Playing on-screen couples requires talent, skill, and a whole lot of chemistry to deliver a believable performance. This could require actors to spend additional time on film sets to build the needed chemistry. However, some actors have been lucky to play on-screen couples with real-life married partners.
It isn’t a typical bring-your-spouse-to-work day when real-life couples are hired to play on-screen couples. These couples spend hours together, on and off the film set, providing the advantage of staying in character. While not everyone may be comfortable working with their spouses, these 7 movies have had real-life married couples play on-screen couples.
6. Matilda (1996) – Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman
Matilda (1996) is Danny DeVito’s fantasy comedy based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel. The movie starred a 9-year-old Mara Wilson playing the titular character of Matilda. Also on the movie’s lead cast were Danny DeVito and his real-life wife, Rhea Perlman. The couple played the on-screen parents of Matilda, Harry and Zinnia Wormwood.
Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman married on January 28, 1982. They met in 1971 when Perlman went to watch a friend perform in the theater play The Shrinking Bride. DeVito was also an actor in the play. At the time Matilda was released in 1996, the couple had been married for 14 years. In October 2014, the couple separated but got back together the next year. DeVito and Perlman separated again in March 2017 and have stayed separated ever since.
5. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are big names in Hollywood who have worked on big projects. Cruise and Kidman play the movie’s protagonists as an on-screen couple, Dr. William “Bill” Harford and Alice Harford, in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the erotic psychological drama was a critical and commercial hit, earning $162.1 million on a production budget of $65 million.
When the movie was released in 1999, Cruise and Nicole had been married for 9 years. Cruise and Kidman met on set during the filming of Tony Scott’s Days of Thunder in 1990. By December 24 of that same year, they were married. Cruise and Kidman stayed married for almost 11 years, with Tom Cruise filing for divorce in February 2001.
4. Ali (2001) – Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith
From the controversial Red Table Talk interviews to Will Smith’s slap at the 2022 Oscars, Will Smith and Jada Pickett-Smith are unarguably one of Hollywood’s most popular couples. Will Smith was cast in Michael Mann’s biographical sports drama Ali, based on a decade in the life of boxer Muhammad Ali. Smith played the titular character and shared the screen with his real-life wife, Jada Pickett-Smith. Pickett-Smith played Sonji Roi, an ex-Playboy bunny.
Will and Pickett-Smith play an on-screen couple for a moment when Smith’s character marries her character. Ali weds Sonji after his conversion to Islam. They divorce later when Sonji refuses to partake in several obligations of a Muslim wife. Will met Pickett when she auditioned for a role as his on-screen girlfriend in the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Will and Pickett married on December 31, 1997, and are still legally married.
3. Creation (2009) – Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly
In Jon Amiel’s biographical drama about Charles Darwin, Creation (2009), real-life married couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly play the on-screen couple, Charles and Emma Darwin. The movie is a fictionalized account of Darwin’s biography based on Randal Keynes’ book Annie’s Box. At the time the movie was released in September 2009, Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly had been married for six years. The couple first met during the filming of A Beautiful Mind (2001). At that time, they were both in separate relationships. The couple married on January 1, 2003.
2. Ruby Sparks (2012) – Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan
Zoe Kazan starred in the romantic fantasy comedy-drama Ruby Sparks (2012) with her husband, Paul Dano. The movie’s story was written by Zoe Kazan, who plays the imaginary wife of a writer, Calvin Weir-Fields, played by her husband. Dano and Kazan have been together since 2007 and have two children.
1. A Quiet Place (2018) – John Krasinski and Emily Blunt
Actor and director John Krasinski directed, co-wrote, and produced A Quiet Place (2018). The award-winning movie was a Box Office hit, grossing $341 million on a $17 million budget. Krasinski starred as Lee Abbott, with his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, playing Evelyn Abbott. The post-apocalyptic science fiction movie revolves around the Abbott family’s survival against sightless, sharp-hearing aliens.
Krasinski and Blunt began dating in late 2008. By August 2009, Blunt was engaged, with the couple getting married on July 10, 2010. John Krasinski and Emily Blunt had been married for about 8 years when the movie was released.a whole lot of chemistry
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