XO, Kitty’s Anna Cathcart and Anthony Keyvan reveal why kissing scenes can be ‘uncomfortable’

XO, Kitty’s Anna Cathcart and Anthony Keyvan explain why filming kissing scenes in the show can be ‘uncomfortable’.

Video transcript

ANTHONY KEYVAN: It's actually extremely uncomfortable and mechanical. There are a lot of moving parts. And it's the least sexy thing on the planet to be honest.

ANNA CATHCART: Yes, it's definitely not romantic.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: You have to rehearse these things. You have to talk it out.

ANNA CATHCART: It's kind of like a dance, I would say, like choreography to make sure that everyone's on the same page.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: There's an intimacy coordinator, someone who's there to make sure, yeah, everyone's on the same page, everyone knows what they're comfortable with. So it's a very thought out process. And then there's nothing spontaneous or necessarily fun about it. It is very like-- it feels like work. Like, OK, I have to remember to move my head this way.

ANNA CATHCART: I feel, yeah, the dance is the-- the dance is the best way that I kind of framed it in my head to not feel as nervous about it. And I was lucky at least for my scene partners, that they-- we all had each other's back. And they made sure that we were comfortable and stuff. And that helped for sure, to be friends in real life, too, so you knew you could trust them.

But it's definitely-- it's definitely an interesting experience. And I don't think people can picture what that would look like. So it was my first time doing anything like that on screen.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: It's definitely not as magical as what the show makes it seem like.

ANNA CATHCART: Yes.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: Oh, what secrets? Secrets, secrets, secrets are no fun, unless you share with everyone.

ANNA CATHCART: The cast are all-- I don't know if this is a secret, but I still think people might not realize it, that the cast are all, like, besties, and that we hang out all the time.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: Oh, yeah. I feel like we're so used to watching shows and not seeing the cast hang out after. But we were genuinely hanging out. We were with each other 24/7. When we weren't at work, we were hanging out outside of work.

ANNA CATHCART: Again, not a secret, but I do think people wouldn't really expect it, is we never met each other at all until it was like, you are the cast--

ANTHONY KEYVAN: Until we were in Korea.

ANNA CATHCART: And you are in Korea. And we're about to start.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: We all met over Zoom because a lot of us were in quarantine. During COVID, when you fly into the country, they have go into a week quarantine. So I met everyone over Zoom. And then I slowly met everyone at the hotel before we started filming. That's probably it. We didn't know each other.

ANNA CATHCART: We didn't know what to expect at all going into it.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: We had no idea.

ANNA CATHCART: For sure. And it worked out so well.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: And it worked out perfectly.

ANNA CATHCART: We were so lucky.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: It was definitely a big risk. But I think it paid off.

ANNA CATHCART: Yeah, I think about all the time. Like, how did that work out? We were so lucky. Everyone just clicks. OK, well, for her cameo first, that was so much fun. And it was so exciting to work with her. There, parts of the scene got cut, so it was actually longer when we were shooting it.

And I had a whole long speech and would just stare right into Jenny's eyes and perform this whole thing. Then I'm like, you wrote this. This is so crazy. So that was a really, really fun day on set. And it was so cool. I love that she always has a cameo in all of her projects. It's so much fun I think for viewers to look for and see it.

ANTHONY KEYVAN: In the JCU.

ANNA CATHCART: In the big JCU, in the Jenny Han Cinematic Universe, yes. Yeah, I love that cameo.