Think back to a favorite summer and chances are it will include a billowy blockbuster or a marvelous musical, topped by youthful shenanigans. As the season gets underway — at the multiplex at least — we asked the stars of this summer’s crowd-pleasers to recall the movie dates — some with flames, others with friends and family — they remember to this day.
Trevor Jackson
“Superfly” (June 15)
I was 4 years old and [at] an after-school program in Indianapolis, we went on a field trip to see “The Little Rascals.” There was a 10-year-old girl — I think her name was Rosie — and in the movie [Alfalfa] goes, “Can I have a big wet one?” And [Darla] kisses him. And the girl then gave me a kiss. It was amazing. I don’t think either of us knew what we were doing. She was like, “I just wanted to give you your first kiss, baby.”
Kathryn Hahn
“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” (July 13)
I remember going to see “Top Gun” with some friends, and my dad and the other dads sat right behind us because I think it was PG-13 and I was 12. And when Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise made out, we all thought we were going to die. We sank in the chairs. It seemed very graphic at the time because they were in silhouette and you could see, like, tongue action. And I remember feeling like we were watching a porn with our fathers right behind us. It was so horrifying, like, “We shall never speak about this again.”
Daveed Diggs
“Blindspotting” (July 20)
I grew up going to movies with my father, and we loved just whatever the super hyped-up, big-budget action epic of the time was. I remember being at “Jurassic Park” and us both falling on the floor, actually rolling around, with uncontrollable laughter. And then standing up and clapping after that scene in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” when the two women are fighting on the rooftop, me and my father giving a standing ovation to that.
Simon Pegg
“Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (July 27)
It’s not a date, and I have to stipulate that, because otherwise it would be incredibly creepy, but I took my sister to see “E.T.” when she was really young. I was 14, and she was 5. I’d seen it when I was 12, I think, and it had a massive impact on me. I loved the movie, but it made me cry so much, I had to put my hood up. I thought, “Right, I’ll take my sister and make her cry,” because she was a tough little cookie. So I built it up. I said, “We’re going to go see ‘E.T.,’ it’s absolutely amazing, it’s about a cute little alien and really exciting, and you’re going to love it.” And of course, she did. And at the end of the movie, when E.T. goes through his little Christian resurrection moment, I was looking at her, waiting for her to break. And she just sat there, looking at it stoically. And because it always gets me, I started crying, and she looked at me: “What are you crying for?”
Jason Mitchell
“Superfly” (June 15)
I had this girlfriend when I was in the 11th grade and she was in the 10th grade. Her mom wanted to take us and drop us off. This whole situation, right? So I’d just got this brand new, really cool flip phone, and the top of it could turn around. I’ll never forget because that André 3000 song “Hey Ya!” was her mom’s ringtone on my phone. And we went to watch the film — I forget which movie — and it was like the best date ever. Then I couldn’t find my phone. The girl sitting next to us stole my phone! And all we could hear was “Hey Ya!” coming from the girl’s purse. When it started ringing, she just got out of there. [My girlfriend’s] mom thought we were trying to hide from her when, really, we were looking for my phone. She was like, “I think you guys were just trying to get a little hanky-panky.”
Henry Golding
“Crazy Rich Asians” (Aug. 17)
When “Titanic” came out, that was really my first experience at the cinema and one of those moves that define my childhood. [“My Heart Will Go On”], by Celine Dion, was what I first made out to, so “Titanic” has a very warm place in my heart. I think I must have been about 15, and it was with my greatest high school crush and she had braces. That was a good summer. That was monumental for me.
Mary Steenburgen
“Book Club” (May 18)
I remember going to see Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl.” I don’t remember very much about the date, but I was so knocked out by Barbra that I remember basically every single moment from the movie.
Rafael Casal
“Blindspotting” (July 20)
Somebody had told me that there was a drive-in theater in Los Angeles. A good single friend of mine picked me up, and we got all these snacks and parked. However, nobody told us it was a double feature, and we’d only signed up for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” So we were drinking [wine] the whole time, and I’m stuffing my face with junk food. And we’re parked with maybe 200 other cars. “Ferris Bueller” [ends]; I’m tuckered out, we’re drunk, and we’re like, “Let’s get out of here.” And they’re like, “Now we’re going to start ‘Pretty in Pink.’” We looked around and realized that you can’t actually drive away when you’re gridlocked in. So I proceeded to, for the first time in my life, see “Pretty in Pink” completely inebriated. Apparently that was the thing everyone else was there to see, and everyone just started smoking a bunch of pot and making out. It was clearly this throwback movie experience: in all these other cars, people are hooking up. And I’m sitting there with my very platonic friend like, “Oh, I’m 27 — I don’t need to feel pressure like we’re 15. We don’t have to make out.”
I don’t know that that’s how she would have had it. But I totally understood after that why there was an entire era of stuck in the car at a movie. It’s so perfect for chemistry. You have all this amazing privacy and you’re basically already lying down. I was like, “Oh man, this is Tinder for 30 years ago.” We made out later — not that night, but it eventually happened.
Kate McKinnon
“The Spy Who Dumped Me” (Aug. 3)
My family went to a drive-in once when I was very young. I don’t know what I expected — some sort of 1950s magic. It was so hot that we had to keep the windows down and the air-conditioning on, and we couldn’t hear the movie and not really see it either. And no one was making out with anyone because we were a family. So that was not as magical as I thought it might be. It’s actually kind of cramped, and you can’t really see the screen that well, especially if you’re sitting in the back seat. I haven’t been to a drive-in movie since.
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