Hollywood has seen quite a few chemistries bloom between co-stars on the screens, some of which resulted in the actors getting married and spending happily ever after together. In contrast, others either couldn’t go past the crushing stage (or ended up disastrously). 

While those whose onscreen chemistry translated into offscreen love are more widely known among fans, those stars who had a crush on their co-stars but never dated couldn’t really earn the same recognition. Thus, here’s a list of 8 actors who had a massive crush on their fellow onscreen partners, but their crush could never transition to a real-life relationship.

1. Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor

Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor in a still from Bridgerton. | Credit: Netflix.

Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor are co-stars and onscreen lovers in their hit Netflix series Bridgerton, but the actor has made no secret of having a “celeb crush” on her. When asked to name a celebrity that he had a crush on, Page’s candid response was (via X),

I’m gonna go with the joy that is Phoebe Dynevor, my Daphne Bridgerton because how could you not be?

For those unversed, while Page plays the role of the Duke of Hastings in the series, Dynevor played Daphne Bridgerton in the Netflix show. Plus, Page also said to Access,

I think everything you need to know is on camera. That’s why we presented it so beautifully for you — all the sparks that flew off of the beautiful scripts that we were handed — and so I think that the sparky scripted material are more than enough.

Unfortunately, their onscreen love couldn’t materialize into a real-time relationship. While Page has been in a relationship with Emily Brown since 2019 (via PEOPLE), Dynevor is currently engaged to the American actor and producer Cameron Fuller.

2. Lana Condor and Noah Centineo

Noah Centineo and Lana Condor in a still from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. | Credit: Netflix.

Lana Condor and Noah Centineo were the ultimate ‘it’ couple in Hollywood after their unparalleled performance as Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film series. 

Turns out, Condor “felt something” for her onscreen love interest while hanging out with him, but the two “kind of made a contract and set boundaries” – presumably to prevent any romantic involvement that could potentially threaten the success of the movies, as she confessed during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (via Insider). She said,

I felt that for the show to do well, we had to be best-friend professionals. [Gladly,] the movie turned out great, and now we’re doing a sequel.

Plus, she also added that they still “had a spark.” In the movie and its sequels, Condor’s character is a romantic high school student whose love letters get sent out to her crushes, one of whom was played by Noah (and trust me, the role stuck, because where else will we find a better Peter Kavinsky?!).

Meanwhile, the two certainly moved on in their respective real-life love lives, with Condor currently married to actor and singer Anthony De La Torre, her longtime boyfriend, and Centineo most recently rumored to be linked to actress Zoë Kravitz (via Harper’s BAZAAR).

3. Cole Sprouse and Jennifer Aniston

Cole Sprouse and Jennifer Aniston in a still from FRIENDS. | Credit: NBC.

One of the most surprising (and unarguably adorable) entries on this list is Cole Sprouse and Jennifer Aniston. Apparently, Sprouse had a childhood crush on Aniston! In fact, his infatuation was so intense that it even made it “quite difficult to work in front of her” when he was hired to play Rachel (Aniston) and Ross’s 8-year-old son, Ben Geller, on FRIENDS.

During his appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, he shared that, while shooting scenes with Aniston,

I would stammer a lot, and I would forget my lines. … I feel like I’d maintain my composure a bit more effectively now, but it was quite difficult when I was a kid.

While that’s that, his affection was even noted by the crew! As Sprouse himself confessed, “I was teased a little bit by the crew, because they saw it. I would just forget and be looking at her. But then, the whole world had a crush on Jennifer Aniston.” Well, that’s for sure!

As of this writing, Sprouse’s partner is reportedly Canadian model Ari Fournier (with whom he has been in a relationship since early 2021), while Aniston is currently head over heels in love with wellness coach and hypnotherapist Jim Curtis.

4. Emma Watson and Tom Felton

Emma Watson and Tom Felton in a still from the Harry Potter film series. | Credit: Warner Bros.

Perhaps one of the most shipped co-stars of all time, the heartbreak of what could have been between Emma Watson and Tom Felton will always sting, especially to all the Potterheads out there. 

In 2011, Watson confided to Seventeen that Felton was her “first crush.” Specifically, she crushed on him during the filming of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the first two films in the Harry Potter film series. Stone said,

He totally knows. We talked about it — we still laugh about it. We are really good friends now, and that’s cool.

Hermione Granger crushing on Draco Malfoy? Who could’ve thought? Then again, their relationship could never come to be in real life, so there’s not much that can be done about this particular much-shipped co-star pair.

Watson was last linked to Kieran Brown, a PhD student at Oxford University (via Elle). At the same time, Felton appears to be in a relationship with singer Roxanne Danya (via the Daily Mail).

5. Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer

David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston in a still from FRIENDS. | Credit: NBC.

Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer certainly made for one of the best onscreen couples of all time with their performance as Rachel and Ross in FRIENDS. However, the truth is that they were actually crushing pretty hard on each other in real life as well, during the filming of the first season of the series.

During Friends: The Reunion, this confession came out (via Entertainment Weekly) when Schwimmer said, “The first season, I had a major crush on Jen,” and Aniston replied with “It was reciprocated.” Schwimmer then went on to explain,

At some point, we were both crushing hard on each other, but it was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship, and we never crossed that boundary. We respected that.

Aniston, on her part, also recalled joking with Schwimmer about it, saying,

[To David] ‘It’s going to be such a bummer if the first time you and I actually kiss is going to be on national television.’ Sure enough, first time we kissed was in that coffee shop. So we just channeled all of our love and adoration for each other into Ross and Rachel.

For all those FRIENDS fans out there, it would have been nothing short of a dream come true to see two of their favorite onscreen pairs get into a relationship in real life as well. But destiny had different plans. While Aniston is currently linked to Curtis, Schwimmer was widely reported to be dating Eliana Jolkovsky, 29, as of late 2025 (via Hello! Magazine).

6. Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks

Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks in a still from the Hunger Games series. | Credit: Starz Entertainment.

Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks reportedly had a crush on each other during the filming of the Hunger Games series. While the former embodied the role of Haymitch Abernathy, Banks was seen playing Effie Trinket.

In 2012, Banks told Parade,

I like to say that Elizabeth Banks has a crush on Woody Harrelson, and Effie has a crush on Haymitch, and Haymitch can’t stand Effie. I don’t know where Woody stands on Elizabeth.

She also called working with Harrelson “a dream.” Then, four years later, Harrelson revealed in a behind-the-scenes video exactly where he stands on his fellow Hunger Games co-star. He said,

I have a crush on Elizabeth Banks, I’m not going to lie. I think she’s a beautiful woman, I think she’s a marvelous actress, and I just love her as a person. She’s as fun as can be.

So yet another mutual crush that couldn’t materialize into a real-time relationship? Ouch. Then again, Harrelson is already married to Laura Louie with three children, while Banks celebrated 22 years of togetherness with her husband, Max Handelman, in 2025 (via Instagram). So that’s that too.

7. Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray

Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray in a still from A Cinderella Story. | Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray set different couple goals with their on-screen portrayal of lovers in A Cinderella Story. Still, it turns out their on-screen love affair translated into something special in real life as well. 

As Duff herself admitted to Cosmopolitan, she was into Murray while filming the flick with her. Sharing her story, she said,

I definitely had a crush on him. We had a few kissing scenes in the movie, and I remember feeling pretty nervous about that, but then we became friends, and I wasn’t so nervous anymore.

In the film, Duff played the role of Sam, the early 2000s Cinderella to Murray’s Prince Charming, who was otherwise known as Austin Ames. By the way, she found her real-life Prince Charming, too, in the face of her husband, singer-songwriter Matthew Koma. Murray, on the other hand, has been married to Sarah Roemer since 2015.

8. Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in a still from Speed. | Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Last but perhaps the best entry on this list is Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. The two were co-stars on their 1994 hit together, Speed, and had been widely shipped by fans worldwide since then. Plus, they even had a crush on each other in real life – except that neither of the two knew about the other’s true feelings.

When Reeves appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2019, he watched a clip of Bullock on the same show a few months earlier, when she discussed having a crush on him while they were filming their movie together. Bullock said while reflecting on Speed (via Entertainment Weekly),

I think about how sweet Keanu Reeves was and how handsome he was.

Apparently, she found him to be so handsome and charming that the actress even had a hard time focusing during the dramatic scenes of the flick. But when the show host asked her if the two had ever dated, Bullock laughed before replying,

Never dated him. There was something about me that I guess he didn’t like.

Well, surprise, surprise to Bullock, because not only did Reeves have mutual feelings toward her, but he even claimed to have been unaware of her feelings in the first place. Reeves said,

She obviously didn’t know I had a crush on her, either.

That certainly would have been something worth watching if Bullock and Reeves actually became a real-time couple. However, the two have transitioned into good friends over the years, with Bullock last romantically linked to Bryan Randall, her longtime partner, who passed away in 2023 due to ALS, and Reeves is currently dating visual artist Alexandra Grant.

What do you think about this story? Would you have wanted all these celebrities to become couples in real life as well? Share your thoughts and opinions with us on this in the comments section below!
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