"I think less is more when it comes to kissing in the movies"
About this Quote
Julia Roberts is smuggling a whole philosophy of screen intimacy into a sentence that sounds like an on-set aside. “Less is more” isn’t prudishness; it’s craft. In movies, kissing is rarely about mouths meeting. It’s about what the audience is allowed to imagine, and Roberts is arguing for restraint as a kind of power: the camera doesn’t need to certify desire with close-up saliva if the scene already has tension, stakes, and chemistry.
The subtext is a quiet pushback against an industry that often treats physical contact as proof of romance, or worse, as a shortcut to emotion. Roberts came up in an era of star-driven romantic comedies where the kiss was a narrative turning point, not continuous wallpaper. Think of how those films used anticipation as an engine: the almost-touch, the near-miss, the breath held too long. A single kiss could land like punctuation, because the story earned it.
There’s also a performer’s perspective buried in the line. “Less” can mean fewer takes, fewer mandated beats, fewer moments that tip from character to choreography. As conversations about consent and intimacy coordination have reshaped sets, her preference reads as both aesthetic and protective: keep it meaningful, keep it motivated.
It works because it flatters the audience’s intelligence. The best movie kisses aren’t explicit; they’re strategic, letting suggestion do what exposition can’t.
The subtext is a quiet pushback against an industry that often treats physical contact as proof of romance, or worse, as a shortcut to emotion. Roberts came up in an era of star-driven romantic comedies where the kiss was a narrative turning point, not continuous wallpaper. Think of how those films used anticipation as an engine: the almost-touch, the near-miss, the breath held too long. A single kiss could land like punctuation, because the story earned it.
There’s also a performer’s perspective buried in the line. “Less” can mean fewer takes, fewer mandated beats, fewer moments that tip from character to choreography. As conversations about consent and intimacy coordination have reshaped sets, her preference reads as both aesthetic and protective: keep it meaningful, keep it motivated.
It works because it flatters the audience’s intelligence. The best movie kisses aren’t explicit; they’re strategic, letting suggestion do what exposition can’t.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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