Kirsten Dunst has confessed that filming the iconic Spider-Man kiss scene with Tobey Maguire wasn’t quite as romantic as it looked.
Everyone remembers the moment in the 2002 Sam Raimi film when Mary Jane comes face-to-face with the mystery web wielding superhero in the rain.
After coming to her rescue and saving her from a gang, MJ pulls back Spider-Man’s mask as he hangs from a building and the famous upside-down kiss follows.
But while it looked like a seamless moment on screen, Kirsten has revealed that it was a bit “miserable” to film.
Speaking on Saturday’s edition of The Jonathan Ross Show, the Fargo actor recalled director Sam gifting her with something to help aid the scene.
“I remember Sam Raimi giving me a book of famous kisses to be inspired but also he really wanted to make it special even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it,” she said.
“It was pouring with rain, freezing, Tobey couldn’t breathe so it was almost like I was resuscitating him,” the actor joked.
But the moment paid off, becoming one of the most iconic big screen kisses ever.
Kirsten’s story echoed comments Tobey previously made about the kiss.
“There was rain pouring down my nose…and then Kirsten pulls the mask up to [my nose] and it’s blocking the air passage there, so I couldn’t breathe,” he said in a junket interview (via The Hollywood Reporter). “And then she’s kissing me, blocking the air passage there, so there’s nowhere else to breathe.”
Tobey added that he was “practically suffocating” and had to quickly gasp for air out the side of his mouth.
“It was really tough, actually,” he continued. “It was really challenging. They’d yell cut, and I would be [gasping for air], totally out of breath. It was torture. It makes you realise how important oxygen is.”
Kirsten stars in new film Civil War alongside husband Jesse Plemons, who she described on the talk show as her “creative soulmate” and “my favourite actor”.
The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday night at 9.35pm on ITV1.