Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman failed their chemistry test in "Eyes Wide Shut." You know what's awkward? Breaking up with someone, and then being forced to see them again for work.
So spare some sympathy for divorcing spouses Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, who co-star in the sci-fi thriller "Autómata," out Friday.
Granted, they aren't running into each other at the company cooler. And Banderas has been notably solo in promoting the film. But it can't be easy to watch evidence of their collaboration, presumably made during happier times.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images Antonio Banderas and actress Melanie Griffith may be splitting but they're also starring in "Automata," made during happier times. Perhaps they should have gotten advice on the subject from Ben Affleck, who's currently starring in "Gone Girl." Affleck hasn't made a movie with his actress wife, Jennifer Garner, since they got married. That's no coincidence.
Garner and Affleck met on the set of 2001's critically reviled "Pearl Harbor," and co-starred in 2003's disappointing "Daredevil." By that point, Affleck had learned his lesson: his much-hyped pairing that same year with former fiancé Jennifer Lopez in "Gigli" remains shorthand for "Please don't subject the public to your poor personal and professional choices ever again."
STEPHEN VAUGHN/AP "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" is famous for the on-screen pairing of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Guess what happened next? And there are plenty of other couples whose relationships evaporated after the closing credits. Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," a passion project for stars Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, exposed a startling lack of chemistry that was followed by an ugly divorce. It must have been painful for them to experience, and it wasn't very comfortable for us to witness, either.
All that said, nothing enhances an onscreen romance like offscreen sparks. Who can resist watching Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams falling-in-real-love in "The Notebook"? Would "The Amazing Spider-Man" movies have made hundreds of millions if it weren't for the flirty banter — repeated on red carpets around the world — between Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield? And surely the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson helped fuel the "Twilight" fire (until they broke up after Stewart's very public affair).
Niko Tavernise/AP Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were quite convincing with flirtatious banter in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." In a Netflix era, personal backstories often become an inextricable part of the movie itself.
We get to watch Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall forever falling in love in their first film together, 1944's "To Have and Have Not." We can witness the history between Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their last movie, 1967's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." And at this point, the offscreen drama of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" — the movie on which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie so famously met — dramatically overshadows the plot itself.
Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in "Cleopatra," one of a number of films where the famous lovers starred together. The frenzied headlines Jolie and Pitt generated in 2005 were reminiscent of those inspired by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton during the making of 1963's "Cleopatra." Fortunately, Brad & Angie — who are currently shooting their second project, the romantic drama "By the Sea" — may be the rare couple willing to follow in Liz & Dick's onscreen example.
Few spouses have the courage to explore the many facets of their actual lives in film, but Taylor and Burton did. They made 11 movies together, from the glossy ("Cleopatra") and glamorous ("The V.I.P.s") to the feisty ("The Taming of the Shrew") and embittered ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf").
20th Century Fox Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck get physical in "Daredevil"; the pair haven't made a film together since they got married in 2005. Interestingly, they also made a barely-remembered TV movie called "Divorce His-Divorce Hers" in 1973, three years before they broke up for good. There aren't many actors who would expose the darker side of romance so publicly, but there's something to be said for this approach.
A real-life couple can't help but bring added honesty, and therefore insight, into the varied aspects of a relationship. The more open actors are willing to be, the more they — and we — get out of their performance.
So Jolie, who is both directing and co-starring in "By the Sea," may want to remember this: while "Cleopatra" upped Taylor's international superstardom, it was the rawness of "Virginia Woolf" that put an Oscar on her mantel.
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