If you’ve ever done a play, you know how easy it is to get close to your acting partners, especially if you’re playing out a romantic scenario. It’s no different for Hollywood celebs who work together and have to pretend to be in love. It’s only human nature to share genuine feelings, and yes, sometimes those feelings turn into something more once the cameras stop rolling.
Some onscreen connections turn romantic and those stars decide to carry on with their love affair beyond the set. Naturally, they don’t always work out because sometimes the actors realize they were just “in the moment” and being in the real world isn’t necessarily the same. It offers its own set of complications. As fans, we’re always rooting for our favorite Hollywood couples to make it, and applaud them when they do.
There are also those Hollywood A-listers who realize they’ve found kindred spirits in each other in a strictly platonic way and become the very best of friends. Sure, the romance rumors are always swirling, but we still covet those star friendships that seem to last.
Here are 9 Co-Stars Who Are Dating In Real Life (And 8 Who Are Just Best Friends).
DATING: LUCY HALE AND RILEY SMITH (LIFE SENTENCE)
Former Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale and her Life Sentence co-star Riley Smith are definitely dating, at least judging from some recent snaps that showed the two kissing while on a romantic dinner in Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day.
A source told Us Weekly, “She leaned over to kiss and hug [Smith] a few times during this period and was also seen sucking his lollipop that the restaurant gives to their customers for after the meal.” How sweet.
Hale and Smith star in the new CW show, which premiered March 7. Hale plays a girl who she finds out she has been cured of a terminal illness and has to deal with some of the choices she made when she thought her end was approaching. Smith plays Dr. Will Grant, an oncologist who has a soft-spot for some of his patients – and apparently for his co-star!
BEST FRIENDS: ZENDAYA AND TOM HOLLAND (SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING)
Even though many fans want this pair together, Tom Holland and Zendaya have been shooting down romance rumors since they starred together in last summer’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
The former Disney Channel actress told Variety last year, “He’s a great dude. He’s literally one of my best friends. This past how many months we’ve had to do press tours together. There are very few people that will understand what that’s like at 20 years old.”
The “just friends” thing hasn’t stopped the two from posting the cutest stuff on their social media, including when Zendaya called out Holland on Snapchat for being a paparazzi magnet.
The two are set to star in the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel, which should see the onscreen friendship between Holland’s Peter Parker and Zendaya’s Michelle (who friends call MJ) perhaps turn into more. It will be released sometime in 2019.
DATING: COLE SPROUSE AND LILI REINHART (RIVERDALE)
While Riverdale co-stars Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart have mostly stayed mum about their dating status, Reinhart (sort of) confirmed they were an item earlier this month.
TMZ caught up with the two as they were arriving to LAX from a romantic trip in Paris, where they were snapped hugging and kissing. When asked by the video paparazzi if taking their relationship public was a big decision, Reinhart just said “It’s obvious,” which could mean a few things.
Fom the looks of their closeness since last year, it seems like they are definitely dating.
On the popular CW show, Reinhart’s Betty has gotten over her enormous crush on Archie and has fallen from the thoughtful Jughead, played by Sprouse. Their onscreen pairing is affectionately known as “Bughead” by the show’s fans.
BEST FRIENDS: DAISY RIDLEY AND JOHN BOYEGA (STAR WARS)
In the latest set of Star Wars movies, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega have such great chemistry as Jedi heroine Rey and Rebel-in-the-making Finn. While their onscreen characters have skirted around with the idea of starting a romance, off-screen the two actors are really more like brother and sister.
They like to rib each other by posting silly moments on their social media, make up rap songs when they’re waiting around for a scene to start, and they affectionately call each other “peanut.”
Ridley once said about Boyega during a Facebook chat (via Bustle), “John [Boyega] is brilliant. He’s like my brother… We get on so well. And we come from similar places because our families are very close and it’s the main important thing in our lives… To have him there has just been brilliant.”
DATING: NATALIA DYER AND CHARLIE HEATON (STRANGER THINGS)
In another instance of art imitating life, Stranger Things co-stars Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton have taken their endearing onscreen TV romance and turned it into the real thing.
The two made their red carpet debut at the end of last year, even though rumors they were dating had been circulating for awhile.
Heaton recently posted a birthday tribute to Dyer on Instagram, captioning a pic of the actress, “Happy 21st birthday! I hope it’s a great one and I’m stoked to be working on this new series with you. I think it’s gonna be great. P.S. – Not feeling too well but I still wanna meet you at piedmont park tonight x.” So sweet!
On the hit Netflix series, they play teens Nancy and Jonathan, who, along with battling monsters from the Upside Down, also finally realize they are meant for each other.
