There’s something so comforting about a good rom-com, where you know two people are going to end up together, and you just get to watch how it happens. The best romantic comedies can cause butterflies in your stomach, or you might even shed a tear at whatever inevitable grand gesture proves one’s love for another. This only works, however, if the stars of said movie have good chemistry, because otherwise watching the characters’ love story can be quite painful. Below are some of those couples who had absolutely zero chemistry.
Ashton Kutcher And Reese Witherspoon (Your Place Or Mine)
The minimal amount of time that Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon actually spent together in 2023’s Your Place or Mine didn’t help these two well-known actors convince moviegoers of any romantic interest in each other whatsoever. It also didn’t help that Witherspoon’s Debbie did have great chemistry with Theo (Jesse Williams).
Jennifer Lopez And Ralph Fiennes (Maid In Manhattan)
Maid in Manhattan may be among Jennifer Lopez’s best romantic comedies, but the chemistry between Marisa and Chris was not the strongest. Ralph Fiennes has taken the blame for that, admitting that the “light, comic” thing doesn’t play to his strengths as an actor.
Lauren London And Jonah Hill (You People)
The relationship between Ezra (Jonah Hill) and Amira (Lauren London) in You People was a stretch, to begin with, but you guys, there was so little connection between these two actors that their lone kiss, which comes at the end of the movie, was apparently done with CGI. Wild!
Patrick Dempsey And Michelle Monaghan (Made Of Honor)
The only thing less believable than the romance between Patrick Dempsey’s Tom and Michelle Monaghan’s Hannah in Made of Honor was the scene where they started making out at her bachelorette party in front of everyone, and no one noticed.
Lindsay Lohan And Chord Overstreet (Falling For Christmas)
Who doesn’t love Lindsay Lohan, am I right? It was wonderful to see her return to acting in the 2022 holiday rom-com Falling for Christmas. The story was perfectly pleasant — with a killer Mean Girls reference to boot — and Chord Overstreet was truly a sweetheart as single dad Jake Russell as he cared for the injured Sierra (Lohan). It was all very charming, but my goodness there wasn’t an ounce of romantic interest between those two.
Constance Wu And Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians)
The success of the novel Crazy Rich Asians translated to the screen in 2018, as we got to see the love story between Nick Young (Henry Golding) and Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) come to life. However, audiences were disappointed in how underdeveloped Wu and Golding’s characters were, even in comparison to their co-stars.
Jennifer Lopez And Owen Wilson (Marry Me)
The unlikelihood that Jennifer Lopez’s Kat would have any interest whatsoever in Owen Wilson’s Charlie in the 2022 film Marry Me is a hurdle even these talented leading actors couldn’t overcome.
Tina Fey And Steve Carell (Date Night)
It should come as no surprise that Tina Fey and Steve Carell had comedic chemistry in spades in the 2010 flick Date Night. Romantic chemistry? Not so much, as their marriage was largely played for jokes.
Ashley Greene And Jackson Rathbone (Twilight)
Don’t come for me, Twi-hards, but does anybody else have trouble remembering that Twilight’s Alice (Ashley Greene) and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) AREN’T brother and sister? It was possibly Jasper’s discomfort, which prevented him from relaxing even just a little bit, on top of Alice’s almost maternal concern for him that did that.
Ashton Kutcher And Lea Michele (New Year’s Eve)
Two of the romantic leads of the 2011 ensemble rom-com New Year’s Eve were Lea Michele and Ashton Kutcher, who played Elise and Randy, respectively. The neighbors clashed immediately when they found themselves stuck in an elevator, and due to the actors’ nonexistent chemistry and having to share screen time with dozens of other actors, it was never really believable that they’d be together by the end of the night.
Michelle Pfeiffer And Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2)
In a gender reversal of the first movie, Grease 2 features Michelle Pfeiffer’s Stephanie wanting a whole lot more than the boy next door, aka Maxwell Caulfield’s Michael. In fact, she wouldn’t give him the time of day until he put on a leather jacket and became the mysterious motorcycleman. Their performances did little to elevate a painfully shallow premise.
Dakota Johnson And Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey)
With a movie as intimate as Fifty Shades of Grey, you’d hope there would be an emphasis on making the leads as comfortable as possible on set. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened, as director Sam Taylor-Johnson and the book’s author E.L. James butted heads and even got into “screaming matches” with each other. Dakota Johnson has talked about the “battles” she had, so it’s really no wonder why her character’s spicy trysts with Jamie Dornan’s Christian Grey came off as more awkward than romantic.
Mila Kunis And Channing Tatum (Jupiter Ascending)
The 2015 space opera Jupiter Ascending has been largely panned by critics, and though it maintains something of a cult following, the romance between Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) and human-canine hybrid Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) simply doesn’t work.
Hayden Christensen And Emma Roberts (Little Italy)
Audiences bristled at the on-screen love between Hayden Christensen’s Leo and Emma Roberts’ Nikki in the 2018 flick Little Italy, in which the characters are star-crossed lovers from rival pizzeria-owning families. The lack of a spark is strange, though, as an inappropriate relationship between the two was blamed for Christensen’s breakup with longtime girlfriend Rachel Bilson.
Justin Guarini And Kelly Clarkson (From Justin To Kelly)
Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini can hardly be blamed for what a mess From Justin to Kelly was. For one thing, the winner and runner-up of American Idol’s first season were not actors, and Clarkson has spoken multiple times about how miserable she was during filming and how hard she tried to get out of the contractual obligation.
