Television has seen many iconic on-screen BFFs like Chandler Bing and Joey Tribbiani from Friends, Blair Waldorf and Serena Van der Woodsen from Gossip Girl, and Rachel Berry and Kurt Hummel from Glee and so many others. When we first begin watching two actors play characters who are portrayed on TV to be best friends, almost immediately our minds question the nature of the actor’s actual relationship and if it mimics the one we watch on the screen.
As viewers of TV entertainment, what we see on the screen is almost never enough to satisfy us.
We not only love the characters but also want to know everything about the actors behind them. So we look for cast interviews and behind the scenes clips so that we are able to get a better insight as to how the actors truly interact with one another. The general public is so obsessed with off-screen relationships between on-screen characters, that we want them to manifest themselves in real life. It’s a phenomenon that naturally provokes your curiosity, thus turning to the Internet to reassure you that your favourite on-screen BFFs are actually that tight in real life or reassures you that despite your two favourite characters hating one another’s guts on TV, they’re actually super close friends when the director calls cut and the cameras aren’t rolling. Here’s a list of ten real-life celebrity friendships and five relationships that started on TV.
15 Friends: Sebastian Stan And Chace Crawford
If you know the CW’s Gossip Girl, you know that Nate Archibald and Carter Baizen weren’t exactly two peas in a pod. But Chace Crawford and Sebastian Stan who played Archibald and Baizen respectively could not have any more different of a relationship.
The two met on the set of the Covenant in 2006, and later reuniting as co-stars and friends on the set of Gossip Girl, where their friendship became stronger than ever.
During the filming of the show, the friends would often be seen hanging out around New York City, laughing on set and catching basketball games together.
Even after the show came to an end, Stan and Crawford still appear to have remained close friends. In April of 2016, Crawford stepped out to the Captain America: Civil War premiere in support of Stan. Later on that year, the two, along with mutual friends Taylor Kitsch and Toby Hemingway, celebrated New Years together. Though the pair isn’t seen together as much these days, due to different schedules and busy lives, Stan and Crawford re-united at GQ Men of the Year Party in 2017. Stan told E! News that he and Crawford “run into each other here and there” and that seeing him is always fun.
14 Friends: Ariana Grande And Elizabeth Gillies
Elizabeth Gillies might have played the unapproachable and snippy Jade West on Nickelodeon’s Victorious, but it looks like Gillies isn’t anything like her character since she has formed a long-lasting friendship with her co-star Ariana Grande, who played the scatterbrained and naïve Cat Valentine, during their time on set.
On the show, the dynamic of their characters was not nearly as friendly as the two are in real life. Grande and Gillies previously knew one another from working on their Broadway show 13 when they were in their early teens, but only really became friends on the set of Victorious. Grande and Gillies grew close during the show’s filming, and after it’s abrupt end in 2013, the two remained friends. Over the years, Grande and Gillies have continued to support one another and each of their individual projects. Gillies appeared in Grande’s 2014 music video for “Right There” and also hilariously reacted to Grande’s Scream Queens debut by sending her a text reading: “I love you as a corpse” which Grande posted to her Instagram in September of 2015. When Gillies went on a promotional tour for her show Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll she told People Magazine that Grande is “like blood to me, she’s my sister.”
13 Relationship: Mark Consuelos And Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos first met on the set of All My Children when Consuelos was auditioning for a part of the show and Ripa had been assigned as his partner for his screen test. Consuelos won the role of Mateo and soon played the love interest of Ripa’s character Hayley. The pair’s on-screen romance eventually became a real one, something they kept from their co-stars.
In 2014 Consuelos confessed to Huffington Post that when he first met Ripa in their screen test, even though he did find her “adorable, beautiful and attractive” he was more focused on nailing his audition than flirting with Ripa:
“I didn’t really think I had a chance with her, so I wasn’t focused on that.”
A few months later Consuelos proposed to Ripa while eating pizza and drinking wine at his apartment and on May 1, 1996, eloped to get married in Las Vegas. They continued to star on All My Children before Ripa left to replace Kathy Lee Gifford on the talk show that eventually became Live! With Regis and Kelly. They now have three children and after 22 years of marriage appear to be more in love than ever. In 2013, Ripa told People Magazine “He is the person I was meant to be with forever, and I think he feels the same way. We really do have quite an allegiance to one another. No matter what, we support each other in everything we do.”
