Rupert Grint Didn't Want To Kiss Emma Watson In Harry Potter. Here's Why
Ron and Hermione might be endgame, but the actors behind the iconic characters weren't exactly excited about their big kiss.
Throughout both the Harry Potter films and books, viewers wondered when Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), an affable yet clever jokester, and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), a super-smart bookworm, would finally get together. Ultimately, that question was answered in the franchise's final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. While their momentous kiss scene changed from page to screen, it wasn't any less impactful in the moment. However, Grint and Watson definitely feel differently about the on-set experience.
In the time since, Grint and Watson have opened up about just how weird it was to shoot this pivotal moment – and they're frequently joined by Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, who also shared a kiss scene with Watson in the films. Here's the real story behind Ron and Hermione's super-awkward first kiss, and why Watson, Grint, and Radcliffe all felt weird about it — not just at the time, but also for years afterward.
Rupert Grint really didn't want to kiss Emma Watson
Considering that Grint, Watson, and Radcliffe essentially grew up together after joining the blockbuster franchise while they were still incredibly young, it makes sense that Grint would feel pretty uncomfortable about kissing one of his closest friends at the time. Much like Ron Weasley, Grint isn't one to mince words about the entire experience.
During a 2016 interview with PEOPLE, Grint opened up about just how weird it was for him to kiss Watson. He told the outlet, "I never look back at that scene. I've known Emma since she was literally nine years old and we had this very brother-sister relationship. And it just felt very surreal. I have a memory of her face getting closer and closer. Like, 'Oh my God.' I can't really remember anything apart from that."
According to Grint, there was only one thing he'd do differently in the moment: not carry out as many takes. "One take was enough," he said. "It was such a huge moment and there was so much expectation. Quite a lot of pressure actually."
Emma Watson wasn't excited to kiss Rupert Grint either
Of course, Grint wasn't alone in dreading Ron and Hermione's huge, climactic kiss. Watson told Movies Ireland exactly why the kiss was so awkward: "It's purely the fact that he's like my brother and we were both totally in the same boat. I'm sure he will tell you exactly the same thing. It was very strange and very weird. Believe me, we both wanted it to be over equally as much as the other. It's honestly like kissing my brother. It was weird."
Just in case the entire vibe on set wasn't awkward enough, there were some technical aspects to the shoot that made the whole kiss even worse. When The Telegraph asked Watson in a July 2011 interview whether Radcliffe or Grint was a better kisser (Watson and Radcliffe shared a steamy on-screen smooch in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I), the actress demurred before explaining why her kiss with Grint was so unpleasant.
"This is really difficult. I've got to try and be diplomatic. Kissing Rupert was [...] awkward," Watson admitted. "We had just been soaked by an enormous bucket of water, which we had to pretend we didn't know was going to hit us."
She wasn't crazy about her kissing scene with Radcliffe either, though: "With Harry, I was half naked and covered in silver paint, so that was pretty awkward."
In the end, all three of them got through it. As Watson shared, "They were both strange situations to be in, but both were complete gentlemen. It's obviously hard to put our personal history to one side considering we grew up together. But once you've done it four or five times, it gets quite boring. So it definitely got easier."
Daniel Radcliffe also struggled with Harry Potter's kissing scenes
Harry has no shortage of on-screen kisses during the Harry Potter films — between his eventual wife Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) and his Hogwarts crush Cho Chang (Katie Leung) — but as he recalls, his kiss with Watson was just plain weird.
Radcliffe took a fairly gentle approach to their first kiss, but apparently, Watson really went for it. As Radcliffe told MTV News, "I've just been getting into so much trouble with Emma about this, because apparently I said in an interview that she was like an animal. I thought it was going to be a kind of a slow, sensual thing, and Emma really went for it."
As fans know, Harry and Hermione don't actually kiss, and their entire romantic entanglement is a vision produced by an evil magical object known as a Horcrux as a means torture Ron — but that didn't change how weird it was for everybody on set. Radcliffe echoed his friends' comments, saying, "It was kind of weird. It is a bit like kissing your sister. I'm not complaining! It was good. It was vigorous. For me, I wasn't too freaked out. But it's a bigger deal for Emma. I think it generally is a bigger deal for girls."
As for Watson, she was apparently so embarrassed by the scene that she made Grint, who couldn't stop laughing, leave the set. While Watson told J-14 that she was "proud" of the kiss between Harry and Hermione, Grint remembers that he was kicked out of the room: "When they were there actually filming that kiss, they did actually want me there to kind of play off something, but I just found that too funny. Emma sent me out because I kept laughing. It just looked really strange."
All eight Harry Potter films, weird kisses and all, will be available to stream on Peacock soon.