Stars Who Dated Their Directors: Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Harry Styles and More
On-set romances don’t only go down between the leads! Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Harry Styles and more stars have been linked to the director of their respective projects over the years.
Williams, for her part, was married to singer-songwriter Phil Elverum when she started working on the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon, which Thomas Kail directed.
“It’s messy behind the scenes,” an insider told Us Weekly in January 2020, noting that the filmmaker split from wife Angela Christian sometime in 2019. “[Michelle and Thomas] fell hard and fast for each other.”
The Dawson’s Creek alum and Elverum, who secretly wed in July 2018, called it quits in April 2019 after less than a year of marriage. News broke in December of the same year that Williams was pregnant and engaged to Kail. They made their red carpet debut at the Golden Globes in January 2020 and the actress gave birth to their first child together that June. They also wed in 2020. (Williams also has a daughter, Matilda, with the late Heath Ledger.)
While Williams and Kail have stayed mum on the origins of their romance, Stewart was forced to comment after she was caught cheating on then-boyfriend Robert Pattinson with her Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders, in 2012. Us Weekly published exclusive images of the actress and the director, who was married to model Liberty Ross at the time, making out.
“I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I’ve caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected,” the actress said in a statement at the time. “This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry.”
Sanders and Ross, who share two kids, subsequently split and finalized their divorce in 2014. Pattinson and Stewart also called it quits amid the scandal, but later reconciled. They split for good in May 2013.
More recently, Styles was seen holding hands with Olivia Wilde, who is directing him in the upcoming film Don’t Worry Darling. In addition to attending a wedding together in January 2021, the pair were spotted outside of the singer’s Los Angeles home that same month. News of their romance came after Wilde split from longtime love Jason Sudeikis in November 2020. The former couple, who share son Otis and daughter Daisy, got engaged in 2013 after two years of dating.
Scroll through for a list of stars who dated their director:
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Stars Who Dated Their Directors: Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Harry Styles and More
On-set romances don’t only go down between the leads! Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Harry Styles and more stars have been linked to the director of their respective projects over the years.
Williams, for her part, was married to singer-songwriter Phil Elverum when she started working on the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon, which Thomas Kail directed.
“It’s messy behind the scenes,” an insider told Us Weekly in January 2020, noting that the filmmaker split from wife Angela Christian sometime in 2019. “[Michelle and Thomas] fell hard and fast for each other.”
The Dawson’s Creek alum and Elverum, who secretly wed in July 2018, called it quits in April 2019 after less than a year of marriage. News broke in December of the same year that Williams was pregnant and engaged to Kail. They made their red carpet debut at the Golden Globes in January 2020 and the actress gave birth to their first child together that June. They also wed in 2020. (Williams also has a daughter, Matilda, with the late Heath Ledger.)
[jwplayer byUhKwaj-l3ahXupL]While Williams and Kail have stayed mum on the origins of their romance, Stewart was forced to comment after she was caught cheating on then-boyfriend Robert Pattinson with her Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders, in 2012. Us Weekly published exclusive images of the actress and the director, who was married to model Liberty Ross at the time, making out.
“I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I’ve caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected,” the actress said in a statement at the time. “This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry.”
Sanders and Ross, who share two kids, subsequently split and finalized their divorce in 2014. Pattinson and Stewart also called it quits amid the scandal, but later reconciled. They split for good in May 2013.
More recently, Styles was seen holding hands with Olivia Wilde, who is directing him in the upcoming film Don’t Worry Darling. In addition to attending a wedding together in January 2021, the pair were spotted outside of the singer’s Los Angeles home that same month. News of their romance came after Wilde split from longtime love Jason Sudeikis in November 2020. The former couple, who share son Otis and daughter Daisy, got engaged in 2013 after two years of dating.
Scroll through for a list of stars who dated their director:
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Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox
The “Bloody Valentine” performer directed his fiancée — whom he proposed to in January 2022 — in his directorial debut, Good Mourning. The film — out in May 2022 — also stars Dove Cameron, Pete Davidson and Mod Sun.
