Co-Stars Who Never Met While Shooting A Movie

There's a lot of magic that goes into the art of making movies, but it's rare that all the performers in a movie don't meet before cameras start rolling. Nevertheless, things get complicated on big-budget sets, especially when you factor in COVID-19 restrictions, reshoots, and actors who refuse to work with each other. 

With all that in mind, it's not uncommon that some co-stars aren't always on set at the same time during production. A lot of times, pivotal characters never meet in movies, meaning the only opportunities that actors get to interact would be at the table read or during the film's promotional period. Take, for instance, Tom Holland and Tom Hiddleston, whose characters never interact in "Avengers: Infinity War," despite the actors frequently appearing in interviews together. 

Surprisingly, for these 12 films we're about to cover, not only was there limited contact between co-stars at times, but some actors never ended up meeting until years after the films were completed and released to the public. Whether it be the nature of voice-over work preventing most artists from interacting with anybody but the director, or production demands that forced actors to perform next to tennis balls on green screens, there are a number of reasons that the following co-stars never met while shooting a movie. 

One of the most surprising anecdotes about the original "Star Wars" trilogy is that Carrie Fisher, the iconic actress who portrayed Leia Organa, never met James Earl Jones, the instantly recognizable voice of Darth Vader. Of course, Jones never appeared on set in the "Star Wars" franchise, only lending his voice to Vader in post-production, while actor David Prowse donned the iconic pitch-black armor for the actual films. Still, it's surprising that out of all the cast members in "Star Wars," Jones never met Fisher, even though he had met Mark Hamill. 

Surprisingly, Jones met his fellow "Star Wars" legend on the set of "The Big Bang Theory," during the season 7 episode "The Convention Conundrum," where Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) meets Jones in a sushi restaurant and has a mischievous day of fun with the Darth Vader actor. As part of Jones' idea of fun, he and Cooper ding-dong-ditch Carrie Fisher's house, meaning the two actors finally got to be on the set for the same day. As executive producer Steve Molar told IGN, "As they were approaching each other, Carrie said, 'Dad!'"

Of course, the scene from "The Big Bang Theory" is bittersweet now that both Fisher and Jones have sadly passed away. However, it's heartwarming that the two finally got to meet, even if it took Sheldon Cooper, of all people, to make it happen after 37 years. 

"The Truman Show" is mostly a showcase of Jim Carrey's acting talent, playing the titular man who discovers that his entire life is orchestrated and filmed for a television show created by Christof (Ed Harris), an enigmatic executive producer who controls every aspect of Truman's day-to-day life. Notably, Christof and Truman never interact face-to-face in the movie, save for the film's ending, in which Christof's disembodied voice communicates with Truman to somehow convince him to abandon his escape into the real world. 

The film went through a lot of changes during pre-production, including almost having a very different star and director. By the time shooting began with Carrey as the lead, the role of Christof was cast to be played by Dennis Hopper, who was only on set for two days before getting fired. As Hopper told Sabotage Times, "Scott Rudin, the producer, had made an agreement with the director [Peter Weir] that...  if he didn't like what I did after the first day's dailies then he would fire me. And they fired me."

The role ended up going to Ed Harris, though filming for Christof's scenes only took about 10 days towards the end of principal photography. Harris was even hired quickly, having lived near the set at the time and agreeing over a weekend to start shooting. By then, Carrey had already wrapped. 

Although there was clearly a valid reason for James Earl Jones to not be present on set of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, the prequels released between 1999 and 2005 were notorious for being disjointed and stiff as a result of actors rarely getting to film simultaneously with their co-stars. That was certainly the experience of Hugh Quarshie, the British actor who was cast in "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" as Captain Quarsh Panaka, the chief of security for Natalie Portman's Queen Padmé Amidala. 

At the time of shooting, Portman and co-star Liam Neeson were in high demand as actors, forcing parts of "The Phantom Menace" to be filmed without them present on set. As Quarshie told Star Wars Insider (via SlashFilm), "[T]hey stuck a cross on a pole to represent Liam, who is six inches taller than me, and another, lower one to represent Natalie, and I was filmed talking to a couple of crosses on two sticks!"

Sadly, Quarshie didn't end up reprising his role in "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones," even though a bold ad-lib made Captain Panaka part of "Star Wars" history. After he was denied the opportunity to read the full script for the follow-up, Quarshie dropped out of the project, and Panaka was written out of the film, meaning Quarshie would never end up having the opportunity to act on-set with Portman. 

It's quite common for animated films to feature voice actors who never get to interact while recording their lines for the film. Nevertheless, a film like "Shrek" went through a lot of changes in the lead-up to its release in 2001. Among those changes included entire recastings, as Chris Farley was previously slated to star as the titular ogre before his passing. Farley's "Saturday Night Live" co-star Mike Myers took over the role, and even demanded to re-record his own lines, after deciding he wanted his performance as Shrek to be with a Scottish accent, which got the full support of producer Steven Spielberg. 

