We put this in the links yesterday, but it’s such a weird little story that I wanted to write about it. You People is a Netflix movie starring Jonah Hill and Lauren London. It’s basically a current version of Guess Who and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner that adds an interfaith aspect along with the interracial one. I enjoyed the movie; I typically like Kenya Barris’s projects. There was a lot of online chatter about whether Jonah Hill and Lauren London made a believable couple, especially physically. And hilarously, it turns out they didn’t even kiss for the movie. That important kiss was CGI.
You People ends with a romantic moment between leads Jonah Hill and Lauren London, but one member of the Netflix movie’s team claims it was never actually filmed.
During a conversation on the latest episode of podcast The Brilliant Idiots, co-hosts Charlamagne Tha God and Andrew Schulz discussed director Kenya Barris’ film, which centers on an interracial and interfaith couple, Ezra Cohen (Hill) and Amira Mohammed (London), dealing with their families’ complicated reactions to the relationship. Schulz plays Ezra’s cousin Avi in You People, which was released last month and also stars Eddie Murphy, Nia Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny.
After podcast guest Nyla Symone mentioned agreeing with recent social media commentary suggesting that Hill and London don’t make a believable couple, Schulz stated that the stars never actually filmed Ezra and Amira’s wedding-altar kiss, which takes place about a minute before the end credits start rolling. According to Schulz, their nuptials lip-lock, which is seen in a medium shot but is partially obscured by falling flower petals, was achieved in postproduction by CGI wizardry.
“There’s a hilarious thing — I don’t even know if I should share this shit — but the final scene, they don’t even kiss,” Schulz said. “It’s CGI. Swear to God.”
After Charlamagne Tha God expressed his incredulity, Schulz continued, “I’m there — I’m watching the wedding — and I see them go in for the kiss, and their faces stop like this far. And I’m like, ‘I wonder how they’re gonna play that in the movie. Oh, they’re probably just gonna cut right there.’ But the movie, you could see their faces come close, and then you could see their faces morph a little bit into a fake kiss.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Netflix for comment.
So the fact that they didn’t kiss was confirmed when one of Jonah’s character’s nameless dirtbag friends appeared on Charlamagne Tha Gross — sorry, Tha God’s show. Apparently, the couple gets close enough to kiss and CGI takes over. I’ll admit — I didn’t notice! But I also don’t think they kissed at another point in the movie, it cuts away. So why didn’t they kiss?! Did Kenya not want them to kiss? Did the actors not want to kiss? Lauren London even said to Harper’s Bazaar that she knew they didn’t make a believable couple. I actually thought they did, simply because I see so many beautiful women with some schlubby, furry-looking dudes. (Not that I think Jonah Hill is terrible, but this is very much a King of Queens scenario.) But Lauren also says they got along well so it’s not like they hated each other and couldn’t deign to kiss. So what was it?! Someone tweeted that she kissed Michael B. Jordan in a recent movie so it’s not like Lauren doesn’t kiss on-screen, to which I say, who among us wouldn’t kiss MBJ if given the opportunity? Hm. Maybe someone had a toothache or a cold. Maybe we’ll never know. This does kind of remind me of how Jet Li and Aaliyah just hugged at the end of Romeo Must Die because the interracial kiss didn’t test well at screenings, but that was like 22 years ago.
Mind you she played MBJ’s wife in the 2021 movie“without remorse” in which they kissed onscreen so I’m confused as to why she didn’t kiss Jonah here though? https://t.co/Q5Y7ltT3wv
— 𝓟hoebe༯ (@phebesboateng03) February 5, 2023
Photos credit: Parrish Lewis and Tyler Adams/Netflix © 2023
This should be good news for actors who don’t care for filming intimate scenes and kissing any co-star they have.
Agreed! I feel silly for not having thought of it before. I hope it empowers people to ask for the option/give the option when filming.
We are STILL in a PANDEMIC with WAY TOO MUCH SHODDY TESTING and a virus that is CONSTANTLY MUTATING to out run the testing.
PERIOD!!!
I think that’s fine if they didnt wanna kiss. We can portray love many other ways and have people imagine the rest, that’s fine and cgi is fine too. Im here to say it was a believable couple. What are they talking about?
I watched it last weekend and found it to be a really sweet movie. I thought they were a realistic couple, but the writing was more the issue.
This is kind of disturbing to me. Yes, COVID still lives everywhere, but the reason why the film and TV industry stayed alive during the pandemic is because of insanely rigorous testing and vaccine mandates. Leads were not getting other leads sick. It was background players who’d come in for a day and start spreading the virus. But then steps were in place to make sure anyone in contact with that person was isolated and tested, etc. so “germs” is not the reason here. More like they wanted to end on a Sixteen Candles note, and it tested as too cautious and very racist, opposite of what the movie was trying to do. So they “fixed” it. But the fix kind of makes it worse. Disturbing all around.