Mackenzie Davis And Kristen Stewart (Happiest Season)
There’s plenty to like about the LGBTQ+ holiday rom-com Happiest Season, but many fans would have preferred to see Abby (Kristen Stewart) end up with Riley (Aubrey Plaza) rather than stay with girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis). Stewart shared an amazing spark with Plaza that wasn’t there with Davis.
Freddie Prinze Jr. And Julia Stiles (Down To You)
Two powerhouses of the ‘90s romantic comedy, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Julia Stiles failed to bring the fireworks in the 2000 film Down to You. It stands as the worst-rated rom-com of all time on Rotten Tomatoes with a dire 3%.
Lana Condor And Noah Centineo (To All the Boys: Always And Forever)
In the beginning of the To All the Boys trilogy, Lana Condor and Noah Centineo were oh-so-cute, but somehow all of that chemistry had fizzled by the third movie.
Jim Carrey And Zooey Deschanel (Yes Man)
Yes Man from 2008 wasn’t a total disaster, but many people weren’t buying the romance between 28-year-old Zooey Deschanel and 46-year-old Jim Carrey.
Reese Witherspoon And Tom Hardy (This Means War)
In 2012’s This Means War, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine play CIA agents who literally go to war when they learn they’re both dating Lauren (Reese Witherspoon). However, there was never really an indication that she had such a strong connection with either of them — Hardy in particular — that would justify such actions. Hardy has admitted to being “miserable” on set, saying he is unlikely to dip into the romantic comedy genre again.
Chris O’Donnell And Renee Zellweger (The Bachelor)
The Bachelor has a skeezy premise to begin with, and Chris O’Donnell’s Jimmie seems much less concerned about his breakup with Anne (Renée Zellweger) than he is about finding a woman to marry him in less than a day so he can inherit $100 million from his grandfather. Unfortunately, they’re not able to make their inevitable reunion very believable.
Kumail Nanjiani And Issa Rae (The Lovebirds)
The Lovebirds starred Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani as Jibran and Leilani, a couple on the verge of a split. The breakup plot point, however, didn’t seem to be the reason that audiences couldn’t connect with this duo. With the characters getting into ridiculous situations while on the run after witnessing a murder, this 2020 rom-com was heavy on comedy but light on romance.
Hugh Grant And Drew Barrymore (Music And Lyrics)
This pairing’s lack of a spark was particularly disappointing, given that Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore each had several successful romantic comedies under their belts by 2007. Nonetheless, when Grant’s Alex and Barrymore’s Sophie teamed up in Music and Lyrics to write a song together, audiences felt no heat between the two.
Leonardo DiCaprio And Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby)
Forbidden love movies can be the best for romance, but unfortunately for fans of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan failed to portray the passion in the complicated story of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Mulligan has since admitted that she doesn’t like her acting in the movie.
Ben Affleck And Jennifer Lopez (Gigli)
Bennifer in the 2000s — and later Bennifer 2.0 — is one of the great love stories of our time, so it’s downright baffling why Ben Affleck and his would-be wife Jennifer Lopez have no chemistry in the 2003 box-office bomb Gigli.
Angelina Jolie And Johnny Depp (The Tourist)
Nobody’s questioning the acting skills of Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp, but the stars of the 2010 film The Tourist seemed largely indifferent about each other when their characters were supposed to be falling in love. There were reports that the actors couldn’t stand each other on set; however, during Depp’s trial with Amber Heard, Jolie’s name was mentioned in a group of the actor’s “exes,” leading many to wonder if the two had been involved. Either way, the emotion didn’t translate to the screen.
Zach Braff And Natalie Portman In (Garden State)
Manic Pixie Dream Girls like Natalie Portman’s Sam in Garden State sometimes don’t make the best romantic partners, and in this case, Zach Braff’s Andrew was also going through so much that this would have been a tough romance to pull off for any two actors. Still, even with the “happy ending,” there just wasn’t much to feel good about with this couple.
Ryan Reynolds And Amy Smart In (Just Friends)
Just Friends in 2005 saw Chris (Ryan Reynolds) pining over longtime bestie Jamie (Amy Smart), despite her admission 10 years earlier that her feelings for her fat friend were merely platonic. That’s a pretty big obstacle to overcome, and there’s no way that happens if the energy between the two is as lackluster as this was.
Natalie Portman And Hayden Christensen (Star Wars)
It’s been over two decades since Natalie Portman’s Padmé Amidala engaged in a relationship with Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, and while some blame goes to the script, they remain one of the most notorious examples of co-stars with absolutely zero chemistry.
Daniel Radcliffe And Bonnie Wright (Harry Potter)
Ginny Weasley was done a great disservice in the Harry Potter movies as one of several book characters who didn’t get enough screen time. There simply wasn’t an opportunity for Bonnie Wright to establish a palpable connection with Daniel Radcliffe in order to portray Ginny and Harry’s love the way we experienced it on the page.
Bryce Dallas Howard And Chris Pratt (Jurassic World)
While this wasn’t a traditional rom-com, Jurassic World certainly featured a romantic storyline between Chris Pratt’s Owen and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire. Apart from that aspect of their stories feeling wholly unnecessary — what with all the dinos — it was simply hard to buy that they were even all that into each other.
Kelly Marie Tran And John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Kelly Marie Tran sadly faced a lot of unfair criticism when she was cast as Rose Tico in 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, to the point where she had to delete social media to get away from the hate. John Boyega, as well, saw backlash from people who fought the idea of Stormtroopers being Black. Aside from that, though, many fans unfortunately just didn’t see any romantic spark between the actors either.
It can be so much fun to watch characters fall in love on the big screen, but man is it a disappointment when the actors lack that oh-so-important chemistry.