When it comes to depicting the world of cocktails and bartending on the big screen, movies often get it wrong. But what about the stars behind the roles? Would you trust Matthew McConaughey to shake up your next round of Margaritas? Or Ryan Gosling to mix you a classic Old Fashioned?
We compiled a list of 10 A-listers who have made cocktails on camera — whether scripted or in at-home videos — and ranked them on their technique. Some impressed with their natural form, while others gave truly cringe-worthy takes on classic cocktails. Plus, it appears that most celebs don’t own measuring tools at home, or just have the right amount of blind confidence to free-pour spirits. Either way, many of the results were iffy at best.
From messy pickle Margaritas to rule-breaking Negronis, here are 10 celebrities ranked by how much we would trust them to make us a cocktail.
10. Jennifer Lopez
J. Lo might be a triple threat in the entertainment biz, but when it comes to making cocktails, we’d rather not hand her the reins. The beloved singer and actor has made it fairly well known that she doesn’t drink alcohol, but that didn’t stop her from hopping on the celebrity booze brand train and launching her own ready-to-drink cocktail company: Delola. The bottled spritzes just need to be poured over ice, so most of Lopez’s “cocktail recipe videos” just show her pouring liquid from bottle to glass, give or take a citrus peel or two. While we appreciate a good low-lift drink, we’re not certain J. Lo would have the skill to make us a strong Martini or Manhattan if we needed one.
9. Kendall Jenner
While Kendall Jenner isn’t necessarily known for her kitchen prowess (may we remind you of the cucumber cutting incident), she was the first of the Kardashian-Jenner squad to break into the alcohol industry with 818 Tequila. This should give her a leg up in the cocktail-mixing realm, but sadly it doesn’t seem like owning a tequila brand has paid off. Most videos of her promoting her brand show the model stirring the spirit in with a Margarita mix in a lackluster fashion. We’d much rather sip on Kris Jenner’s famous Belvedere Martinis. Though the matriarch doesn’t use our preferred spec, at least she adds some pizzazz to the presentation.
8. Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves launched their cheeky tequila brand Pantalones in 2023. To promote the product, McConaughey has released a number of cocktail recipes, including a slightly jarring video of the actor mixing up a pickle juice Margarita in a parking lot. In the video, McConaughey free-pours the Pantalones Reposado into a pickle jar along with an indiscernible amount of agave syrup, two jalapeño slices, and a squeeze of juice from half a lime that seems to appear out of his coat pocket. (We do have to give him credit for using freshly squeezed juice, though.) McConaughey proceeds to shake the drink inside the pickle jar and slurp it on the spot. Though this wouldn’t be our go-to cocktail, we do find ourselves wishing we could hang out with McConaughey in a parking lot with some Margs.
7. Ryan Reynolds
Bucking the celebrity tequila trend, Ryan Reynolds invested in Aviation, a gin brand based in Portland, Ore. (though he sold his stake to Diageo in 2020). As part of a Father’s Day campaign for the gin in 2021, the actor made a promotional video about a cocktail he facetiously called “The Vasectomy.” Though it’s clear Reynolds messes up many of the steps in the recipe as a joke (pouring ingredients all over the table, exploding bottles of seltzer water), it does feel a little too real. If we asked Reynolds to whip us up a batch of Gimlets, we’re pretty sure he would treat the whole endeavor with the same level of sarcasm.
6. Megan Thee Stallion
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion is one of the more recent celebrities to break into the tequila industry, launching Chicas Divertidas in early 2025. In April, the spirit brand posted a video on its Instagram page of the singer — calling herself Megan Thee Bartender — sharing how to make Espresso Martinis with her product. She measures out each ingredient into a shaker, using actual bar tools, which many others on this list did not. Though her shaking form might not be conventional — and some of the liquid spills out of the shaker — she certainly put on a show, giving her some serious style points. All in all, we would gladly let Megan Thee Stallion whip us up a round of Espresso Martinis.
5. Stanley Tucci
With his burgeoning career in food writing and entertainment, one might think the well-traveled Stanley Tucci would be a shoo-in for the top spot on this list. But while the “Searching for Italy” star might be the new face of spaghetti alla Nerano, the same can’t be said for the signature Italian drink: the Negroni. One damning mistake in a pandemic-era, at-home cocktail- making video tanked the actor’s reputation on the cocktail scene for good. In the video, Tucci shares the instructions for his perfect Negroni. To start, he recommends a 2:1:1 ratio for this classically equal-parts cocktail, and even suggests the gin can be replaced with vodka (no thank you). He proceeds to shake the (traditionally stirred) drink, and serve it up in a coupe glass. Needless to say, the atrocity faced a considerable amount of backlash and it’s likely that most Tucci fans still don’t know how to make the most popular cocktail in the world because of it. But still, we’d take the fumbled Negroni if that meant we could hang out with Tucci on his next tour of Italy.
4. Florence Pugh
In a video interview with Vogue, British actress Florence Pugh shared how she makes her Martinis at home. For the drink, she free pours an undisclosed amount of vodka into a shaker with ice and shakes the bejesus out of it. This isn’t how we take our Martinis, but we appreciate the effort that Pugh puts into preparing the glassware and the generous lemon expression. And when it comes down to it, drinking an ice-cold glass of lemon-scented vodka with Pugh doesn’t sound half bad.
3. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
Teremana Tequila is one of the more successful brands in the world of celebrity booze. Part of its appeal is how involved pro-wrestler-turned-actor The Rock is in the company, often posting videos with a bottle or a Margarita in hand. He also makes the occasional appearance to shake up a batch of cocktails, introducing interesting flavors to the classic Marg. In inspecting a video of The Rock making the “Teremana Watermelon Manarita,” we were impressed by his effortless shaking skills. Despite his glaring lack of measurement tools and use of Rose’s Lime, we think The Rock would be useful behind a bar, and we’d probably enlist him in shaking the notoriously challenging Ramos Gin Fizz.
2. Dua Lipa
Don’t let her pickle brine-infused Diet Coke dissuade you, Dua Lipa actually seems to know what she’s doing when it comes to drinks. In a video interview with British Vogue, the pop star also shared her at-home Negroni recipe, which — in our opinion — puts Stanley Tucci’s version to shame. She measures out the equal parts of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth in a typical rocks glass, and gives it a stir. This is by far the most properly constructed cocktail we’ve seen on this list so far.
1. Ryan Gosling
Anyone who’s seen the movie “Crazy, Stupid, Love” will probably remember the scene where Ryan Gosling’s ever-so-suave character makes his love interest (played by Emma Stone) a proper Old Fashioned. The execution here was flawless, but that wasn’t just movie magic. To research his role as Jacob Palmer in the hit rom-com, Gosling actually took lessons with renowned bartender Eric Alperin, owner of the now-closed Los Angeles cocktail bar The Varnish. According to Alperin, Gosling studied the bartenders at The Varnish, and he even took the actor shopping to get the proper tools at home. Apparently, Gosling was a natural behind the stick. We would wholeheartedly trust him to make us a cocktail… but we’d still like to see for ourselves.
