The smooch happened more than two decades ago.
Marcia Gay Harden isn't shy about her best on-screen kiss. While speaking with ET's Kevin Frazier, the 63-year-old actress is quick to recall her favorite movie kiss.
"Ed Harris in Pollock. Bar none," Harden says of her co-star in the 2000 flick. While Harden notes that she "loves" and "worships" Harris' real-life wife, Amy Madigan, she recalls wishing the scene of their smooch wouldn't end.
"I was like, 'Please don't say cut, Ed, please,'" Harden recalls of Harris, who also directed the film. "[Then he said], 'Cut,' [and I was like], 'OK.'"
Harris is far from Harden's only on-screen kiss. In fact, Margaret, her character on So Help Me Todd, is gearing up to lock lips with someone new.
"Margaret has this wonderful man played by Jeff Nordling... He comes in and he's trying to date her. She's so sort of resistant, and then all of a sudden, they have that beautiful kiss," she adds. "I think it will awaken something in her that we haven't seen yet, although I don't think she's going to want to be any less controlling."
Aside from Margaret's budding romance, the attorney is adjusting to letting her adult son, Todd, who's played by Skylar Astin, grow into his own person. It's something Harden has experience with as a "hands-on" mom to three: Hudson, 19, Julitta, 19, and Eulala, 24.
"I think that's one of the hardest journeys for parents to do. Let me step back and let you be who you are and just trust that you're going to be OK," Harden says. "They're not nice during this moment. They will not be nice... You have to go, 'OK. I love you anyway. I'll be there for you anyway. I will love you to the end of time.' But it's tough."
Amid that "tough journey," though, Harden's kids end up teaching her about life.
"You want them to pass the torch down to you. My kids teach me all about gender. My son teaches me all about LGBTQ+. My youngest daughter is teaching me all about art in London and history," she says of her children, whom she recently revealed are all queer. "They're teaching me and that's what I think is important for me... I'm always going to be a student and I can learn from anybody."
Meanwhile, Harden says she has "so much fun" working with Astin, her on-screen son. In fact, she's looking forward to doing so again, as So Help Me Todd has already been renewed for season 2.
"He comes from the theater world. I come from the theater world. They're writing this pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter banter, and we just jump into it and do it. Sometimes it's hard, because there's a lot of lines you've got to really get in there," she says. "... We just do this beautiful stuff that is well written for us... The banter and the tension, the banter, the tension, just bickering, that is really out of love."
The season 1 finale of So Help Me Todd airs May 18 on CBS. Tune in to Thursday's episode of Entertainment Tonight for more of ET's interview with Harden.
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