14 Breakups That Complicated a Movie or Franchise
There’s a really good chance that Star Wars dies on the vine without Marcia Lucas’ vision.
Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter: ‘Dexter’
The two played brother and sister for a couple of seasons before all that sexual tension boiled over into a real-life romance. They got married for two years before they decided they’re better off as just siblings.
Matt Damon and Minnie Driver: The 1998 Oscars
The Good Will Hunting costars started dating while filming in 1997. But shortly before the 1998 Oscars — they both had individual nominations — Driver found out they had broken up when Damon announced on Oprah’s show that he was single.
Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams: ‘The Notebook’
These two had their big, messy breakup before they ever started dating. The chemistry was so bad, Gosling requested the two shoot their scenes separately, with a different actress standing in for McAdams. Director Nick Cassavetes said it all came to a head in a behind-the-scenes meltdown: “We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other.” They began dating a year after the film came out.
Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett: ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’
It’s mostly rumor, but it sure looks a lot like the two dated on set, then broke up on set, then each released songs about their tumultuous relationship later that year.
Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody: ‘The OC’
The two broke up near the end of the series, which inspired the writers to deliberately torture them a little, making their characters actually get married. According to Bilson, “They totally did that on purpose. That was the only scene left to shoot, was the wedding. They’re like, ‘You broke up? Let’s give you a wedding.’”
Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer: ‘House’
No one really knows what happened, but the costars retracted their engagement after just a few months, with Spencer saying flatly: “After much consideration, we have decided not to get married. We are still very close, and we look forward to continuing to work together on House.” That’s something you say when you are not very close and very much not looking forward to working together.
George and Marcia Lucas: ‘Star Wars’
George Lucas has never won an Oscar for Star Wars, but his wife won Best Editing for 1978’s A New Hope. Cinephiles often note that while George had the dork and business brain needed for such a grand vision, he couldn’t edit for shit. Marcia’s contributions — like the entirety of the Death Star trench run scene — were crucial to the franchise’s early success. The two split in 1983, and Return of the Jedi would be the last installment she worked on.
Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe: ‘Some Like It Hot’
These two dated long before either of them became famous, so when they began filming together in 1958, there was already a decade of bad blood. When asked about their chemistry, Curtis said, “It was like kissing Hitler,” which in those days was broadly understood to be a bad thing.
Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray: ‘One Tree Hill’
Their characters’ relationship bizarrely mirrored their real life relationship. Bush and Murray got married in Season Two, a month before their characters got together for the first time. While the characters were experiencing the turmoil of a new relationship, the actors were experiencing the turmoil of marriage. As the characters were navigating a breakup, Bush and Murray announced the end of their five-month marriage.
Kristen Stewart and Rupert Sanders: ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’
A couple of months after the premiere of Snow White and the Huntsman, news dropped that Stewart had cheated on Robert Pattinson with director Rupert Sanders. The planned sequel was supposed to continue the same story, with Stewart as the lead and Sanders directing, but the scandal caused it to be postponed and reimagined many times over. The Huntsman came out four years later, with Stewart in a diminished role and Sanders nowhere to be seen.
Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse: ‘Riverdale’
They dated on and off for over three years while working together, before breaking up for good. Sprouse has mentioned mutual “damage” they’d done to each other, and explained that “the work thing got difficult because it was hard to suspend all the way we felt about each other and it didn’t afford us the luxury of distance to really overcome that.”
B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling: ‘The Office’
They refused to put labels on their situationship — Novak says, “We were never really dating, we were never really not dating” — which made both the relationship and the breakup complicated. Kaling calls it “weird as hell” and “very challenging to continue working together.”
Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis: ‘Don’t Worry Darling’
Wilde and Jason Sudeikis had a very prolonged, very public split. At its nastiest, Wilde was on stage introducing the trailer for her new movie at Cinemacon when a random audience member got her attention and served her with custody papers. There’s devastating footage of her opening them and realizing what they were. She later said, “In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. Sadly, it was not something that was entirely surprising to me, I mean, there’s a reason I left that relationship.”
Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde: ‘Ted Lasso’
While he was trying to wrap up production on Season Three of Ted Lasso, which was already six months behind schedule, he started making headlines for some bizarre (alleged) behavior around the breakup. The couple’s nanny came forward to report that Sudeikis confronted Wilde about her budding relationship with Harry Styles, eventually lying under her car so she couldn’t go visit him. There was a “special salad dressing” involved; it was a whole thing. Sudeikis and Wilde, for their part, deny the nanny’s story.
