While most of us are struggling to find someone to go out with on Tinder, single celebrities don't even need dating apps because they can meet their "real love" the old-fashioned way: Falling in love while filming their TV shows or movies!
For Hollywood stars, the set of a movie or television show is a breeding ground for romance. Whether it’s rehearsing their lines or acting out their scenes, celebrities spend a lot of time on set. This makes it the ideal place to develop closer relationships with their co-stars. For example, Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried fell in love with the set of "Mamma Mia!" in 2008. Or the "High School Musical" stars, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were a real couple in real life.
However, there are also a lot of celebrity couples who have hooked up on sets that you have never noticed before. So here's a random list of 18 of them to start with. Though they are no longer together, these couples sent fan hearts aflutter when they gave into their undeniable chemistry, proving soulmates really can find each other.
#1 Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper
Source: Universal Pictures
Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried went from co-stars to lovers and then back to co-stars. They met on the set of "Mamma Mia!" (2008) and continued to date off and on for about four years. Then, seven years later, the exes join forces again on screen in the 2018 sequel "Mamma Mia!" Despite the awkwardness of returning to the role of two characters who are still in love, Cooper says they got through it all right. “She’s a friend,” he said of Seyfried. “It was always going to be OK. You just have to be delicate with those situations.”
#2 Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire
Source: WireImage
The Spidey on/offscreen romance that started it all was between Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, who starred in the "Spider-Man" trilogy that began in 2002. The director Sam Raimi told The Sydney Herald in 2007 that Maguire and Dunst "broke up before the second movie," 2004's "Spider-Man 2". Luckily, the movie won't be affected by that. "I was concerned they wouldn't get the same chemistry back, but it was just me worrying," the director said. "They really like each other, I think, very much. And that relationship probably just added to their ability to trust each other."
Source: Allstar Picture Library Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo
Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, her co-star in the 2006 comedy "The Break-Up", dated shortly after she and Brad Pitt split up. Although they were only romantically together for approximately a year, it appears that they still hold each other in very high regard. Speaking to Playboy in 2015, Vaughn said that while Aniston was "great," he wasn't as big of a fan of the paparazzi attention involved in dating a super-famous woman who was just out of one of the tabloids' favorite relationships.
#4 Cameron Diaz and Matt Dillon
Source: Shutterstock
Before they started working together, Matt Dillon and Cameron Diaz were already dating. They first met in 1995, began dating in 1996, and starred opposite one another in the gross-out comedy "There's Something About Mary" in 1998. But they split up shortly after it hit cinemas. Distance, according to Dillon, was a reason. "Look, I loved her and we were very close, but it just ran its course," he told Rolling Stone. "We're both actors, she was living in L.A., and I was living in New York, and I didn't want to commit to moving out there. But I don't want to say it was about any of those things. It just ran its course."
#5 Alexis Bledel and Milo Ventimiglia
Source: Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Were you a fan of Team Jess Gilmore Girls? Then surely you were also invested in the real-life relationship between Milo Ventimiglia and Alexis Bledel. The costars dated for several years, beginning in 2002. The women dated for several years, starting in 2002. They kept things pretty private for the most part, but in 2005, Bledel confirmed to People that at one point they had an idea of getting married. By the middle of 2006, however, they were done.
#6 Rebecca De Mornay and Tom Cruise
Source: Allstar Picture Library Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo
In actor Curtis Armstrong's memoir "Revenge of the Nerd", he claimed that Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay enjoyed a steamy affair while filming the 1983 film "Risky Business". Although both actors involved in this alleged relationship have never publicly commented on their relationship, strange things have certainly happened.
#7 Penélope Cruz and Tom Cruise
Source: Shutterstock
Penélope Cruz and Tom Cruise's connection from the movie Vanilla Sky was much more widely known. Although Cruise told The Telegraph that their professional relationship didn't turn amorous until after the movie was finished and Cruise had divorced Nicole Kidman, it undoubtedly raised interest in the project. In 2004, the couple split up after dating for over three years.
