Awkward Kiss With Brad Pitt Explained By Lena Dunham After Internet Backlash

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

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Earlier this year, Brad Pitt starred in a little movie called Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a Quentin Tarantino film in which he shared time on screen with Girls actress Lena Dunham. Later at an event, the two were chummy and she was even seen kissing the actor, albeit rather awkwardly, at a Once event. Now Dunham has explained what really happened at the premiere event.

Speaking to Andy Cohen on a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live the oft-open actress revealed what seriously happened with Brad Pitt, noting that the awkward photo was just a bad angle and that she was not trying to “accost” the actor fellow Once Upon A Time In Hollywood co-star Leonardo DiCaprio refers to as “Lover.” Per Lena Dunham.

I don't know if you remember there was a sort of awkward photo taken of the two of us. Well, the way the internet read it was I had somehow physically accosted him causing him a great deal of stress...I would never force a kiss on Brad Pitt. I respect him far too much as an artist and a friend.

Some of us are photogenic and some of us are not. I don’t know about you, but if we were still in the era of printing photos, I’d have a barrelful of awkward photos readily available for anyone who’d want to Tweet about ‘em. I’d imagine it’s probably worse when you are meeting someone on the red carpet and there are professional photogs clicking images of you by the second. Some of those are bound to be terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad photos.

That didn’t stop people from making blunt comments about the moment however, which is why we’re still talking about it so many months later.

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Lena Dunham went on to tell Andy Cohen that Brad Pitt recognized she was super nervous around him and went above and beyond to be kind to her later that evening during the Once promotional. She even said he gave her a ring, which she was still wearing in the interview (doubly amusing given another ring that happened to come up during the interview was thrown by Dunham into the compost pile).

Later that night -- because he knew I felt nervous -- he took me into a room and we secretly ate pizza and I told him I like his ring and he gave it to me. And I wear it and every time I wear it, something amazing happens.

So, it sounds like awkward kiss or no awkward kiss, Brad Pitt and Lena Dunham get along just fine and there’s really nothing to see in the images. What is worth seeing is Once Upon A Time In Hollywood if you haven’t already. The movie’s currently available on DVD, Digital and Blu-ray and I can promise does not feature any awkward Lena Dunham or Brad Pitt kisses.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.