A kiss to remember. Drew Barrymore reunited with the Never Been Kissed cast on The Drew Barrymore Show more than 22 years after the movie’s release, and Michael Vartan revealed their kissing scene was one to remember for a very different reason behind-the-scenes.
The 1999 film followed Josie (Barrymore), an investigative journalist who went undercover at the local high school. At age 25, the former high school nerd had never been kissed before, and when sparks started flying with the English teacher (Vartan) who believed she was a student, things got complicated. Eventually, he learned that she was not a teenager, and the movie ends with them sharing an epic kiss on the baseball field.
After a clip of the kiss aired on the show’s Tuesday, September 13, episode, Vartan, 52, and Barrymore, 46, were both glassy-eyed.
“I’ve got to say, I haven’t seen that clip in years and standing there I got emotional,” the Alias alum said. “This movie has been a huge part of my life. Every time I am stopped, it’s always Never Been Kissed. That’s a pretty amazing thing to be a part of and this reunion is just wonderful.”
The Flower Beauty founder — who also had cast members David Arquette and Molly Shannon on stage — asked her former costar about his favorite memory from the 1999 movie, and even Barrymore didn’t know about his “embarrassing” story.
“There’s a story about the famous scene that very few people know about,” Vartan teased, adding that he wasn’t so sure about telling the anecdote.
“I get up to the mound, we embrace and we start kissing, and you really kissed me. I mean you really kissed me,” he told Barrymore. “I was not ready for it in the least and I am a man. I was a very young man back then, and I had feelings.”
The Monster-in-Law actor was flustered as he hinted at his physical reaction.
“The feelings were — they just happened — and I very quickly realized I was in a very bad spot because I was wearing very loose, like, slacks, and I thought, ‘This is going to be a disaster when they cut, I must preemptively end this,'” Vartan continued
While his character, Sam Coulson, was smooth, Vartan says he wasn’t quite as suave.
“In a panic, I just yelled cut, and bent over and said, ‘Oh guys, sorry my back, I put my back out playing ball,'” he recalled.
Barrymore grinned and looked very pleased with herself while Vartan revealed that he “went off into a corner” and began “thinking horrible thoughts, like, you know, ‘dead puppies, dead puppies.'”
The Arrangement alum was able to calm himself after the “very embarrassing” incident. “Luckily the subsequent scenes went on without a hitch,” he said.
With a laugh, he added, “You are a very good kisser.”
The former child star explained that she absolutely gave that kiss her all because she and Vartan were both single.
“You weren’t married at the time, so yeah, I went for it because you were single and I felt like I wasn’t going to offend anybody,” Barrymore explained.
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Vartan was married to Lauren Skaar from 2011 to 2014 while Barrymore split from her third husband, Will Kopelman, after three years of marriage in 2015.
Scroll down for photos from the Never Been Kissed reunion:
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