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Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Lifestyle
Rachel Burchfield

Matt Damon On Why Kissing Costar Scarlett Johansson Was “Hell”

Matt Damon and Scarlett Johannson at the We Bought a Zoo premiere

Most men would likely say that kissing Scarlett Johansson (and calling it work) would be just about the exact opposite of hell, but costar Matt Damon said that’s what it was—but not for the reason you might think. (Don’t worry, Damon said—of the kiss itself, that “was really good.”)

While the two were shooting the 2011 movie We Bought a Zoo, Damon “had to smooch Scarlett Johannson after she downed a stinky sandwich,” Page Six reports. Speaking to LADbible, a (we think?) sarcastic Damon said “I had to kiss Scarlett Johannson—can you imagine how horrible that was for me? It was hell!”

He continues “What happened was, we did a shot before lunch, and it was this nice little two-shot that ended in the kiss,” he said. “And it was really good.” Then in comes the stinky food. Thinking they were done with the kissing portion of their filming day, Damon and Johannson went for lunch, where the actress ate, as Page Six so deftly puts it, “a pungent hoagie.” 

(Image credit: Getty)

“She and I both thought it was over,” Damon said. “She ate, like, an onion sandwich.”

Unbeknownst to them both, they had to pick up where they left off and film the kissing scene once again after they returned from lunch.

“She came in, and [director] Cameron Crowe had set the camera up, and it was, like, a tight shot of the kiss,” Damon said. “She goes, ‘Ahhh, sh—! I literally just had an onion sandwich!”

(Image credit: Getty)

Damon recalled he was “making fun of her” the entire time about her “onion breath,” but that it was all in good fun: “Her breath smells like roses!” he concluded.

Gotta love costars that can laugh together.

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