Anna Kendrick Just Got Real About What It Was Like Kissing Blake Lively

Anna Kendrick is opening up about kissing Blake Lively for her new movie A Simple Favor. In the film, Kendrick plays a mom and a vlogger who develops a deep friendship with a woman named Emily (Lively). Without revealing too much about the movie, just know the two main characters share a kiss, and Kendrick is letting the world know how she feels about it. Anna Kendrick’s comments about kissing Blake Lively are actually really enlightening.

While Kendrick’s character Stephanie is seemingly straight, Kendrick says Lively’s character Emily is “very comfortable with the fluid aspects of her sexuality.” And it’s that sexual fluidity that leads them to kiss at a pivotal moment in the film.

During an interview with PrideSource, Kendrick explained that despite the intrigue surrounding her kissing scene with Lively, it was really all about having fresh breath. “All I’m ever thinking about in kissing scenes is, who has gum? Who has a mint?” Kendrick told PrideSource. “And I think Blake is probably the same because I’ve never experienced a guy, like, searching for a mint and searching for gum. So, we were the mintiest, freshest two people to have ever kissed in the history of America… Call Guinness.”

Sounds like Kendrick had a blast on set with Lively. But even so, she says, Kendrick and Lively did take their character study very seriously. They considered all the possible outcomes of the scene and workshopped the best way to go about the kiss. Kendrick actually spoke at length about how they handled the scene. Here’s how she explained it:

I remember Blake and I both feeling like neither of us wanted to be the aggressor in the scene. Blake was worried that she would come off as taking advantage of me in that scene because I’m in a very vulnerable place, and I was worried that I would come off like I wanted so much more, and that Blake is just kind of playing and Emily is very comfortable with the fluid aspects of her sexuality, whereas Stephanie has more of an emotional component to it. So, I was worried it would be, like, really sad. We definitely struggled to find that perfect balance of, there’s just this moment and they both get caught up in it and it’s a little uncomfortable. Yeah, it was a fun day.

As for whether Kendrick herself would ever date a lady, she says she’s open to the idea. She explained to PrideSource that she sees herself as more like Lively’s character — fluid in terms of romantic and sexual interests.

Kendrick had this to say when asked if she ever had a girl crush so strong she would have considered dating them:

I definitely – there’s somebody I’m still friends with, and when we met we kissed. This was after high school, and it was the first time I had kissed a girl where it wasn’t just like, we’re at a party and boys are watching! That horrible performance silliness. But I think I haven’t had that emotional love for a lady, which isn’t saying it could never happen to me, but I think I’m more of an Emily than a Stephanie.

It sounds like A Simple Favor has brought some deeper parts of Kendrick’s personality to light, which is interesting to learn about. The film will be in theaters on Sept. 14, so keep an eye out for it!