Matt Damon: Kissing Scarlett Johansson was ‘hell’

In a new interview, the actor shared the grim truth about his kissing scene with his attractive co-star in their 2011 film, We Bought A Zoo.

Matt Damon described kissing his co-star as "hell".

Matt Damon recalled a less-than-enjoyable moment when he had to smooch Scarlett Johansson after she downed a stinky sandwich while filming the 2011 movie We Bought a Zoo.

“I had to kiss Scarlett Johansson — can you imagine how horrible that was for me? It was hell!” he recalled during a recent interview with LADbible, reports Page Six.

“What happened was, we did a shot before lunch and it was this nice little two-shot that ended in the kiss. And it was really good.”

Thinking they were done with the kissing portion of their filming day, the two actors went for lunch where the Nanny Diaries actress, 38, ingested a pungent sandwich.

“She and I both thought it was over,” Damon, 52, said, adding, “She ate, like, an onion sandwich.”

Johansson and Damon in We Bought a Zoo.

But unbeknown to them, the stars had to pick up where they left off and film the lip-locking scene once again after they returned from break.

“She came in, and [director] Cameron Crowe had set the camera up, and it was like a tight shot of the kiss. She goes, ‘Ah s**t! I literally just had an onion sandwich!’” Damon recalled.

The Oppenheimer actor said he was “making fun of her” the whole time about her “onion breath” but noted that it was all in good fun.

“Her breath smells like roses!” he insisted.

This isn’t the first time Damon has made headlines for divulging his on-screen kissing experiences.

In 2021, Damon and close pal Ben Affleck revealed that they were originally supposed to kiss in their movie The Last Duel but the scene ultimately got axed.

“In the original actual version of that scene — the way that ceremony actually took place was that you kissed everybody on the mouth,” Affleck told Entertainment Tonight that October. “And we had that in the script.”

Damon then emphasised, “That would’ve been our first on-screen kiss.”

Johansson at the New York premiere of Asteroid City last month. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

And in 2012, Damon complimented Michael Douglas’ kissing abilities after they had to make out in their HBO Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra.

“Michael was a wonderful kisser,” the Good Will Hunting star told Playboy that year. “It’s not like I kiss him just once. We drew it up like a football plan.”

The Ford v Ferrari star said that they wanted to do a good job with their kissing scene.

“We both have a lot of gay friends, and we were not going to screw this up or bull[s – t] it,” he joked.

Damon has been married to Luciana Barroso since 2005. The couple — who were recently spotted entangled in a real-life smooching state — share four daughters: Alexia, 24, Isabella, 17, Gia, 14, and Stella, 12.

As for onion-breath Johansson, the Avengers star wed Colin Jost in 2020. She shares 2-year-old son Cosmo with the Saturday Night Live star and daughter Rose, 4, with her ex-husband Romain Dauriac.

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Matt Damon: Kissing Scarlett Johansson was ‘hell’