BEST FRIENDS: JENNIFER ANISTON AND JASON BATEMAN (THE SWITCH & HORRIBLE BOSSES)
Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman have been best friends for years, and it clearly shows when they work together onscreen in comedies like The Switch, Horrible Bosses, and most recently, Office Christmas Party.
Aniston told People one of the reasons she and Bateman have remained close is because he is “beautifully consistent as an actor and a human being.”
Bateman joked that it was pure blackmail that keeps him working with his pal of 22 years.
“That’s all gonna come out in my autobiography,” he told The Guardian in 2011. “I’ve got a great deal of dirt on Ms. Aniston, and as long as she continues to hire me for her projects, I will not show the pictures.”
All joking aside, Bateman added, “We’ve always just really gotten along well. I think I was just fortunate to be a good fit for parts in her films.” We hope there will be more to come.
DATING: KERI RUSSELL AND MATTHEW RHYS (THE AMERICANS)
The Americans stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys have starred opposite each other on the FX spy drama since 2013. While their characters Elizabeth and Philip Jennings pretend to be a happily married American couple but who are secretly Russian spies, Rhys and Russell found themselves falling in love for real.
After it was confirmed the two were indeed dating, news broke that Russell and Rhy were expecting their first child, who was born in 2016. Russell has two children from her previous marriage.
Russell once talked to the L.A. Times about acting with Rhys. “What I enjoy is [Rhys] makes it so easy,” she said. “You feel you’re in safe hands, and it’s enjoyable to work like that because you’re sort of like, let him do all the hard stuff.”
The actors are saying goodbye their Americans characters this year in the show’s sixth and final season.
BEST FRIENDS: KATE WINSLET AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO (TITANIC)
When you mostly survive a sinking ship after it has hit an iceberg, you’re bound to be BFFs forever. Yes, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio have a close friendship since playing Rose and Jack in the 1997 Titanic, the star-crossed lovers who meet on the doomed ocean liner.
The actress made an appearance on Good Morning America last year and gushed about her former co-star. “I do feel so grateful for that friendship, and honestly it is like family and one of those rare Hollywood friendships that I feel very, very blessed to have.”
Winslet also laughed and said she and DiCaprio still quote Titanic lines to one another. We can imagine Kate saying, “I want you to draw me like one of your French girls, Jack!”
Along with Titanic, the two also starred in the devastatingly good Revolutionary Road in 2008.
DATING: EMMA ROBERTS AND EVAN PETERS (AMERICAN HORROR STORY)
Emma Roberts and Evan Peters have played various characters at odds with one another on the hit horror anthology show American Horror Story, but their real-life romance is finally on track.
The couple called off their engagement in 2015 but reconciled a short time later, only to break up again. By October of last year, they were finally in a good place and sources told Us Weekly, “Emma and Evan are still very much together” and “are happy.”
Roberts laughed with Chelsea Handler in 2014 that she tried to date Peters when they first worked together on the indie film Adult World in 2013. “I would try to, like, flirt with him, which ended up looking like I had something in my eye because I’d be like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ and he literally didn’t speak to me the entire movie. He thought I was so weird.”
BEST FRIENDS: ZOOEY DESCHANEL AND JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT (500 DAYS OF SUMMER)
Sometimes when you see two actors truly connect onscreen in the most adorable way, you secretly hope they might become a couple in real life. Of course, being best friends is good, too, and that’s just what Manic and (500) Days of Summer stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are.
The two have had to contend with the dating rumors since starring in the 2009 romantic dramedy, and Gordon-Levitt once told Playboy he thought it was “awkward when people say that. Zooey and I just think it’s funny. It is funny. We’ve been friends for 10 years.”
He added, “She loves movies, music and art, and she’s incredibly knowledgeable about that stuff. She’s turned me on to so many good movies and so much good music. It’s fun just to have conversations, watch movies with her and stuff like that.”
DATING: TÉA LEONI AND TIM DALY (MADAM SECRETARY)
On the CBS show Madame Secretary, Téa Leoni plays Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord, who is married to Tim Daly’s Henry McCord, the head of a CIA division – a high-profile Washington couple to say the least. The actors keep their off-screen relationship a lot more low-key.
The two have quietly been dating since 2014, after Leoni and former husband David Duchovny finally divorced.
Daly once talked to ABC about how he and Leoni work well together. “Tea and I approach work in a very similar way. We both take it very seriously… I think that once we found that common ground and worked so hard and had so much fun, that I don’t think anything can get in the way of that. We’re both professional actors and I don’t think we’re going to let our private stuff get in the way of our work.”