12 Friends: Lili Reinhart And Camila Mendes
It would have been a casting nightmare if the actresses hired to play one of the most iconic duos, Betty and Veronica, didn’t actually like each other. Thankfully, Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes who play the iconic Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge on the CW’s Riverdale who are now best friends.
At first, it took some time for Reinhart and Mendes to adjust to one another and the friendship that was so highly expected from them didn’t happen right when they met. In an interview with J-14, they admitted that their chemistry wasn’t immediate when they first met on the show’s set in 2016. Though the pair had no trouble getting along with one another, Reinhart explained that it took some time to cultivate a genuine relationship and solidify what would grow into an eventual friendship: “It took time to build a bond and get really close to one another.” Reinhart and Mendes did eventually find that friendship in one another, which turned into more of a sisterhood since the two are practically attached at the hip in their work and personal lives. Since Riverdale’s initial release in 2017, Reinhart and Mendes’ real-life friendship has only grown stronger. So strong that Reinhart and Mendes have recently become roommates, the girls told Entertainment Tonight’s, Leanne Aguilera.
11 Friends: Sophie Turner And Masie Williams
The only thing more iconic than HBO’s Game of Thrones is the friendship that Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams have formed from starring in it. Turner and Williams, who play Sansa and Arya Stark respectively, have become best friends through their roles on the show. Despite the fact that they have not actually worked together since the show’s filming of the first season, Turner told INSIDER that they manage to get together whenever they’re both on location in Belfast and spend some quality time with one another.
On their friendship, Turner is very vocal about her feelings towards her BFF and co-star: “she's my soul mate. I love that girl to pieces."
As their friendship was founded in Hollywood, Turner and Williams do some very unconventional and glamorous activities, not all best friends get to do, like walking red carpets together and taking part in a session of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. But on the other hand, the pair aren’t strangers to snapping silly pictures for their Instagram or making time for sleepovers. Turner even asked Williams to serve as one of her bridesmaids in her upcoming wedding to Joe Jonas.
10 Relationship: Ginnifer Goodwin And Josh Dallas
Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas, who played Snow White and Prince Charming on ABC’s Once Upon A Time, have a love story that sounds like it could be a fairy tale in itself.
When Goodwin and Dallas met on the set of Once Upon a Time in 2011, they were both engaged and married respectively, and when questioned by the press and media, insisted upon the fact that their relationship was strictly platonic despite speculation that they were, in fact, an item. However, Goodwin broke off her engagement to actor Joey Kern that same year, while Dallas and his then-wife English actress Lara Pulver announced their separation soon after. In March 2012, the pair began dating and it was reported that were in love and had no plans to take their relationship slow. Dallas told HelloGiggles.com that his relationship with Goodwin while shooting the first season, both “on and off screen… was magical” and told People Magazine that falling in love with her “hit him like a blinding light.” The couple was married in April 2014 and gave birth to their first child Oliver Finlay Dallas a month later. In June 2016, the welcomed their second child Hugo Wilson Dallas.
9 Friends: Shay Mitchell And Ashley Benson
While Shay Mitchell and Ashley Benson played best friends Emily Fields and Hannah Marin on the hit TV show Pretty Little Liars, the pair’s on-screen friendship must have rubbed off in their regular lives. Even though all the ladies of the show appear to be very close, Mitchell and Benson are inseparable.
The two met in 2009 when Mitchell was cast to play Fields and Benson, Marin. When Mitchell was asked what her thoughts were of Benson when the two first met, she said it was “love at first sight” and that they’re like sisters. During the taping of Pretty Little Liars, the two would often film funny videos and do live streams together, many of which can be found on YouTube. Though Pretty Little Liars has since ended, the BFF duo, who have dubbed themselves “ButtahBenzo”, have remained good friends.
Benson and Mitchell can often be seen hanging out at star-studded parties and events together, or casually making dinner at one of their homes enjoying a relaxing girl’s night in and documenting the fun on social media.
Though they are both busy and have new projects coming up, the friends make sure to stay in touch and continue to chronicle their friendship and fun times they have on social media.
