Glen Powell said it was 'very easy' to fall in love with his 'Anyone But You' co-star onscreen, talked about their 'great chemistry.'
Glen Powell plays pretend for a living. And sometimes, as an actor, that means pretending to fall in love. Enter Sydney Sweeney, whom he shared such good chemistry on Anyone But You that the line between fiction and reality was blurry.
ET was behind the scenes in Australia for the Will Gluck-directed film, and the 35-year-old actor shared the perfect recipe to churning out a classic rom-com. Yes, a perfect cast serves as one of the main ingredients, but protagonists have to complement each other, and Powell learned that from the get-go with his 26-year-old co-star.
"A great rom-com doesn't survive without great chemistry, and Sydney is the easiest person to have chemistry with," Powell tells ET. "I mean, immediately, it was like we'd known each other forever, and I think anybody that's been on the set realizes I never get tired of talking to Sydney. We make each other laugh. She's awesome, obviously one of the most talented actresses we have. This movie has felt like a rom-com in itself because Sydney is very easy to pretend fall in love with."
Anyone But You, in theaters Dec. 22, is described as a modernized adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and follows two former rivals (played by Sweeney and Powell) who hate each other but have to pretend to be a couple, until an eventual romance sparks between them.
Amid filming the project all over Australia, rumors began swirling about a romance between the co-stars, which was later compounded after Powell's model-designer girlfriend, Gigi Paris, called it quits after three years of dating amid Powell and Sweeney's press tour for the film.
In fact, Powell and Sweeney were later photographed giving each other doting looks on the red carpet, which only intensified the romance rumors. But in a recent Men's Health profile on the Top Gun: Maverick star, writer Lauren Larson deduced that Powell's "default facial expression seems to be simply 'I love you,'" and that "Sweeney, too, suffers from resting baby-bunny face," which would explain the adoring looks.
Powell and Sweeney have since addressed the rumors in separate interviews. Sweeney told Variety she "felt beat up by" the rumors, especially when she wasn't able to stand up for herself. Similarly, Powell told Men's Health that the rumors were "disorienting and unfair."
But Powell tells ET that working abroad -- coupled with excursions they embarked on when they weren't filming -- made things a bit, well, challenging, to say the least.
"The wild part about being in a rom-com, all the ideas of love are swirling through your head while these big romantic moments are happening," he said. "So, sometimes [it's] harder to differentiate between real life and fake life."
Sweeney, who is engaged to Jonathan Davino, said she hopes fans can see exactly that -- how much fun they enjoyed working on this project.
"It's special because you actually get to see the amount of fun that we all had making it," she tells ET. "We truly had an amazing experience together, and I really hope that that comes off and everyone can feel that; that love and friendship that was made on this film."
Anyone But You hits theaters Dec. 22.
RELATED CONTENT:
