Her Co-Star and Director, Gene Kelly
Kelly, who directed the film, too, was something of a perfectionist. “My feet were bleeding from all that dancing, and when I pointed it out, Gene would say, ‘Clean it up,’” Reynolds said. But it wasn’t just the technical stuff that drew Kelly mad, she said. “If I wasn’t smiling, Gene would yell at me to smile more. During filming, I thought my cheeks were going to crack from all that smiling.”
Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Gene Kelly. Photo By Moviestore Collection/Shutterstock
In Debbie Reynold’s 2013 memoir, “Unsinkable,” she described the moment that she and Kelly filmed their first kiss – something she expected to be pure, as was typical in films of that time. “The camera closed in. Gene took me tightly in his arms and shoved his tongue down my throat,” she wrote. And her reaction can be seen as both innocent and offensive at the same time.