Dove Cameron left the set of Descendants 2 with something extra special besides some memories: a new boyfriend. That's right, she happened to fall in love with her co-star Thomas Doherty, who plays Harry Hook, a new character to the Descendants family.
While it's clear from the trailer we've watched way too many times to count that Harry is #TeamUma in her massive battle with Mal, IRL it was clear to just about everyone on set that Dove and Thomas were just meant to be. They simply have so much chemistry and it even came across on-screen. The first glimpse we get of this is when Harry's greeting Mal as she's made her way back on the Isle of the Lost and he runs his hook along a strand of her purple locks.
Already iconic if we say so ourselves. And while we're not entirely surely what goes down during this convo — since we still have a little more than a week until the movie premieres on July 21— Dove exclusively told us that this little interaction was almost cut from the film entirely.
"You know that scene with the hook almost got cut because the chemistry was so intense that [everyone] were like, 'The audience is gonna think this is about Mal and Harry," Dove exclusively said to J-14.
OH EM GEE. The DCOM legit would've been so different all because these two co-stars actually fell in love.
So as any Descendants fan knows, Mal and Ben are the legit OTP. Maleficent's daughter and the new king of Auradon falling in love? It's an epic love story to say the least and it's one both the fans and the cast truly adore too. But Dove explained to us that she along with Thomas and the movie's director, the legend that is Kenny Ortega, came up with a whole backstory for Mal and Harry that would kind of help explain the fact that this scene between Harry and Mal is oozing with chemistry. And it's all just because Dove and Thomas' real-life connection was that strong.
"You know what’s so funny. Kenny was like you can’t make it too intense, so we came up with this whole backstory. Kenny and I and Thomas came up with this backstory in the first week of rehearsals. Me and Thomas' chemistry was so intense, even off camera, like just in rehearsals, but we didn’t know it. But people were like, 'When you guys walk into a room together, it’s insane. Have you ever talked to him?' And I’m like, 'No, not really.' And they’re like, 'You need to.' And they’re like telling him the same thing, like something needs to happen. And we’re like 'No, we’re fine.' But Kenny came up to me and was like, 'I think you guys would be really good together,'" Dove said.
Umm, let's just pause story-time for a moment to focus on the fact that everyone knew Dove and Thomas would be perfect together except them. Now that is just the cutest! OK, back to how the hook scene was almost cut, according to Dove.
"So we developed this whole backstory where we were like, to explain the chemistry, like OK, Mal and Harry dated before Ben and Mal, back when she was on the Isle, when she thought she was always going to be a bad girl, because she was the baddest of the bad and he was the baddest of the bad on the boys' side," Dove said. "And then when Mal broke his heart, he joined Uma’s gang to like spite her. And that’s why there was so much chemistry in the hook scene! And also because Thomas and I were just so in love by then. But it almost got cut because they were like it’s going to confuse the audience."
HOW CRAZY IS THAT? Everyone who watches the movie is all about Mal and Ben and so invested in what they're all going through on-screen, you forget to think about what Mal and the other Villain Kids' lives were like before they left the Isle and moved to Auradon. This added layer of history would've been really cool, but Kenny ultimately made the decision that you know, some sort of complicated love triangle/romantic past wasn't needed for the audience to know about, so it's never actually all explained in the movie. So the Mal and Harry past isn't ever brought up, but the hook scene is still in the movie obviously, since we saw it in the trailer. It's clear from this scene alone though that Dove and Thomas kept this complicated past in mind while they were filming scenes together, which is such cool insight for fans of the movie to know what was going through the actors' heads. We won't be able to look at this the same way ever again, that's for sure. What true love can do to a whole movie!
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