I think disturbing might be a little bit strong of a word.
I don’t know what it is about the concept of this movie that makes me cringe but feedback is pretty polar opposite. Either people liked it and said it was funny or people hated it and said it was wack. 🤷🏾♀️ My husband wants to watch it. I don’t.
yea i totally understand. having watched it, it was meh… i wouldn’t really recommend to anyone. jonah and lauren honestly had more of a best friends chemistry than lovers/couple . i understand love comes in many ways and couples don’t have to kiss to sell romantic love, but for me the chemistry just fell short. and think it’s good to explore race, family , relationships and love…the movie felt very one note to me and dated. it showed interracial couples as just sitting around talking about race all the time…jonah’s character talks to his friend about it, the couple talks about it, their family talks about it…it just felt very forced and full of stereotypes.
If one of them had tested positive for Covid but production had a hard deadline, they would have (or should have) CGIed more than they did. Covid is airborne – stopping inches away from each other’s faces so they don’t swap saliva would do nothing to protect anyone.
I don’t think London has the clout to refuse on the basis his beard is too gross. Someone will probably spill more about this soon.
I found Lauren so stunning and charismatic – it was very easy to watch her onscreen. Jonah…was Jonah. Meh. I wanted to cut his hair the entire time – the styling made him look like he was doing a back comb over or something. He looks way older than his actual age of 40 onscreen IMO and looked 20 years older than London who is 38 IRL. Lauren made the movie for me and I enjoyed Sam Jay and David Duchovny too. It’s not something I’d want to watch again though.
I wanted just one friggin’ scene of the two of them in love. But nope. It was the awkward family scenes interspersed with them bickering as a couple. The film was all message and no love story.
Why do people need them to provide a reason they didn’t want to kiss? Why would there be any more “tea” than “they didn’t want to kiss, so they didn’t?”
Isn’t this consent 101?
Maybe it was him? Everyone keeps asking why she wouldn’t do the kiss, but I think he is so egotistical that he might say “nah”. Like he thinks he’s such a big star, he can skip the kiss.
He’s also been really upfront with mental health issues the last couple years, so who knows. I would say he definitely has the clout to say no to filming these scenes if they cause his anxiety to skyrocket.
I would hope all female leads would be able to say this too, but in this specific situation he’s obviously more well known.
I came here to say the same thing. Maybe he didn’t want the kiss? Neal McDonough famously doesn’t do any kiss or romance scenes with costars out of respect for his wife. Jonah got engaged last year, maybe he has similar views.
I wasn’t interested in watching it but Mr R was. It was full of those moments that give you such empathetic embarrassment that you have to look at something else or leave the room for a few minutes. They were cute together though. I don’t care if they kissed or not. I certainly didn’t notice anything odd about it. In fact, I liked that most (all?) of the sexual intimacy was expressed through showing feet together instead of naked bodies.
Lol I was wondering if the director had a thing for feet.
We watched the movie and they didn’t have much chemistry as a new couple, they seemed more like a couple that’s been together a long time.
I honestly can’t remember if we laughed once, it was so cringey, like when something important got set on fire. Is that really supposed to be funny? Idk.
I did have to google Eddie Murphy’s age bc he hasn’t changed at all.
The writing was so so bad. I had to turn it off after 20 minutes.
Maybe one of them had a cold sore or strep throat. It happens.
Haven’t seen this movie but she is gorgeous. I find Jonah Hill’s acting so annoying and meh so don’t know if I’ll watch it. I used to have some sympathy for him and his body issues but I was reading about him and apparently he’s basically another nepo baby from a super wealthy, connected Los Angeles family (his sister is beanie Feldstein the Broadway star which I didn’t realize) so I kinda of lost some sympathy for him since it sounds like he didn’t have to actually work or have talent to get his career which now makes since.
I loved Jonah in Stutz, which was a much better movie. I liked everyone in the film (maybe not Jonah’s annoying mother) and the meeting with Jonah, Eddie Murphy and Nia Long in the restaurant was wonderfully awkward. The best scene in the movie, I think.
i’d also add that the dude that disclosed this is a comedian who feels it’s their job to stir up controversial attention (esp cancel culture). I think that if folks don’t want to kiss, just if they don’t want to do stunts, then yea sure do CGI. Who cares. Actually, i think this is GREAT regarding people’s body choices, which is right up jonah hill’s alley. I guess it frustrates me when “comedians” who only want clicks based on their “views” get this attention. That’s a convoluted way to say A. Sch*Itz sucks
COVID?
Why do I have to see these obscene images as ads on this page? I’m talking science experiments gone wrong?
This is inappropriate
Curious what ads you are seeing. All I see on this page are Amazon prime, fire tablets, Food City, WGU, Adobe and Travis Matthew.
Same! I’ve reported them all and now they keep coming up on other pages I visit. Nightmarish stuff…sorry, not trying to threadjack but it’s been intense for sure!