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Lily Collins and Charlie McDowell
The filmmaker, who tied the knot with Collins in September 2021, directed his wife in the 2022 Netflix movie Windfall.
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Zoe Kravitz and Channing Tatum
The Big Little Lies star will make her directorial debut with Pussy Island, which will costar Tatum. Us Weekly confirmed in August 2021 that the pair had started dating amid pre-production. Filming is set to begin in June 2022.
“Channing and Zoë are doing great. They’re having a lot of fun together,” a source exclusively told Us in March 2022. “Both see serious potential for the long term.”
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Florence Pugh and Zach Braff
The Little Women star and the Scrubs alum were spotted holding hands in New York City in April 2019 after collaborating on the short film In the Time It Takes to Get There. After three years of dating, Pugh confirmed in August 2022 that the couple called it quits earlier that year.
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Sam Taylor-Johnson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson
The couple met on the set of Nowhere Boy in 2009 when Aaron (who portrayed a young John Lennon) was 18 years old. The director was 42 at the time. Sam and the Marvel star tied the knot in June 2012 and later welcomed two children together. (Sam also has two children from her previous marriage.)
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Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky
The Oscar winner met the director on the set of Mother! in 2016, but their relationship fizzled out after one year together. Lawrence threw shade at him in 2017 after the film got mixed reviews.
“We’d be on the tour together, I’d come back to the hotel and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is the movie, and he comes back and that’s all he wants to talk about,” Lawrence told Variety. “I was doing double duty of trying to be a supportive partner while also being like, ‘Can I please, for the love of God, not think about Mother! for one second?’”
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Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles
News broke in September 2020 that the musician was replacing Shia LaBeouf in Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling. Less than four months later, the actress was spotted holding hands with Styles at a wedding.
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Kristen Stewart and Rupert Sanders
Us shared exclusive photos of Stewart and Sanders packing on the PDA in 2012.
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Michelle Williams and Thomas Kail
Williams and Kail met on the set of the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon.
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Frances McDormand and Joel Coen
McDormand met her future husband when she auditioned for the Coen Brothers’ (Joel and Ethan Coen) directorial debut, 1984’s Blood Simple. The pair wed the same year the movie was released and adopted son Pedro McDormand Coen in 1985.
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Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes
The Titanic star has been married to two directors in the past. After meeting on the set of 1998’s Hideous Kinky, she wed the movie’s assistant director Jim Threapleton. They split in 2001. Following her divorce, Winslet was offered a role in a play Mendes was working on. She turned down the part but married him in 2003. The duo, who share son Joe, worked together on the 2008 movie Revolutionary Road. They split in 2010.
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Rosario Dawson and Danny Boyle
The actress was linked to Boyle during the shooting of 2013’s Trance, which he directed and she starred in, but their romance didn’t last.
“It’s not like we announced our relationship, so it’s not like we’re going to announce our breakup,” Dawson told Net-A-Porter in March 2013 about the director, who is more than 20 years older than her. “I love Danny. He’s wonderful and we dated longer than people think we did.”
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Kate Beckinsale and Len Wiseman
Beckinsale met Wiseman on the set of 2003’s Underworld. The actress and the director exchanged vows the following year but split in November 2015.
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Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton
Bonham Carter met the director on the set of 2001’s Planet of the Apes. After they tied the knot that same year, they went on to collaborate on a series of movies including Big Fish, Charlie And the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland. The duo, who share son Billy and daughter Nell, split in 2014.
“It might be easier to work together without being together anymore. He always only cast me with great embarrassment,” she said in 2016.
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Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg
The actress met the legendary director while auditing for 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. They wed in October 1991 and share several children: Theo, Sasha, Sawyer, Mikaela and Destry. Kate is also the mother of Grey’s Anatomy alum Jessica Capshaw, whom she shares with ex-husband Robert Capshaw, while Spielberg shares son Max with ex-wife Amy Irving.
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Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich
The director started dating the Resident Evil star after they met on the set of the 2002 film. After dating on and off for years, they got back together in 2007 and she gave birth to daughter Ever. The twosome wed in 2009 and went on to welcome daughters Dashiel and Osian.
