Um, Michael Vartan just confessed he got a little too excited to lock lips with Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed.
The actor, who played the Sam to her Josie in the 1999 movie, joined his former co-star on The Drew Barrymore Show on Tuesday, Sept. 14, for a special cast reunion. On air, Michael surprised Drew by revealing his "very embarrassing" story about their climactic kiss on the baseball field more than 20 years ago. And even she didn't know anything about it, until now.
"I get up to the mound, we embrace and we start kissing and you really kissed me," he told her. "And I was not ready for it, in the least. And I'm a man. I was a very young man, back then."
Michael went on, "I had feelings and the feelings were just—they just happened. And I very quickly realized I was in a very bad spot, because I was wearing very loose sort of like slacks and I thought, ‘This is gonna be a disaster when they cut. I must preemptively end this.'"
The audience members giggled as they understood the sexual implications.
"In a panic, I just yelled ‘Cut' and bent over and said, ‘Oh guys, sorry, my back. I put my back out playing ball,'" Michael recalled. "I went off into my corner. I was thinking horrible thoughts like, ‘Dead puppies, dead puppies.'"
He said he was "finally" able to "compose" himself. "Luckily, the subsequent scenes went on without a hitch but that was, uh, you're a very good kisser," he told Drew, who laughed at his confession.
She confirmed they had a pretty passionate kiss—exactly as she had intended. "You weren't married at the time, so yeah I went for it," she teased. "Because you were single, and I felt like I wasn't going to offend anybody." (He went on to date his Alias co-star Jennifer Garner and was married to Lauren Skaar from 2011 to 2014.)
Drew, who was most recently married to Will Kopelman, was just 24 when Never Been Kissed was released, while Michael was 30. She added that she swooned when he put his hands on her face during their onscreen smooch.
It seems the film still holds a special significance for Michael, who revealed he still has a cherished gift that Drew gave him after they finished shooting.
"I don't know if you'll remember, but you gave me this a very sweet little wrap gift. It was this beautiful little fern. Well, I thought it was fern. So I kept it, of course, and over the years this thing was growing," The Arrangement actor shared. "Of course, I named it Drew. It's now 15, 16 feet tall."
He said he has proudly kept a picture of the now-tree with him all these years. "I've literally kept the picture of Drew in my phone for 20 years in the odd chance I'd run into you and say, ‘Do you know what this is?'" Michael told her.
Drew responded, "That's really impressive, and I think it's a perfect metaphor for, maybe, the film does keep growing," referring to the loyal fanbase they have more than two decades later.
See their sweet reunion above, and another clip with co-stars David Arquette and Molly Shannon here.