#8 Freida Pinto and Dev Patel
Source: Shutterstock
Freida Pinto and Dev Patel became well-known across the world as a result of "Slumdog Millionaire"'s enormous success in 2008. Fortunately, Freida Pinto and Dev Patel had each other to lean on throughout the process. Their director, Danny Boyle, told the Associated Press he was "the last to know" that the co-stars fell in love during filming. Their relationship lasted six years before breaking up in 2014
Source: Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Although Joey Potter chose Pacey Witter over Dawson Leery in the "Dawson's Creek" series finale, Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson's real-life affair began—and ended—much earlier. In an interview when Dawson's was still the biggest adolescent program on TV, Holmes said that Jackson was her "first love." "I feel so fortunate because he's now one of my best friends," the star continued. "It's weird, it's almost like a Dawson-and-Joey type thing now."
#10 Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey
Source: Shutterstock
If you missed Matthew McConaughey's 1996 affair with "A Time to Kill" co-star Sandra Bullock, it could be because they kept their date secret. In fact, Bullock didn't even admit that they were colleagues until 2003 in an interview with Cosmopolitan. "There's a great amount of respect and love," she said when asked how they stayed friends after splitting. "I feel very cared for by Matthew."
#11 Penélope Cruz and Matthew McConaughey
Source: Allstar Picture Library Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo
Penélope Cruz and Matthew McConaughey began dating after their split from Penélope Bullock on the "Sahara" set in 2005. Their relationship only lasted for a year, but soon after, both would soon start seeing their future (and current) spouses: Camila Alves for McConaughey and Javier Bardem for Cruz.
#12 Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody
Source: Allstar Picture Library Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo
"The O.C." Summer Roberts and Seth Cohen were unquestionably one of the most adored TV couples of the 2000s, and their on-screen connection carried over into their real lives. Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody dated from 2003 to 2006. As late as 2020, they were still aware of how much their fans loved seeing them together. According to People, responding to an Instagram post by InStyle magazine of some of their cutest moments, Bilson commented, "IM SORRY!!!! He fared really well!" While reportedly splitting from Bill Hader also in 2020, Brody is married to a teen TV idol, "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester.
#13 Leighton Meester and Sebastian Stan
Source: Allstar Picture Library Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo
Blake Lively and Penn Badgley aren't the only real-life couple to come out of "Gossip Girl". Leighton Meester and Sebastian Stan also took their love story off-set. They dated for two years in the late 2000s, and sources say it was Meester who initiated the breakup.
Source: Warner Bros. Television Distribution
It wasn't a well-reviewed movie or a lasting relationship, but "Valentine's Day" couple Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner were a couple for a sweet few months in 2009. There's a theory for that her 2011 hit "Back to December" may be about their split.
#15 Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron
Source: Shutterstock
You probably don't remember, but for several years, Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were the
Disney Channel's prom king and queen. Unfortunately, the "High School Musical" co-stars who were dating from 2005 to 2010 don't seem to be in touch anymore, not even as friends.
#16 Zoe Saldana and Bradley Cooper
Source: Shutterstock
You may know that Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana are co-stars in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, but you may not know that they previously collaborated on a movie where she wasn't green and he wasn't a raccoon. The actors had a romance with each other by the time they co-starred in the 2012 mystery film "The Words". According to Us Weekly, they broke up for good at the end of that year. Fortunately, their past didn't preclude their future team-up in the MCU movie.
#17 Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum
Source: The Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
Although neither Channing Tatum nor Amanda Bynes officially stated that they were dating while filming their 2006 romantic comedy "She's the Man", there were paparazzi photos of the two sharing a kiss, which sparked dating speculations. And Tatum is still grateful to his co-star for championing him for what would be a breakout role. "She definitely helped," Tatum told Sky News in 2018. "Man, I thank her every day."
#18 Liv Tyler and Joaquin Phoenix
Source: MediaPunch Inc/Alamy Stock Photo
Liv Tyler and Joaquin Phoenix starred together in the 1997 melodrama "Inventing the Abbotts", and they also took the romance off-screen. "I fell in love the moment I saw him," Tyler told The Morning Call in 1997, also explaining that they took care to keep their relationship a secret on set. Though the actors broke up after three years together, they've remained close in the ensuing years. In 2015, Tyler told Elle that Phoenix was "like family."