BEST FRIENDS: B.J. NOVAK AND MINDY KALING (THE OFFICE)
B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling, who were writers on The Office and also hilariously played the on-again, off-again couple Ryan and Kelly, are the very best of friends.
The two have admitted Ryan and Kelly are based on their own tumultuous and close relationship and that they once even dated for a while. Kaling said (Buzzfeed), “[We] dated on and off for a couple of years, and now we are just, like, best friends. Like, real best friends. It’s the kind of friendship you have when you are embedded with someone, that you can only get by putting in that insane amount of time with people.”
Novak concurred, once telling EW, “We are pretty inseparable best friends with a lot of chemistry ourselves, and we’re not dating. Whenever we date anyone else, I think there’s a period where the person is very skeptical of our friendship.”
DATING: JENNA JOHNSON AND VAL CHMERKOVSKIY (DANCING WITH THE STARS)
It’s easy to see how Dancing with the Stars pros Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy could fall in love twirling together on the ballroom dance floor.
The two have dated off and on for a few years, but things have gotten more serious between them in the last few months.
Chmerkovskiy admitted to People that he has been a jealous guy in the past, watching Johnson dance with her DWTS partners, but he’s working on overcoming that. “This is part of the new chapter in my life. It takes some sacrifice to have a healthy relationship. And, you know, you gotta be willing to make those sacrifices and I’m definitely willing to make certain sacrifices to make it work.”
Chmerkovskiy’s brother Maks also found love with DWTS dancer Peta Murgatroyd. They are now married and welcomed a son last year.
BEST FRIENDS: SCARLETT JOHANSSON AND CHRIS EVANS (PERFECT SCORE, THE NANNY DIARIES, MCU)
Black Widow and Captain America’s chemistry is so natural that the actors playing them, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans, have continually had to shut down romance rumors outside the MCU, saying they have always just been great friends.
The two actually first worked together as teenagers in 2004’s The Perfect Score, followed by The Nanny Diaries, which then led them to the Avengers and Captain America movies.
On a USO tour in 2016, Evans said, “Scarlett is honestly one of my oldest friends… She’s younger than me, but she has always felt like an older sister,” adding that being in the same business has been a plus. “It’s nice in our business to have someone you can turn to, not just as a friend, but who can relate to the experience you’re going through.”
DATING: DOVE CAMERON AND THOMAS DOHERTY (DESCENDENTS 2)
Dove Cameron and Thomas Doherty, stars of the Disney Channel 2017 sequel Descendents 2, have been dating for nearly a year, and the two love to show their affection for each other on their Instagram accounts.
The Scottish actor once told Kode magazine about his lady love, “She’s just a wonderful human. She’s so kind and loving, funny, extremely talented, has the most beautiful eyes, and puts up with me being weird. She’s also weird – that’s why it works so well. Dove’s very down to earth and real.”
In the popular Disney Channel sequel, the two actors play the children of Disney villains.
Cameron is the star Mal, daughter of Maleficent, and Doherty is Harry Hook, son of Captain Hook.
DATING: EWAN MCGREGOR AND MARY-ELIZABETH WINSTEAD (FARGO)
Even though they had a somewhat twisted onscreen relationship in Season 3 of Fargo, co-stars Ewan McGregor and Mary-Elizabeth Winstead found real-life romance, albeit a slightly complicated one.
McGregor ended his 22-year marriage last year (as did Winstead with her husband of seven years), and the Fargo co-stars took their relationship public last November when they were snapped walking hand in hand in Los Angeles. Then rumors started earlier this year that the two had broken up, but sources told People they were “still going strong.”
McGregor and Winstead were both so excellent in season 3 of the hit FX show. Winstead played a tough-as-nails woman who had an over-inflated sense of justice when it came to her man (McGregor), especially after she thought he was wronged by his twin brother.
BEST FRIENDS: CHRIS PRATT AND JENNIFER LAWRENCE (PASSENGERS)
Actors Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence most definitely clicked in the 2016 sci-fi drama Passengers, playing two people on a spaceship, headed to a distant planet for colonization, who are woken up about 90 years too early.
Even before Pratt split with wife Anna Faris, rumors the co-stars might have had an on-set love affair began circulating, but they both have denied anything romantic and said they just became really good friends.
Chris Pratt once told Vanity Fairabout Lawrence, “She’s such a goofball, and what’s annoying is that she’s so much better at switching it on and off than me. She can go from goofing off to serious-acting mode in a second… She’s really great, though. We became fast friends, and I can never get tired of Jen. She’s always fun to hang out with. We laugh a lot, and I had the best time making the movie with her.”
Any other Hollywood couples or BFFs we’ve forgotten? Let us know in the comments below!
