Warren Beatty and Annette Bening have perhaps one of the most successful marriages in Hollywood. The pair just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary and have raised four children together. Beatty has been open about his feelings when he first met Annette Bening. It was love at first sight for him, as he told director Barry Levinson, “I love her and I’m going to marry her.” Bening, however, has stayed quiet about the first impression Warren Beatty left on her – until now.
Warren Beatty and Annette Bening first met in 1991 while working on the biographical crime film, Bugsy. Beatty later recalled a meeting between the two of them before filming started: “When I met Annette over lunch for Bugsy, I felt immediately that this was going to change my life. I remember losing interest in the garlic chicken I was eating within 20 seconds. And the garlic chicken had been very good!”
When Beatty and Bening first met over lunch, he had quite the reputation for being a ladies’ man. It was believed for a long time that Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” was about Warren Beatty, as the two had dated in the early 1970s. Beatty has been linked to other famous women, including Madonna, Jane Fonda, Joan Collins, and Natalie Wood – to name a few!
Because of his playboy ways, and because of his previous experiences dating his costars, Warren pulled Annette aside after their lunch and told her, “I want you to know that I will not be hitting on you during the movie,” to which Annette Responded, “I didn’t ask.”
That is how Warren Beatty remembers the first time he met his future wife, but what was Annette Bening’s first impression? She recently opened up to People magazine, remembering that it was clear that Beatty “was incredibly intelligent. I just remember thinking ‘Wow, this guy is so smart and so sharp and funny, but more – just articulate.”
She added that “he was very talkative. He was very passionate about the movie he was about to make. He had a lot to say – and he was charming for sure.” Of course, Beatty felt the same, as he told Barry Levinson after their lunch meeting that he planned on marrying Bening.
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Although they both insist that they remained professional during the filming of Bugsy, Beatty eventually decided to ask his costar for dinner towards the end of the movie. Less than a month after Bugsy premiered in December 1991, the pair welcomed their first child. Two months later, they tied the knot. They have remained one of the most solid couples in Hollywood ever since!