Eddie Murphy had always been the voice of Donkey, even back when Farley was voicing the character, though Cameron Diaz was also hired after Farley passed. Back then, the role of Princess Fiona was going to be played by Janeane Garofalo, who was fired for unknown reasons. John Lithgow, who voiced Lord Farquaad, attested that he only ever acted opposite writer Conrad Vernon, saying (via GQ), "I never acted with Eddie Murphy or Mike Myers or Cameron Diaz ... he did such a great job as the gingerbread man that he became the voice." 

Obviously, the trio of Myers, Murphy, and Diaz eventually met at the premiere of "Shrek," and would go on to reprise their roles in the film's numerous sequels. Lithgow, on the other hand, only ever acted in the first "Shrek." 

Despite being directed by the innovative Steven Spielberg, there was no movie magic making it look like Sally Field and Daniel Day-Lewis were on screen together in 2012's Oscar-winning biopic "Lincoln." The two actors were on set together the entire time, only Field claims she never met Day-Lewis due to the actor's notorious method acting. Day-Lewis himself almost didn't play the role until Liam Neeson dropped out following a table read, and by that time, Field had already been cast as Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd. 

Day-Lewis' method acting as Lincoln forced the actor to stay in character throughout the entire shoot, as Field later told Backstage, "I met him as Mr. Lincoln. He met me as his Molly, as he called her. And that's how we knew each other. And we began a relationship. He began it, not me. After I got the role, there were seven months before we began to shoot and he would text me all the time, in character."

While Day-Lewis never exactly met Field as himself throughout filming, she described him as a generous and thoughtful scene partner, even though, for the most part, they lived on opposite sides of the world. Say what you will about Day-Lewis' methods, but he did win a record-breaking third Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the former president. 

James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy is all about chosen family, camaraderie, and teamwork. With that in mind, it was surprising to find out after the first film released in 2014 that two of the cast members had never met each other throughout the process of filming. That being said, those two cast members were Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, who voice Rocket Raccoon and Groot, respectively, the two primary CGI characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film.

While Gunn's brother Sean was the stand-in for Rocket Raccoon on set, Cooper lent his voice as well as motion capture of his face to perfect the memorable character. Diesel was also never present on set, though did also voice Groot for translations of the film in other languages, and offered reference videos of his movement for Groot's animators (though his appearances on stilts seem to have been a goof).

It wasn't until the team was assembled for an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in 2014 that Cooper and Diesel met each other, as well as the other actors, although Zoe Saldaña and Diesel had known each other for years prior to "Guardians of the Galaxy." Still, considering how close the characters of Groot and Rocket are, the fact that Diesel and Cooper never interacted while filming is a testament to their skills as voiceover artists.  

In reality, Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I never met in person, only communicating via written correspondence. However, their hypothetical meeting is dramatized in the 2018 film "Mary, Queen of Scots," which stars Saoirse Ronan as the titular first cousin of Elizabeth, played by Margot Robbie. In the film, the two characters are completely separate until finally meeting in the third act, as an exiled Mary asks for Elizabeth's help in taking back her throne, which Elizabeth refuses. 

Wanting to preserve this special moment where the two characters meet for the first time, Ronan and Robbie never interacted during filming. All of Robbie's scenes were shot first in England, totaling about three weeks of production, while Ronan's scenes were shot afterwards. The two actresses never met until right at the end of Robbie's shoot for their climactic characters' meeting, as Ronan told The Hollywood Reporter, "It was a personal high because we were kept apart from the very beginning ... It made the scene we had together even more powerful."

Even though their meeting was prolonged in order to keep the scene feeling genuine, it wouldn't be the last film the two actresses were both in. Both appeared in Wes Anderson's "Asteroid City," though their characters never meet in that film, either. 

For years, fans of the Internet clamored for the "Snyder Cut" of 2017's "Justice League," after the director departed from the project mid-production and was replaced by Joss Whedon. In a highly out-of-character move for Warner Bros., the company relented during the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed Snyder to not only release his version of the film but to go back and reshoot select scenes for an exclusive release on HBO Max. 

Given the COVID-19 protocols during filming, Snyder was forced to shoot some of these additional elements separately, including directing Ezra Miller over Zoom. New scenes included Amber Heard reprising her role as Mira from "Aquaman," as well as Jared Leto appearing for a final time as the Joker, in a scene where he gets to share the screen with Ben Affleck's Batman. The only thing is, Affleck and Leto were never on set at the same time. 

