Real-Life Best Friends That Are Enemies On The Big Screen
Film sets are where the Hollywood movie magic gets made. A great script, fantastic actors, stunts, special effects, and costumes all combine to make dazzling films for the ages. But sometimes there's another, completely different kind of magic made on sets and sound stages—the magic of friendship!
It takes months of extremely long shooting days to make a movie, with a lot of down time between scenes so the crew can set up shots. Actors are left waiting around to work, and they wind up talking, hanging out with each other, and munching on bagels from the craft services table, and before they know it, they've made a friend with a kindred beautiful, talented, and wealthy individual. Amusingly, these lifelong friendships develop even among actors who play enemies or rivals onscreen. Here are some pals who are much friendlier with each other in real life than they are in the movies.
Professor X and Magneto are #squadgoals
In the X-Men comics and never-ending film franchise, there are two schools of thought as to how "mutants" (aka highly super-powered individuals) should interact with the rest of humanity. Professor Charles Francis Xavier opened up a school to teach mutants how to control and harness their powers so as to help the world and assimilate into it. Max Eisenhardt, also known as Magento because he has magnetic powers, is more of a "we mutants are superior to humans, and we should take over their stupid world" theory. That dichotomy is at the heart of X-Men, and Professor X and Magento are played with far too much talent and nuance for a comic book movie because the guys who got the roles are esteemed British actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, respectively. The actors have far more in common than do their characters, which has spawned a bromance for the ages. While they met in the '70s, they didn't become friends until the filming of 2000's X-Men. They bonded over similar life experiences—both initially turned to acting as an escape from personal torment, and both were stars of the English stage before becoming sci-fi icons. "We are the same actor, really," McKellen told 60 Minutes. "We've had the same career. So we're peers. We're equals. We're not rivals."
Rick and The Governor are old pals
The first great villain on The Walking Dead was the terrifying survivor-town leader known only as "The Governor." He threatened Sheriff Rick Grimes' alpha-male dominance, especially after he brutally murdered some members of Rick's own survivor group. The Shakespearean rivalry between the two very Southern alpha males was ably carried out by two actors who in real life are veteran British actors: David Morrissey played The Governor, and Andrew Lincoln continues to portray Rick. Also, according to Walking Dead mastermind Robert Kirkman, the two are "pretty good friends" from way back who often screwed around on set together. In fact, this friendship with Lincoln was part of the reason why Morrissey was so happy to join the cast. "We went to the same drama school, but not at the same time," Morrissey told Uproxx. "So I knew him then and his great friend at drama school was the son of a really good friend of mine, so I've known him since he started, really, and I've followed his career very closely. And in London, the acting community is quite a small world."
Betty and Cheryl Blossom are roommates?!
Riverdale is a pretty wacky show, somehow successfully transplanting the characters of the goofy and square Archie comics into a Twin Peaks-esque town full of murder, violence, and inappropriate romantic relationships. Most of the characters share the same qualities as their comic book counterparts, particularly Betty Cooper—perky, blonde, all-American good girl next door, and Cheryl Blossom —conniving, temperamental sex kitten and frenemy of Betty, Veronica, and the rest of the Riverdale gang. Both parts are played with over-the-top relish by actresses Lili Reinhart and Madelaine Paetsch, respectively. On-screen, their characters don't much trust or care for one another. Cheryl's family was a rich and prominent one full of secrets that (spoiler alert) eventually boiled over into a murder and suicide, while Betty's family runs the town's extremely inquisitive and muckraking newspaper. Fortunately, real life is nothing like that for Reinhardt and Paetsch. When Glamour asked Paetsch about meeting her Riverdale cast mates for the first time, the actress gushed over Reinhardt. "I met her once before, but now she's my best friend. I live with her," Paetsch said.
Moriarty and Sherlock are basically BFFs
Throughout the canon of Arthur Conan Doyle's many Sherlock Holmes stories, the only criminal who ever really challenged the brilliant detective, the only one who ever got under his skin was Moriarty, an evil mastermind who was almost as smart as the good guy (and, because of that, at least as compelling). The wide-eyed, disarmingly boyish looking Andrew Scott was cast as the gleefully wicked Moriarty in the BBC's recent modern day-set adaptation of Sherlock, where he had to play most of his scenes opposite the imposing Benedict Cumberbatch, who is basically the Sherlock Holmes of acting. The two performers did not feel the weight of one Western literature's most intense rivalries: Scott and Cumberbatch are as thick as thieves. "There's nobody like him really," Scott said of Cumberbatch. "I think that makes the most interesting actor when you're completely unique to yourself. He's a very intelligent man and he's a beautiful person and I'm very proud of him," Scott said. Cumberbatch later praised back Scott in his own unique way: He did an affectionate impression of his costar at a press conference.
