Not every couple experiences "love at first sight." In fact, some experience dislike — or even hatred! — at first sight. Somehow, however, it evolves into romance.
Here are 11 celeb couples who had really bad first impressions of each other:
1. While filming The Notebook, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams had so much trouble getting along that it got to the point where he asked director Nick Cassavetes, "Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me? ...I can’t. I can’t do it with her. I’m just not getting anything from this."
Nick told VH1, "We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other. I walked out. At that point, I was smoking cigarettes. I smoked a cigarette, and everybody came out like, 'All right let’s do this.' And it got better after that, you know? They had it out... I think Ryan respected her for standing up for her character, and Rachel was happy to get that out in the open. The rest of the film wasn’t smooth sailing, but it was smoother sailing."
A year after the movie's 2004 release, Ryan and Rachel began dating. They were together for about two years.
2. In 2020, Benny Blanco seemingly shade Selena Gomez while praising her ex, Justin Bieber. Benny told Zach Sang, "Justin's not one of those cookie-cutter pop artists. Like you know, they're like, 'This is my new single and here's my makeup line.' And he's like, Justin's like, 'Yo. I have a pimple and I have anxiety today.' He's always been upfront about that stuff."
After Selena confirmed her relationship with Benny in late 2023, fans criticized her for dating him in light of his previous comments.
In the comments of an @popfactions Instagram post, one person wrote, "You’re just corny omg that man was shading you years ago."
Selena replied, "Lol yeah and he’s still better than anyone I’ve ever been with. Facts."
3. Before meeting in person, Rita Ora and Calvin Harris had a Twitter feud because she alleged that he offered "Call My Name" to her before ultimately giving it to Cheryl Cole. Rita reportedly told the Sun, "So we never really liked each other in the beginning."
She continued, "Then after that, it just kind of happened really. It was backstage at a thing like this when we first met and it went from there."
Rita and Calvin got together in 2013. Then, he reportedly broke up with her in a public tweet in 2014.
4. When Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan worked together on Family Ties in 1985, he made a rude joke about her breath, so she called him out for being a "fucking asshole."
In his Apple TV+ documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Michael said, "One day, we broke for lunch. After lunch, we picked up where we left off. The moment she said her first line, I detected a hint of garlic and sensed an opportunity to have a little fun at her expense. ‘Whoa, a little scampi for lunch, babe?’ At first, she said nothing. Her expression didn’t even change. But looking me dead in the eyes, she said slowly, ‘That was mean and rude, and you’re a complete and total fucking asshole.'"
He was surprised. He continued, "Nobody talked to me that way. This woman was completely unintimidated by whoever I thought I was. A pig is a pig no matter how many hit movies he’s just had...She was joking, but I didn’t get it because no one would ever joke with me like that. I was not the butt of any jokes. She just poked through that, like, you’re a scared little kid and I’ll just call you out. In that moment, I fell in love with her."
They started dating while working on Bright Lights, Big City two years later, and they got married in 1988.
5. When Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton first met in 1997, they didn't like each other at all. She told Vanity Fair, "He thought I was aloof, and I thought he was arrogant."
She continued, "And it just shows how wrong you can be. But once he kissed me, that was that."
Their relationship progressed quickly. Within three weeks of their first meeting, they were engaged. By the end of 1997, they were married.
6. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard first met at Forgetting Sarah Marshall producer Shauna Robertson's birthday dinner. Her only memory of him from that night is "that he talked so much," and "there were no sparks whatsoever."
Kristen told Today, "I was like, 'This guy can talk.' And then I didn't know who he was. I'm like, 'Maybe is that one of the guys from 'Jackass' or something?' ...He remembers, 'You were telling a really intense story about a deal you had gotten at Target.' And I was like, 'That sounds like it's on brand.'"
Two weeks later, they crossed paths again at a hockey game and "started to flirt."
She continued, "And then a day after that, I get a text that says, 'Hi, my name is Dax. I violated your privacy and got your number from Shauna. How do you feel about that?' And I was like, 'Excuse me? You sound stimulating.'"
They got married in 2013.
7. In 2007, Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade met as the co-hosts of a Super Bowl party, but they stayed on opposite sides of the room with their own friends because her people "like to party," and Dwayne, who doesn't drink, "was on the other side of the room holding Bible study." Their age difference and his divorce also turned off Gabrielle.
She told Glamour, "When I met Dwyane, his 'résumé' looked like crap: athlete, going through a divorce, nine years younger than me. None of that screamed, 'Let's have a lasting relationship.' Then, after I had a heart-crushing breakup with yet another immature jerk, I thought, it can't be any worse if I date a fetus. Let's just see what happens. Turned out he'd been on his own since he was 15. He had wisdom that comes with facing an insane amount of adversity. He's sweet, funny, honest about his shortcomings. When I put my preconceived notions to the side, I found someone cool."
They've been married since 2014.
8. Describing her first impression of her Riverdale costar Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart told Glamour, "I thought his voice was annoying. I was like, 'That guy’s got an annoying voice.'"
"And now it's grown on me, I guess," she said.
Meanwhile, Cole said, "Lili was a tough egg to crack. She's very shy at first and reserved. I think it was about halfway into the first season she started letting people in truly."
They reportedly started dating in 2018 then ended things two years later.
9. When Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux met on the Tropic Thunder set in 2007, she "thought he was very sweet," but she also remembers "thinking he was very dark." She told Pop Sugar, "At first you think he could be, like, a serial killer."
"But he is actually the nicest person in the world," she said.
Describing the first time she saw him on set, she told E! News, "He was wearing black, black, black, and I started to sweat just looking at him."
The actors reconnected a few years later while filming Wanderlust. They were married from 2015–2018.
10. When Luke Bryan first approached Caroline Boyer in a crowded bar, she thought he was a "big personality with this loud mouth." She told Jockey, "It took me a couple of days to realize that this was a real character. This wasn't just some drunk college guy, this is how he acts."
However, Luke had a different experience. He said, "The next morning, I woke up and was like, 'Oh my God, that's who I'm going after, right there.'"
They got married in 2006.
11. And finally, for the first year of knowing her Transparent costar, Bradley Whitford, Amy Landecker "kind of thought that he seemed like a cocky actor boy, and [she] wasn’t really that interested."
