getting murdered there. Then she gets involved with one of the main murder suspects, Zeke (Baldwin). Because of course!

But don't make the mistake of thinking Stone and Baldwin are pals. In March, Stone accused deceased producer Robert Evans of pressuring her to sleep with Baldwin to improve on their really unconvincing onscreen chemistry.

The next day, Baldwin fired back on X: “I have so much dirt on her it would make her head spin but I’ve kept quiet."

Henry Cavill and Amy Adams in Man of Steel

Henry Cavill played Superman and Amy Adams played his famous love interest Lois Lane in 2013's Man of Steel. But if you found their onscreen kiss in the movie a little awkward, the actors revealed one reason why that might be.

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Adams said that she'd tried out a kissing technique she'd gotten from her time working with The Fighter director David O. Russell.

"David O. Russell has a thing with tongue. He likes to see it. Like a 1980s music video or something," she said. "I tried that with Henry. It didn't work."

"Too much, too much," Cavill replied, to which Adams added, "I'm coming across like such a creeper. Poor Henry."

Zooey Deschanel and Mark Wahlberg in The Happening

In this disaster movie from M. Night Shyamalan, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel play a married couple who find themselves on the run during a terrible and unforeseen event that causes people start dropping dead all over the world.

But even though they're both great, the onscreen pairing of Deschanel and Wahlberg just doesn't make much sense, and for whatever reason, they don't make a very convincing couple.

Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon in Four Christmases

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughan in Four Christmases (2008), Warner Bros

Their comedic acting skills were on point in Four Christmases, but when it came to kissing scenes, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughan just didn't seem believable in a romantic context.

The movie follows the pair as a married couple whose plans of avoiding their families during Christmas are foiled when their flight to the tropics is cancelled. It's a hilarious movie, but the romance between the two is the one thing that falls a bit flat.

Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman in Bewitched

Nicole Kidman plays Will Ferrell's onscreen wife-turned-actual-wife in this rather meta movie about making a movie remake of the 1960s TV show Bewitched. Ferrell plays a movie star who finds out that Kidman, the unknown actress he's chosen to star opposite him in the movie, is an actual witch.

But although they are both great actors in their own right, their chemistry as a couple just isn't believable. Not to mention that the special effects look pretty dated almost 20 years later.

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Main image: Sliver. Paramount Pictures.