The Real Reason Behind That Golden Globes Kiss

If you watched the Golden Globes, you might have noticed something a little unexpected: As Ryan Gosling went to accept an award for La La Land, two of your favorite actors smooched. So, why did Andrew Garfield and Ryan Reynolds kiss at the Golden Globes? Minus the context, this barely merits a shrug. Why shouldn't two men make out? But since Reynolds was there with his wife Blake Lively, you might have expected this pair to be the ones to get their liplock on. But according to Garfield, who spoke about the smooch on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, this was just two friends goofing off.

Obviously at this point I should stress: as my Bustle colleague Kayla Hawkins has already outlined, two straight men kissing as a joke isn't cool, because it suggests that male on male sexuality is something to be laughed at. You don't need me to stress that this is a pretty gross stance. But Garfield's explanation suggested that the joke was more about the unexpectedness of Reynolds opting to kiss him over his wife than about him finding the idea of two dudes smooching intrinsically amusing (thank goodness). Garfield pointed out that the plan all along was to create a kind of real-life plot twist, with Reynolds swapping out Lively for Garfield at the last minute.

Garfield stated:

“It was a ridiculous thing. I said to Ryan Reynolds, if you win, kiss me instead of your wife. And he said, yeah, that’s great! And the plan was that he would move towards his wife and then at the last minute move towards me. And then he didn’t win, much to our disappointment. I said, we could still just do it. And he was game.”

This feels refreshing to read. Of course, when you look at both stars' résumés, with Reynolds starring in everything from Adventureland to The Proposal to Deadpool and Garfield playing in films like The Amazing Spider-Man, you become aware that both actors are so popular because they've got a warm humor to their presences.

It's easy to be cynical and assume they just turn this on for the cameras (though the fact that Garfield used to date one of Hollywood's funniest women, Emma Stone, kind of undermines this theory). However this story sets the record straight: These are two guys who, just like you or I, might have a couple of drinks at an awards' ceremony and try to concoct a prank. Nope, Reynolds is not going to be your celebrity romance puppet. No, he's not going to kiss his beautiful wife for the tabloids. Instead, he's going to make out with his best friend, because why the hell not. Snaps to Reynolds and Garfield for keeping the media on their toes: I appreciate it.