Bella and Jane have mad respect for each other
Stewart and Fanning have appeared in four movies together. They played '70s rock pioneers Joan Jett and Cherie Currie in The Runaways, but far more people saw them play rivals in the Twilight movies. Stewart, of course, played Bella Swan, average Washington teen and subject of the eternal affections of Edward Cullen, a 200-year-old sexy vampire whose skin sparkles. Neither of the young lovers is down with the Volturi, the powerful and violent coven/vampire secret society. In New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn—Part 2, Fanning portrayed Jane, a Volturi operative who could project horrific pain into people's brains. Stewart and Fanning have clearly spent a lot of time together, and as a result, they absolutely love and adore one another. In 2016, Fanning introduced Stewart at Elle's Women in Hollywood Awards. "I can honestly say that my friendship with Kristen is one of the most special bonds in my life," Fanning said. "She has held my hair back and talked me through heartbreak. She has always been there for me when I have needed her most and most of all she has taught me the power of being 100 percent yourself 100 percent of the time." When it was Stewart's turn to speak, she delivered the sweetness, too. "I've looked up to you since I was, like, 10... no, you were 5? Who knows, maybe I was, like, 9?" Stewart said. "Dude, I love you so much."
Draco and Neville are buds
The main, younger cast of actors of the Harry Potter films grew up together. Eight films were produced over the course of 10 years, and each of them took months to film. That made for plenty of time for lifelong friendships to develop among the cast like they were attending a real school for wizards and witches or something. Hogwarts house affiliation or choosing to align with the Death Eaters or Dumbledore's Army didn't really matter as far as the actors' actual lives were concerned. Among the most lasting friend-type relationship to emerge from the Harry Potter movies is the one between Tom Felton—who played the nasty, almost evil Slytherin boy Draco Malfoy, and Matthew Lewis, who portrayed the usually shy and nervous Gryffindor whipping boy Neville Longbottom. Years after filming on the last Potter movie wrapped, these two still try to hang out with each other, and they commemorate those occasions on social media.
Just an a-"Maze"-ing friendship
The central conceit of The Maze Runner, one of many dystopian YA series-turned film franchises: a teenager named Thomas is sent to live in an odd community of boys, all of whom are trapped in a maze called "The Glade" and must attempt to escape. One of his chief competitors is a violent, survival-minded kid named Gally. In the first Maze Runner movie, Dylan O'Brien portrays Thomas, while Will Poulter portrays Gally. Off screen, these two are on the same side. While being interviewed by Collider, Poulter walked by and shouted, "I love you, Dylan!" O'Brien explained that they were "buddies off screen." "That's Will. He's my boyfriend here. You have to latch onto somebody while you're working," he said. They got to be so tight that it made filming their fight scenes a little awkward. "Even after every take, he'll go, 'Are you okay?' I'll go, 'Yeah, are you?'"
No longer "High School" rivals
For those of a certain age and proclivity (Millennials who love musical theater), "the trilogy" isn't shorthand for Star Wars—it refers to the three High School Musical movies. Several of its young, untested stars went on to have solid careers in movies and TV, such as Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens. In the movies, they played rivals, if not enemies: Tisdale portrayed Sharpay, East High's literal and figurative drama queen, only to have her stage time usurped by talented upstart Gabriella (Hudgens). Hudgens and Tisdale took those films' ostensible message and title of one of its most memorable songs—"We're All in This Together"—to heart... off screen. In 2017, almost a decade since the release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Hudgens told Women's Health that she's "a loyal person." As such, after all this time she's still very much still in touch with Tisdale. "She's one of those girlfriends who will be my friend forever."
A friendship straight out of Norse mythology
The Thor characters Loki and Thor can relate to each other in that they're brothers and two powerful Norse gods living among mere humans. They also wage a bitter war with one another, but hey, that's just what brothers do. Apart from what happened on screen, Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) became fast friends while making the first Thor film. "It's much easier to hate someone on screen, if you actually like them off screen," Hemsworth told Collider, adding he and Hiddleston "just had a great time" making the movie. "You either have chemistry with someone or you don't and, thankfully, it was there. To play brothers was easy and fun. Hiddleston added that his relationship with Hemsworth is "quite literally a bromance," adding that he "can't imagine having to go to the emotional extremity that we both had to go to, if we actually didn't like each other."
But seriously, these comic rivals are close
Stiller and Vaughn are two charter members of "The Frat Pack," the unofficial collective of actors who dominated comedy films in the 2000s. Along with guys like Jack Black and Luke Wilson, Stiller and Vaughn have appeared in half a dozen movies together, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Starsky & Hutch, and DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story. Clearly, these two guys are friends that run in the same circles and wind up in so many films together, although in those films they've more often than not played violent adversaries. In Anchorman, Vaughn, as Wes Mantooth, engaged in the news personality "battle royale" against opponents that included Spanish broadcaster Arturo Mendes, as portrayed by Stiller. In 2004's DodgeBall, Vaughn played regular Joe and good guy Peter Le Fleur, opposite Stiller's wicked White Goodman. That same year, in Starsky & Hutch, Stiller's cop Starsky took down Vaughn's drug kingpin Reese Feldman.