According to producer Deborah Snyder, a limited crew shot both sides of the scene separately to accommodate the actors' busy schedules, telling Business Insider, "Zack always felt the ultimate for him was to see Batman and Joker together in a scene ... It was something we thought about while working on the movie but couldn't figure out how it would fit. So when we had this opportunity to do the movie again he said he really wanted to do it." Luckily, they made it work, albeit with a little movie magic. 

2021 was quite a busy year for Zack Snyder, between releasing his version of "Justice League" as well as his original project, "Army of the Dead," starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, and Omari Hardwick. However, this film needed its own reshoots for a much different reason than "Justice League," after co-star Chris D'Elia was hit with sexual misconduct allegations, and Snyder made the bold choice to completely recast the character with another notable stand-up comic: Tig Notaro. 

Over the course of two weeks during the pandemic, Notaro shot her scenes completely alone on a green screen and was digitally inserted into the film using CGI, which had similarly been done in 2017 for Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World," in order to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer. As Notaro later recounted on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "I've never met Dave Bautista in my life, I've never met the man ... but there was a half day when Ana [de la Reguera], one of the actresses, came and she walked me from a stairwell to halfway to my helicopter."

Given that the film was released on Netflix, Bautista and Notaro never got to meet later for promotion or even to do a red carpet premiere, meaning it's possible they still have not met. For Bautista's part, he really wishes he could meet her, given how many scenes they share together in the finished film. 

On the Marvel Cinematic Universe side of things, 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" went through its own difficult production between the COVID-19 pandemic, switching directors, and incorporating elements from the Disney+ series "WandaVision" (or not). In the film, Elizabeth Olsen reprises her role as Wanda Maximoff, who has fully embraced her Scarlet Witch persona and wreaks havoc across the multiverse in search for her missing children, as Benedict Cumberbatch's Stephen Strange teams up with the teenage America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) to stop her.

One memorable sequence in the film sees Strange seek the help of the Illuminati, a braintrust of superheroes on Earth-838, who fail to understand the severity of Wanda's powers. This group includes Patrick Stewart's Professor X, Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter, Anson Mount's Black Bolt, Lashana Lynch's Captain Marvel, and most notably, John Krasinski as Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. The Illuminati end up confronting Olsen's character, who quickly kills each and every one of them. 

However, given all the rewrites and changes going on, this scene forced Olsen to be shot separately from the other actors. Krasinski himself was cast after Daniel Craig dropped out, originally set to play Balder the Brave. As Olsen told CinemaBlend, "I've never met [John Krasinski and Patrick Stewart]. Movie magic!" Hopefully, Krasinski isn't too jealous of Pedro Pascal for getting to play Reed Richards instead of him in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." 

Despite releasing in 2023, most of the rom-com "Love Again" was filmed in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused some technical difficulties for one very integral member of its cast: Céline Dion. It's the first feature acting role for the iconic singer, unless you count a cameo in "Muppets Most Wanted," but due to COVID-19 restrictions, Dion was never actually on set for her scenes with Sam Heughan's Rob, a journalist assigned to write an article about the Canadian legend.

As Heughan told Entertainment Weekly, "We were in our own bubble in the U.K., and Céline was in Canada ...  We got extras and people to read [Dion's] lines. And honestly, Céline is such a professional herself, that's [why] it really worked out." As if that wasn't disappointing enough that the actors never got to meet Dion while filming the movie, Dion was also unable to attend the premiere, though she did contribute some original songs for the soundtrack. 

Sadly, "Love Again" ended up bombing at the box office, but saw some popularity once it hit Netflix later in 2023. Maybe it would've been a more worthwhile experience if Heughan and others actually got to meet Céline Dion in-person. 

Even though "Dune: Part Two" was one of the most anticipated films of 2024, most fans were shocked when Anya Taylor-Joy turned up at the premiere, revealing she had a secretive role in the movie. Despite only appearing on screen for a few seconds, Taylor-Joy plays a very integral character in the "Dune" universe: Alia, the unborn sister of Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides, who appears to Paul during one of his visions, and later becomes a protagonist in Frank Herbert's follow-up novels like "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune."

Taylor-Joy was desperate to be a part of the franchise ever since the first movie was in production, but she was only able to do her bit part in "Dune: Part Two" after director Denis Villeneuve assured the studio it wouldn't be costly in budget or time. As the actress told Variety, "[No] one at the studio knew. My face had been blurred out [in early versions of the film]." 

However, Taylor-Joy asked Villeneuve to tell the cast prior to her crashing the premiere, which is where she finally met Chalamet and the rest of the cast, despite filming all her scenes alone in Namibia with a skeleton crew. With "Dune 3" being fast-tracked by Villeneuve, Taylor-Joy may be spending a lot of time with Chalamet for future films.