Celebrities Who Found Best Friends in Their Costars

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Celebrities Who Found Best Friends in Their Costars

Everyone loves an on-set couple — and these duos are no exception! Mindy Kaling, B.J. Novak, Hilarie Burton and Sophia Bush are just a few of the stars who went from costars to best friends in real life. Michelle Williams and Busy Philipps, for instance, met while filming Dawson’s Creek. The Oscar nominee starred as Jen Lindley throughout the series’ run from 1998 to 2003, while the Cougar Town alum joined in season 5 as Audrey Liddell. Philipps described their connection in Entertainment Weekly’s Dawson’s Creek reunion cover story in March 2018. “It was like, you know, how people say love at first sight? We had that thing,” she explained. “We had that friend connection. It was just an immediate: ‘Of course we’re drinking wine and smoking cigarettes and getting in bar fights.’ [Laughs] We just had an immediate love for each other that’s continued over the years.” Williams, for her part, wanted to emulate her pal. “When I met her, she was the coolest girl I had ever seen,” she recalled. “She had a nose ring. She wore her hair in braids. She wore overalls. And she had this attitude like, ‘I know who I am and don’t cross my line.’ I just thought, ‘I want to be this person when I grow up.’ She was my first real friend I ever had.” [jwplayer vry1tomM-zhNYySv2] She added: “My memory of being with her then doesn’t have anything to do with the show or working, but it was on our time off. It was talking on the porch all night long and it was back when bread was still OK to eat [laughs]. It was copious amounts of bread. That’s what I remember: an endless conversation over multiple bread baskets.” Burton, meanwhile, revealed in May 2020 that her friendship with Bush was not always easy. “I thought the story line between [One Tree Hill characters] Peyton and Brooke was the love story of the show. The love stories with all the boys, those were fun, those were important, but Sophia and I had to fight for our own friendship,” she said on the “Chicks in the Office” podcast. “A lot of people wanted to pit us against each other. You know, it’s like, ‘Oh, Hilarie won’t do this, but Sophia will,’ and ‘She’s the pretty one,’ and ‘She’s the this one.’ There’s so much comparison that, as a young person, it’s hard to navigate.” Scroll down to explore lasting friendships among castmates. [podcast_block]

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Shay Mitchell and Troian Bellisario

The actresses played Emily and Spencer, respectively, on Pretty Little Liars. Although the teen drama ended in 2017 after seven seasons, the pair grew very close after they both became moms. Bellisario shares daughters Aurora (born in 2018) and Elliot (born in 2021) with husband Patrick J. Adams and the BÉIS founder welcomed daughters Atlas and Rome in 2019 and 2022, respectively, with partner Matte Babel.

In June 2020, Mitchell told Us that she had Bellisario on speed dial for baby advice. "She’s so incredible with everything that she does, but especially in the mother role," the Canada native said at the time.

"Name me a better human being ... I'll wait. @shaymitchell you are a goddess among us and whether you're a block away (coolest neighbor) or all the way up on Canadialand (come home soon please) I could not be more grateful to be your friend. Love you babe, to the moon and back," Bellisario captioned an April 2021 Instagram birthday message to the Dollface actress.

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Shailene Woodley and Megan Park

The former Secret Life of the American Teenager costars gushed over each other in January 2022 ahead of the release of Park’s movie The Fallout. “I’m so proud of you dude,” Woodley wrote via Instagram. “I couldn’t be more inspired by the way you so uniquely use your force to tell stories that not only MATTER, but also that are told in innovative, beautiful, honest and real ways.”

The Divergent star added: “The ultimate babe. My forever muse. Just don’t let it get to your head. Even though you’re a 1000000000000000000000/1 writer/director/creator now, don’t think our kitchen musical karaoke parties are over.”

Park shed more light on their friendship in the comments section. “I am so grateful for you,” she responded. “Thank you for coming to play and being so supportive and inspiring. I love you. Since I met you in those Keds at 15, from kitchen karaoke to holding hands and sobbing through several Broadway shows… can’t wait to keep being inspired and creating together forever. Ily ily ily.”

