Blog #28 Is off-screen romance the key to captivating on-screen romance?

Full disclosure, this is going to be one of the trashier posts I’ve written. As I write this, I am feeling under the weather, so I wanted to write something simple that my dizzy brain could understand.

As the title says, “Is off-screen romance the key to captivating on-screen romance?“

What do you think?

I’m going to argue for the point and if you want to argue against, the more the merrier.

Every now and then, while watching a show, we notice two characters together in the show that we know to be dating off-screen also. Why do we know this? Because of the culture we live in…and a secret part of us wants to know. We crave it.

Anyway, here a few examples of actors who have dated both on and off-screen:

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, John Krasinksi and Emily Blunt, Tom Holland and Zendaya.

First of all, spoilers: they didn’t all make it… :(

Now that I’ve broken the bad news, we can dig into the details. Does their off-screen romance lead to better on-screen romance?

My answer is yes because when they are together on-screen they have a wonderful chemistry. That chemistry leads to better work in the scenes and overall, a better end-product.

These days, with the information available in the world, people will find out if the actors are dating. It’s inevitable. We know that people root for characters on-screen, so if we know they’re dating outside of work, it adds an extra element to the experience. It adds interest. People are curious to see how a real couple act together. Are they warm and cosy together? Do they keep a professional distance? What’s their ship name?

To be clear, this is not something that can be forced, nor should it be. That’s the beautiful thing about it, it has to come naturally. It’s a natural process that derives from human interaction and instincts. You need to get two people in the same place and see what happens. It’s a process; it may take weeks, months or years. There’s no stopwatch.

Against: there is an argument to be made against, of course. Here’s the big one: it doesn’t matter in a wider context, what matters is the quality of the show. It’s true, if two characters have chemistry but the show/film sucks, people will still dislike it. Conversely, if two actors do their job right, it won’t matter. John Krasinski wasn’t dating his wife Emily Blunt in The Office U.S., but people fell in love with the characters’ love and how it developed. But…it’s worth mentioning that they had a chemistry that was natural and they often said in interviews: “parts of us were genuinely in love with one another“.

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Pitfall: don’t forget, everything good comes to an end. If the actors break up, it can lead to awkward press tours and interviews. It can be a fickle thing to handle in a professional setting. Studios will want to market it for years and more. How can they do that if the actors won’t look at each other for five minutes in an interview?

J.K. x E.B.

Those are my thoughts. I believe we project our own desires on those on-screen, in the hopes that it will lead to our gain off-screen. But it’s one thing to race a car in a video game and another entirely to race out on the streets. Something to think about.

I’m off to find some medicine.

Thanks for reading and if you’ve any comments, let me know down below.

Good luck out there.

-D.C.