8 Friends: Zach Braff And Donald Faison
Zach Braff and Donald Faison met on the set of comedy series Scrubs in 2001, where they played best friends J.D. Dorian and Christopher Turk, two medical interns at Sacred Hearts Hospital. Much Like Shay Mitchell and Ashley Benson, Braff and Faison are yet another pair who played best friends on screen and mimicked that relationship in real life.
Their friendship, commonly referred to by Scrubs fans as a “bromance” has been doing well and getting even stronger since the show’s end in 2010. The pair has remained great friends over the years. Such good friends that Faison admitted on The Meredith Vieira show in 2014 that he kept a picture of he and Braff on his nightstand! If that wasn’t enough, in 2016, Braff and Faison visited Cabo San Lucas in celebration of Braff’s 41st birthday. Faison told Yahoo Celebrity of his former co-star that Braff is his “best friend. I’m really fond of that man, I’m not ashamed to say it.” There surely must be a secret to maintaining such a longstanding friendship, and Faison revealed that it’s his wife! “My wife steps in and takes control, and ensures he and I are always in touch.” Looks like it’s worked, because the pair has continued to remain best friends.
7 Relationship: Lili Reinhart And Cole Sprouse
Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper on the CW’s Riverdale, seems to not only have found a best friend in Camila Mendes through working on the show but also a boyfriend in Cole Sprouse who coincidentally plays Betty ‘s love interest, Jughead Jones.
The pair met in 2016 on the set of their show, and when Reinhart recalls on the first time meeting Sprouse, who she had grown up watching on The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, she told Elle Magazine that she wasn’t starstruck by him. Rather, “he just seemed like this really attractive, normal guy."
Though the pair has since revealed their relationship, Reinhart and Sprouse made efforts to hide their relationship for a long time.
The pair began to spark dating rumors in 2017 when Sprouse had posted a picture of Reinhart in a field of flowers on his social media account in March 2017.
The next major hint was when the couple vacationed in Hawaii together, followed by a trip to France all the while strengthening dating speculations, but admitting nothing. Reinhart and Sprouse finally put the rumors to rest when they made their official debut as a couple on the red carpet of the 2018 Met Gala in May.
6 Friends: BJ Novak And Mindy Kaling
BJ Novak and Mindy Kaling met on the set of the Office in 2005, and served as both writers and actors, portraying lovers Kelly Kapoor and Ryan Howard.
Novak and Kaling have, arguably, the most complex and confusing friendship, which Kaling even admitted herself in an interview with InStyle in 2015: “He is not my boyfriend, but he is not my best friend. I guess you could describe our relationship as a 'romantically charged camaraderie with loud arguments.’”During the filming of the office, Kaling and Novak dated on and off for a couple of years, yet remained good friends post-breakup, which eventually developed into the strong friendship they have today. Over the years, Kaling and Novak have continued to show unwavering support and their unbreakable friendship through attending events as the other’s date and always speaking highly of each other in the media. Most recently, Novak tweeted a picture of Kaling’s promotional poster from her role in Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time with the caption “When I met @mindykaling she lived in a small apartment on Fairfax Ave. This is what’s in front of that building today. Congrats Mindy and a future congrats to all those who see you in it and are inspired to do great things. @WrinkleInTime." Kaling replied by expressing that she was “fully crying”. I think that sentiment goes for everyone.
5 Friends: Busy Philips And Michelle Williams
Busy Philips and Michelle Williams met on the set of Dawson’s Creek when Philips, who played Audrey Lidell, was added as a recurring character on the show during the fifth season.
Williams, who played Jen Lindley on the show, remembers the first time she saw Philips and that she was the coolest girl she had ever seen. Telling Entertainment Weekly that Philips had a nose ring, wore overalls, and had a confident attitude that was not to be messed with, she thought to herself that Philips was the type of person she wanted to be one day.
“She was my first real friend I ever had."
The famous pair could not be more opposite, with Philips being regarded as somewhat of a social media influencer, who regularly engages with her one million followers, compared to Williams who does not partake in any form of social media. Even though Williams and Philips live on opposite sides of the country, the friends support each other all the time, without fail. Whether it’s Williams appearing in Philips social media stories or accompanying Williams to the Oscars, their friendship is most definitely one that will last forever. In the words of Philips “You can really invest in this relationship. We're not gonna break up."
