Although Jennifer Lawrence’s notorious garlicky kiss with Liam Hemsworth in The Hunger Games remains a topic of wide discussion to this day, it turns out that the situation wasn’t entirely her fault, she simply just didn’t care at the time. On the contrary, when shooting a scene with Christian Bale, known for his role in American Psycho, Lawrence took extra precautions by popping as many mints as possible before the kissing scene commenced.
Later during her interview on The Graham Norton Show, Jennifer Lawrence didn’t shy away from confessing that she didn’t hold the same level of concern for her co-star Hemsworth as she did for Bale.
Jennifer Lawrence Was Stressed Before Kissing Christian Bale
The two stars Jennifer Lawrence and Christian Bale collaborated in the film American Hustle. Despite Lawrence gaining valuable lessons from the Batman actor, she initially found herself intimidated by him. Despite being an Oscar winner herself, Lawrence couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by Bale’s extensive body of work and his immersive acting process. She made a conscious effort to avoid disrupting his workflow. Thus, consequently, she ensured she was on her best behavior whenever she shared the screen with him. On The Graham Norton Show, she revealed,
“When I had to kiss Josh and Liam in The Hunger Games, I was like, ‘Who cares?’ and I’d eat mustard and tuna,–And then I did American Hustle with Christian Bale and I was like, ‘Oh damn,’ and I was really clean and ate lots and lots of mints.”
But being great friends with Liam Hemsworth took off some of the pressure off her shoulders and made her stress less about being in scenes with the actor, however, it was precisely this relaxed dynamic that led to the now-infamous garlicky kiss, which Hemsworth often jokingly recalls.
Jennifer Lawrence’s Infamous Garlicky Kiss With Liam Hemsworth
During the promotion of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Liam Hemsworth revealed in a 2014 interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that Jennifer Lawrence had an interesting approach before their kissing scenes.
Hemsworth, known for his role as Gale in the film series, shared that Lawrence intentionally consumed garlic or tuna fish, which he found to be quite unpleasant. As Lawrence was one of his closest friends, any kissing scene between them felt rather uncomfortable for Hemsworth. He openly expressed that their friendship added an extra layer of awkwardness to those particular moments on set. Turns out, after all these years of bad rep, it wasn’t intentional after all, in a recent Hot Ones interview, the actress revealed,
“It was not intentional–it was just, like, what I was eating and then we’d kiss. He should just, you know, get over it.”
Besides that, both Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth expressed their fondness for each other whenever they get a chance. They share a bond that is rather rare in Hollywood, and thus, they treasure each other dearly.
Source: The Graham Norton Show (via Yahoo! News)
