TMS Spotlight: Popular Co-star Pairings on Film
(MGM Studios)
NOTE: This article was originally written for The Times of San Diego in 2017
Star quality has always meant a lot, especially during the old Hollywood period. Producers and executives wanted to make sure their movie stars could fully sell their films, if the stories couldn’t on their own. But in many cases movies were not only cast and marketed on the sole superstar’s appeal, like Clark Gable or Joan Crawford, but also paired them with other famous actors as a double whammy. The most famous and successful example would have to be William Powell & Myrna Loy who were paired together in a grand total of 14 films, including all 6 of MGM’s Thin Man flicks (1934-1947), Robert Z. Leonard’s The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Richard Thorpe’s Double Wedding (1937) and Jack Conway’s Love Crazy (1941).
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers had 10 of their iconic musicals together including Mark Sandrich’s The Gay Divorcee (1934), Sandrich’s Top Hat (1935) and George Stevens’ Swing Time (1936). There’s Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland with their famous backyard musicals like Busby Berkeley’s Babes in Arms (1939) and Berkeley’s Strike Up the Band (1940). Fred MacMurray & Carole Lombard and Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn for numerous classic screwball comedies such as Mitchell Leisen’s Hands Across the Table (1935), Wesley Ruggles’ True Confession (1937), Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby (1938), George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story (1940), among others. Audiences found themselves not only drawn to their favorite actors, but also rooting for their favorite pairings to be together, even if the chemistry was only utilized on screen.
(Amblin / Warner Bros)
When the traditional studio system was dying down, romantic movie pairings were still a largely appealing aspect of film casting. Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor [Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra (1963), Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)], James Garner & Julie Andrews [Arthur Hiller’s The Americanization of Emily (1964), Blake Edwards’ Victor/Victoria (1982)], and Woody Allen & Diane Keaton [Allen’s Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979)] were some of the classic pairings for the 1960s-70s. Two of the most popular movie pairings in pop culture would come in the 1990s from Richard Gere & Julia Roberts with Pretty Woman (1990) and Runaway Bride (1999)—both directed by Garry Marshall—and Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan in John Patrick Shanley’s Joe vs. the Volcano (1990), Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail (1998), when the romantic comedy genre was having a big boom.
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock have consistently been considered each other’s favorite co-stars by their fans thanks to Jan de Bont’s megahit Speed (1994) and reunited later in Alejandro Agresti’s The Lake House (2006). Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett are good friends and have starred opposite each other in three classics: John Singleton’s Boyz ‘n the Hood (1991), Brian Gibson’s What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993) and Doug Atchison’s Akeela & the Bee (2006). Penélope Cruz has co-starred with her husband Javier Bardem in numerous films, as well as with Antonio Banderas in multiple Pedro Almodóvar pictures. But as the era of big movie stars has calmed down over the past couple decades, do duos like these still have an effect on box-office numbers or film followings?
(Warner Bros)
Two semi-modern successful film duos are Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence and Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone. Cooper & Lawrence have led three Oscar friendly darlings directed by David O. Russell—Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Hustle (2013) and Joy (2015)—and one dud without him, Susanne Bier’s Serena (2014). Gosling & Stone have two hits—Glenn Ficarra & John Requa’s Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) and Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016)—and one flop, Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad (2013). Jesse Eisenberg & Kristen Stewart have fared about the same with critical success in Greg Mottola’s Adventureland (2009) and Woody Allen’s Café Society (2016), while Nima Nourizadeh’s American Ultra (2015) was a huge bomb. Another indie pairing, Miles Teller & Shailene Woodley, got great feedback for James Ponsoldt’s teen flick The Spectacular Now (2013), while also starring in Summit’s Hunger Games rip-off franchise Divergent (2014-16).
More recently, Dylan O’Brien & Zoey Deutch might be the next young/hot pairing to gain a following, having co-starred just this year in Graham Moore’s The Outfit and Quinn Shephard’s Not Okay. It looks like while movie star pairings aren’t sweeping box-offices with general audiences as much anymore, they still make an impact with critics and fanbases. Two of my personal favorite movie pairings are Jimmy Stewart & Jean Arthur in the Frank Capra dramedies You Can’t Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); and Sam Rockwell & Drew Barrymore in McG’s Charlie’s Angels (2000) and George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). Who are yours?