4 Relationship: Will Smith And Jada Pinkett Smith
Everyone knows that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are one of Hollywood’s most iconic power couples, but did you know that before Jada was Will’s girlfriend, she auditioned to play his girlfriend?
The couple met in 1994 when Jada auditioned to play Will Smith’s love interest Lisa Wilkes on his show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Jada, who is only 5”0 tall, was considered to be too short to play the girlfriend of 6”2 Smith. Even though Jada didn’t get the role, the pair remained friends and began dating in 1995 and after two years got married on New Year's Eve in 1997. Jada told Andy Cohen, host of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, that the secret to their successful marriage is simply the fact that she and Will “love to laugh together. We love to learn together and we just love each other. We just have a good time together. I guess that's the secret. We just really like each other." Of Jada, Will told People Magazine that Jada “is just absolutely hardcore, like she absolutely is unfazed by the weight and the pressures of life. She is so calm and cool and easy in any situation. She can bear anything, and I just love that about her."
3 Friends: James Franco And Seth Rogen
Even though Freaks and Geeks, the show that started off the epic friendship between James Franco and Seth Rogen was short-lived, the friendship that stemmed from it was very much the opposite giving us one of the funniest pairs of friends in Hollywood.
Franco, who played Daniel Desario, and Rogen, who played Ken Miller, met on the set of the show in 1999 when they were 21 and 17 respectively. Despite the age gap and the show’s one-season duration, the two would establish a life-long friendship and successful working relationship. After Freaks and Geeks, Franco and Rogen worked on a handful of projects together like Pineapple Express, This is the End, The Interview, Sausage Party, and The Disaster Artist and grew closer the more they collaborated.
The pair would even make an effort to include the other in independent projects they were working on.
When Rogen starred in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, Franco was given a cameo role in the film, playing himself. When Franco starred in and directed the cinematic adaptation of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, he gave Rogen a small role as the “telegraph operator”. In an article written for IndieWire.com in 2017, Rogen writes of Franco “We got along well at the time [of Freaks and Geeks], but if you told me that he would ultimately become, like, a fixture in my life for the next several decades, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”
2 Friends: Jennifer Aniston And Courteney Cox
Even though Friends ended 14 years ago, the friendship between Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox most definitely did not. Quite the opposite, these friends who played on-screen roommates and friends Rachel Green and Monica Geller are very much still both these things! Aniston told More Magazine that she is no stranger to Cox’s guest bedroom. "Without giving away too much of my private stuff, all I can say is she's been there for me through thick and thin."
The pair first met on the now-iconic 1994 TV sitcom Friends, and it would be a shame to find out that Aniston and Cox were anything but friends. Thankfully, the two developed a friendship that would last way beyond the show’s run. So much so that in 2005, Cox made Aniston the godmother of her now-13-year-old daughter Coco Arquette. That same year, Cox helped Aniston get through her very painful and public divorce from Brad Pitt. Of Cox, Anniston says, “There's absolutely no judgment in Court. You'll never feel scolded. She's extremely fair, ridiculously loyal and fiercely loving." After all these years, the friends still make time and ensure that they’re there for one another. Since Aniston announced her split from ex-husband Justin Theroux, she and Cox have spent plenty of time together going out for girl’s nights, most recently with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
1 Relationship: Ashton Kutcher And Mila Kunis
If any Hollywood love story were to come from a perfectly written story, it would be Mila Kunis’ and Ashton Kutcher’s. The popular celebrity couple met while playing Michael Kelso and Jackie Burkhart on Fox’s That 70’s Show. But the couple did not fall in love on the show. Instead during the show’s taping they had more of a sibling relationship in part due to the five-year age gap that was more prominent during their younger years. Over the course of the show’s duration, both Kutcher and Kunis had significant others.
The pair made efforts to keep in touch over AIM after That 70’s Show had ended, and would regularly chat and check with each other.
In 2011 Kunis, who had just gotten out of a relationship, ran into Kutcher at an award show, and noticed how attractive Kutcher grew to be.
Kutcher then invited Kunis to a party at his house, where they ended up kissing, but both agreed that it would be better for both of them to stay single. So instead, they agreed to be friends with benefits. This arrangement worked for a couple of months until the couple both realized that they wanted a real relationship. Kunis and Kutcher began dating in 2012 and had their daughter Wyatt in 2014. The couple married in 2015 and welcomed their son Dimitri.
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