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Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox

From roommates to lifelong friends! Aniston and Cox met on the set of Friends in 1994 and have remained close in the years since the show ended. In March 2018, the Scream actress told Us that she has a group chat with Aniston and their fellow Friends alum Lisa Kudrow.

Aniston sang Cox's praises in a 2014 interview with More magazine. “There’s absolutely no judgment in Court. You’ll never feel scolded. She’s extremely fair, ridiculously loyal and fiercely loving,” she said at the time. “I’ve slept in her guest bedroom a lot. Without giving away too much of my private stuff, all I can say is she’s been there for me through thick and thin.”

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Zendaya and Hunter Schafer

“Knowing that [Hunter] was so young and so much of this was new to her … My thing was being as much of a big sister as I could,” Zendaya recalls her first meeting with her Euphoria costar during a December 2021 interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “What we do for a living is important, but the friendship we share is more important.” 

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Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards

Amell and Rickards played love interests on Arrow, but their relationship is purely platonic off screen. In fact, their friend group includes his wife, Cassandra Jean Amell.

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Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Disney alum reflected on feeling a "familial quality" on the set of Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve. "I felt very welcomed by the crew and cast, everybody was so lovely to me," she said in October 2021. "I became very close with Timothée. We were like, 'Oh, this is great, we're gonna be besties, I can tell.'"

She went on to describe her "wonderful" bond with the Lady Bird actor, gushing, "We talk all the time about how fun it's gonna be if we get to do it. Selfishly, I want to do [a second film] to have fun and spend time with my friend."

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Alexandra Park and Tom Austen

Park and Austen oozed chemistry as star-crossed lovers on The Royals and kept fans just as entertained with their offscreen antics on social media. “She is my best mate, the funniest person I know and she is my absolute hero,” the actor gushed via Instagram in May 2021, to which she replied, “I love you babe.”

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Hilarie Burton and Sophia Bush

The One Tree Hill alums' onscreen friendship, which started its 9-season run in 2002, translated into real life. They later launched the "Drama Queens" podcast with fellow OTH star Bethany Joy Lenz in 2021.

“We’ve been through so many stages of life together," Bush told Us of her OTH family in December 2020. "But I think something that we really cherish — Hilarie and I were talking about this not too long ago — is just having, interestingly enough, as we’ve all gotten older, having our friendships deepen even more.”

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Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson

The Avengers stars have appeared in eight movies together, and their friendship shows no signs of slowing down. Of their chemistry, Johansson explained to Entertainment Weekly in March 2020, “It’s really a result of 10 years of knowing somebody and being able to have a kind of intimacy with them that I think you get from just spending a lot of time with somebody and knowing their soft underbelly.”

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Michelle Williams and Busy Philipps

Williams and Philipps rarely interacted on Dawson’s Creek, but their bond lasted years beyond the show’s end. “I think the secret to longevity in friendships is putting in the time and the understanding and working through any issues that might arise,” the This Will Only Hurt a Little author — who is often the Emmy winner’s date to awards shows — told Us Weekly exclusively in June 2019.

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Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak

The Office costars dated during the show’s run but decided they were better off as friends. Kaling revealed in May 2019 that Novak has a special place in her and daughter Katherine’s lives. “B.J. is so much more like family now than a platonic friend,” she told GoodHousekeeping.com. “He’s the godfather to my daughter.” (Kaling is also mother of son Spencer.)

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Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams

The actresses played sisters on Game of Thrones and ended up with matching tattoos in real life. Williams was also Turner’s maid of honor when she married Joe Jonas in June 2019.

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Zach Braff and Donald Faison

The Scrubs costars loved their time on the show so much that they started a podcast called “Fake Doctors, Real Friends With Zach and Donald.”

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Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio

Winslet and DiCaprio became pals while filming Titanic, and she gushed in February 2016 that the actor is “my closest friend in the world.”

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Blake Lively, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and America Ferrera

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants stars often reunite to support each other, in their personal lives and their career endeavors.

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Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller

The pair played loves interests in The Spectacular Now and adversaries in the Divergent franchise. Now, the pals often do couples’ activities with their significant others, including going on vacation together. “We just naturally became friends and he became my brother for life,” Woodley told Vanity Fair in 2013 of their first collaboration. “I want to do a movie a year with him.”