How Jennifer Aniston Felt About Her On-Screen Kiss With Will Poulter
Jennifer Aniston has logged a long list of on-camera kisses over the years. On "Friends," she kissed everyone from David Schwimmer to Winona Ryder — and that was just in Season 7 alone! Some of her smooches have been more awkward than others. Mitchell Whitfield, who played Aniston's "Friends" character Rachel Green's ex-fiancé Barry, once told Cinema Blend that kissing the star wasn't all it was cracked up to be. "I have guys for years who would ask me, 'Dude, you kissed Jennifer Aniston," Whitfield said. "And I was like, 'Well, imagine kissing someone you know, that you've known for a long time, that you're just friends with, in front of about 200 people when it's about 120 degrees with a bunch of cameras on you, and I think it always ruins it."
Ditto for Tate Donovan, who played Rachel's crush, Joshua, in a six-episode arc — amid a real-life breakup with the "Friends" star. The exes even locked lips in the Season 4 episode "The One With Rachel's New Dress." Donovan later told Us Weekly he was "dying inside" while filming romantic scenes with Aniston. He had to pretend as if they were just two actors without any personal history, which was understandably pretty difficult.
However, all of that pales in comparison to Aniston's most awkward kiss ever with Will Poulter — a star who was still a teenager when they filmed their smooch in "We the Millers."
Jennifer Aniston wasn't exactly comfortable with the kiss
In the 2013 movie "We're the Millers," Aniston, then 44, played a stripper, Rose, who was hired to be the matriarch of a "fake" marijuana-smuggling family. Her faux son, Kenny, was played by actor Will Poulter, who was 19 at the time of filming. In one memorable scene, Aniston's character taught her much younger movie "son" how to kiss.
Aniston was razzed about the kissing scene during a 2013 appearance on Conan O'Brien's talk show, per Us Weekly. After the late-night host called the kiss "disturbing," he asked Aniston if it was even legal, joking that his young age could have been a crime. "It was just a kiss. That's not illegal," Aniston replied. But the Emmy-winning star admitted that she did some research on the legalities before filming the scene. "I looked way into it! Are you kidding?" she said.
In an interview with Collider, "We're the Millers" director Rawson M. Thurber revealed that the original script called for Poulter to only kiss co-star Emma Roberts, who was only two years older than him and played his fake sister in the flick. "I think it was Jen who thought it would be funny if Rose joined in, which made all the difference in the sequence," Thurber said. Oddly enough, the unlikely liplock received enough buzz to score a win an MTV Movie Award win for best kiss, per The Los Angeles Times.
Will Poulter said he felt sorry for Jennifer Aniston in their kiss scene
Will Poulter had some issues with the famous "We're the Millers" kissing scene, mostly due to his lack of experience, but also due to concerns for his co-stars. He told The Independent he felt "very sorry " for both Jennifer Aniston and Emma Roberts when they filmed the awkward scene, but he also said the "Friends" star was the consummate professional and really took him under her wing. "She was very supportive and took care of me, and was aware that, being a 19-year-old kid in that scenario, I was very nervous," Poulter said. "This was before intimacy coordinators, which I really would have appreciated."
Despite the awkwardness, Poulter said they all found a way to get through it — and it was with humor. To make the scene less uncomfortable, they cracked jokes throughout the day of filming, which really helped, the actor told Collider in a 2013 interview. And yes, there were a lot of takes, but Poulter took that all in his stride, too. "Obviously it's like boohoo, tiny violin, because obviously it was the greatest experience of that young boy's life, which he will remember forever," he joked of his kiss with the superstar.