Shipper on Set

Alice and Bob? Alob? That's a Crack Pairing!

Would it make a difference to you if you knew that Charles (the actor who plays Bob) likes that ship? That he agrees that starting a relationship with Alice would make sense for Bob's character? That he was deliberately playing up the Unresolved Sexual Tension as he acted their scenes together? Bob totally ships Alob!

Note that an actor's preferred ship is not Word of Saint Paul, since it's their opinion, rather than any concrete fact about the work. However, an actor's ship preferences may include statements that do fall under Word of Saint Paul, such as behind-the-scenes commentary about scenes deliberately being played more romantically or ad-libbing extra lines not present in the script.

Not to be confused with Actor Shipping — this is not about the actors dating in real life (or fans thinking they should). It's about the actor endorsing a fictional pairing — either that of a character they play with another character, or two other characters. This applies to an Official Couple too (if there is one), as with fandom shipping, actors can throw support behind whichever pairing they fancy. An actor can even be a multishipper. However, a complicating factor is that actors are rarely at liberty to speak completely freely. Under most circumstances, an actor wants to preserve a public image, promote their work, avoid alienating fans, and maintain peace with bosses and co-workers. Given how contentious shipping can get, many are understandably wary.

The fandom gossip mill has been known to produce unsupported claims on this topic, leading to God Never Said That. When determining if an actor is an example, look for fandom-typical activities such as partaking in sharing or creating fanart, multiple statements about the ship, or a bias for the preferred ship. Sometimes an actor influences the work so that an unplanned relationship ends up becoming an Official Couple. An actor who advocated for their ship on set and later saw it canonized is certainly a shipper. One statement may not be enough, as an actor may be wary of a Fan-Preferred Couple or simply trying to promote their work. Use direct quotes when possible — they leave less room for Shipping Goggles.

Compare Shipper on Deck and The Matchmaker, the In-Universe equivalents.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Digimon Adventure: Even though Sora canonically ends up with Yamato at the end of Digimon Adventure 02, Ai Maeda, the voice of Mimi, has stated that she ships Sora with Taichi.
• Lyrical Nanoha: While the writers have always been tight-lipped on the nature of Nanoha and Fate's relationship, their voice actors Yukari Tamura and Nana Mizuki have stated in interviews that they consider them a romantic couple and portray them that way in later seasons. The fandom has since cited this as the Word of Gay in lieu of other sources.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The former English voice actresses of Ash (Veronica Taylor) and Misty (Rachael Lillis) have shown their support for Pokéshipping. The two would hang out and act in-character off set.
  • The current voice actress of Ash (Sarah Natochenny) and the voice of Serena (Haven Paschall) have shown their support for Amourshipping, with Sarah even tweeting "my favorite #armourshipping" in response to a Pokémon official tweet about the greatest love story.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: In the audio commentary of the twelfth episode, Chiwa Saito, Homura's voice actress, asked Gen Urobuchi for a love scene between Madoka and Homura if a second season was ever released. Aoi Yuuki, Madoka's voice actress, agreed with a (semi-in-character) fervent "I want to be happy". In the audio commentary of the previous episode, both actresses commented how Homura's confession was very emotional, with Yuuki thinking that Madoka would have accepted Homura's feelings.
• Trigun: Show Hayami (original voice of Wolfwood) has teased the idea of Vash and Wolfwood being a couple at events, though he was shot down by series creator Yasuhiro Nightow.

Film — Animated

• Raya and the Last Dragon: Kelly Marie Tran welcomes headcanons about Raya being LGBT, also believing that Raya is LGBT herself and that Raya and Namaari's relationship has a romantic subtext to it. She's even joked that she was probably the first person to ship them.
  Tran: I think if you're a person watching this movie and you see representation that feels real and authentic to you, then it's real and authentic. I think it might get me in trouble for saying that, but whatever.

