C.J. McKenna

The strangest job on set

My title was kiss choreographer. The crew called me the wrangler of lips. It sounds glamorous and mostly wasn't: take two actors who may have met that morning (and sometimes couldn't stand each other), and make millions of strangers believe in true love for eight seconds.

I watched thousands of takes. I made hundreds of tiny adjustments: tilt the chin, slow the breath, move a hand two inches north. And I learned the thing nobody tells you. A great movie kiss isn't luck. It's built. Which means you can build one too.

Why I care this much

My own first kiss was a disaster. Rain, a parked car, and a nervous kid with no idea what to do with his hands, his nose or his mouth. I walked home soaked and promised myself I'd never leave something that important to chance again.

That promise became a career on set, then years of traveling and teaching the craft to anyone who asked: nervous first-timers, and couples who had been kissing on autopilot for a decade.

What you'll find here

How to Kiss Better is the free part: more than 100 guides on first kisses, technique, reading the moment and the science of why a kiss lands. I name no names from set, and I never get explicit. Everything here is written for adults, and all of it is meant to be practiced. Ideally with someone you like.

Kiss Perfect Now: A Master Class in Kissology is the whole system in one place: 183 pages, 16 chapters, everything the camera taught me and everything since.

Not sure where you stand? The Kiss Test asks ten honest questions and tells you what kind of kisser you are. The result is free.

Say hello

Questions, stories, a kiss that went sideways? Write to me at contact@howtokissbetter.com.