Film — Live-Action

• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Brie Larson and Tessa Thompson have shared fanart on their social media depicting their characters Captain Marvel and Valkyrie dating. The Marvels (2023) saw Valkyrie making a cameo which included some Ship Tease between her and Carol Danvers (although the exact nature of their relationship is left up to interpretation).
  • Mark Ruffalo is aware of all the "Science Bros" slash between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, and supports it enthusiastically for its creativity.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Lee Majoub is a very vocal shipper of Dr. Robotnik and his own character, Robotnik's henchman Agent Stone, having made several posts on Twitter in support of the pairing and liking shippy fanart of them.
• Star Wars:
  • In the Sequel Trilogy, actors John Boyega and Oscar Isaac both supported the idea that their characters could be a couple, and actively played up the bromance, though the writers/studio never allowed it.
  • Boyega also said on Twitter than he believed/hoped Finn and Rey would hook up after The Rise of Skywalker.

Live-Action TV

• 9-1-1: Both Oliver Stark (Buck) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (Maddie, Buck's sister) have voiced their support for the fan shipping of Buck and Eddie (Buddie). Oliver enjoyed liking and sharing fanart and other edits that fans sent him on both Twitter and Instagram. Ryan Guzman (Eddie) also commented on the matter, saying that he liked the name "Buddie" better than the alternative "Beddie."
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Chloe Bennet and Elizabeth Henstridge (the actresses who portray Skye and Simmons respectively) have both said that support for the Skye/Simmons (Skimmons) ship. Bennet even did a Reddit AMA where she responded to a question about Skimmons with "I SHIP THAT SHIT SO HARD."
• The Borgias: While Cesare/Lucrezia did eventually become canon, showrunner Neil Jordan reportedly did not like it, and — in earlier seasons — said they weren't going there. François Arnaud (Cesare) is beloved by shippers for telling Niel that the script he wrote very much depicts the two being in love. Holliday Grainger (Lucrezia) reportedly agreed as well but didn't give interviews about it.
  François Arnaud interview: When we first got to Budapest, my first rehearsal was with Holly. It was for our very first scene together. We were lying in the garden and Neil kept insisting that we had too many innuendos or it was too romantic or too sexual. And we both argued that it was already all over his writing.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar, who portrays Buffy, considers Buffy's true love and soulmate to be Angel, who she dated during the first three seasons.
  • Alyson Hannigan, on the other hand, said long after the show wrapped that she thought Buffy would be the happiest with Willow.
• Community has the not-quite-canon, ship teased pair of Jeff and Annie, which Alison Brie (Annie's actress) supports wholeheartedly. She has said the following in an interview, differentiating her shipping side from her actor side:
  Alison Brie interview: I love the Jeff-and-Annie thing when it doesn't infringe on Annie being a grown-up person. I think it was really exciting this [fifth] season to see Annie grow up in a lot of ways and kind of take that power back and not always be pining for Jeff, even though they had their moments. So I like to see Annie be a little more self-sufficient and strong. But at the same time... I'll always ship Jeff and Annie! I'm a fan of it.
• Daredevil:
  • Charlie Cox is very enthusiastic about the pairing, and hopes season 3 of the show will give Matt / Karen room to grow:
    "I have small thoughts that I would like to see happen ... I'm invested in the Karen / Matt relationship. I'd like to see that figure itself out somehow. I feel like they could really help each other. And I think that they love each other a great deal. So I would like for that relationship to get back on track somehow..."
  • Prior to season 3, Deborah Ann Woll demonstrated her own shipping of the pair by adapting a set photo of the scene where Matt and Karen track down Jasper Evans for the header photo on her Twitter and Facebook pages.
• Daughter From Another Mother: The song "Que PASE y YA" by Paulina Goto is especially dedicated to the "Maryana" shippers and along her costar Ludwika Paleta both have been strong supporters of the ship in their social media before it was official.
• Firefly: Adam Baldwin said he saw Jayne having a crush on Inara, though showrunner Joss Whedon disagreed.
  Adam Baldwin interview: Joss will disagree with us but my subtext was that Jayne had a crush on Inara, and that was sort of his driving energy. Joss was always like, "No! Wrong Adam, he does not."
• Gotham Knights: Tyler DiChiara, who plays Cullen Row, has been known to encourage fans who ship Harper Row and Stephanie Brown together, posting about the ship frequently on Twitter.
• House of Anubis: Brad Kavanagh (Fabian) was vocal about his support of the Nina and Fabian (Fabina) pairing. He wrote a song he'd hoped Fabian could sing to Nina, but it never got added to the show. Additionally, he claimed at after the series ended, Fabian moved to America to reunite with Nina, who'd been Put on a Bus in season 3.
• Legacies: Both Kaylee Bryant and Danielle Rose Russell have both been very vocal of their support for the Hope/Josie (Hosie) ship, saying that they think it is cute and would love for it to happen while making it clear that they don't have any power over it either way.
  Danielle: Oh my god. You picked up on Hosie. We are making Hosie happen.
  Kaylee: The control we have is to say yes we would love to. At the beginning of the show, what we were doing was, putting different cast members together in different scenes to see what sticks. Danielle and I were one of the first people to really start starting working together. So it was just like a natural thing of 'Oh yeah. Like this is cute.'
• The Mandalorian:
  • Ming-Na Wen has tweeted teasing◊ a ship between her character Fennec Shand and the titular Mandalorian.
  • Pedro Pascal shared some romantic fanart of Din Djarin and Cobb Vanth in a Valentine's Day Instagram story, after The Book of Boba Fett reunited the characters for a drink.
  • Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan) has spoken very openly about how the possibility of a relationship between Bo-Katan and Din was discussed on set. She says they joked around about how the helmet logistics would work, and reports there's a jokey Throw It In! outtake where Din grabs Bo's face and kisses her through the helmet. As for shipping in a narrow sense, she talks about Din's vow of devotion and service to Bo in "Chapter 23: The Spies":
    Katee Sackhoff interview: That scene where he says that, "Your song is not yet written." That — it was so hard not to cry during that scene. It was just such a sweet moment. [...] At home I was like, "Oh my god, he loves her so much." [...] But I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm like shipping them."
• Motherland: Fort Salem: Jessica Sutton enthusiastically encouraged fans to ship her character Tally with Sarah Alder, vocally supporting the ship over the canon Cravenwood.
• Never Have I Ever: In a 2023 interview about the final season, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Devi) was asked which characters she shipped. Her response was Trent and Eleanor, saying they were the cutest and "the best kind of weirds for each other".
• Riverdale: From the very first episode to the end of the series, KJ Apa (Archie Andrews) championed the comics classic Archie/Betty pairing, and wanted them to be endgame.
• From Stargirl, Brec Bassinger made several tweets referencing Starcat, the pairing of Courtney and Yolanda.
• Supergirl: Katie McGrath was very outspoken about her support for the SuperCorp (Kara x Lena) ship.
  Katie: (reading a SuperCorp fanfic) "Lena kisses [Kara's] cheek. 'I love you'."
  Katie: That's the bit I'm signing.
• Stranger Things is the source of multiple examples:
  • Noah Schnapp has expressed his support for Byler, the ship between Will, his character, and Mike, in a tweet and during panels and has liked TikToks about it.
  • Gaten Matarazzo spoke positively about Steddie (Steve/Eddie) in an interview.
  • Natalia Dyer, Maya Hawke, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery have a group chat where they send each other Ronance (Robin/Nancy) memes.
  • Charlie Heaton joked that Jonathan would get with Steve if he wasn't with Nancy.
  • Millie Bobby Brown is famously a multi-shipper and particularly adores Mileven.
  • David Harbour is super enthusiastic about Jopper's romance.

Video Games

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
  • Chris Hackney is a notorious Dimileth shipper, playing female Byleth on his stream of the game solely to marry her to Dimitri, and has liked fanart of the ship on Twitter.
  • Joe Brogie is among those who think They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot with Sylvain and Bernadetta's lack of an A-support, stating that he thought they had romantic potential.
• Persona 5: Erika Harlacher, the voice of Ann Takamaki, is a big shipper of her character with fellow Phantom Thief team member Ryuji Sakamoto. She's made a couple of tweets before and after the game's release that shows her supporting it on fanart and the like. She once stated at a convention that, while she was recording her lines for Ann, she was shocked that the two characters didn't end up together once she was done with the main story and it was time to do the Confidant dialogue (which includes an optional romance route with player character Joker).
• Resident Evil: Nick Apostolides (Leon's English VA for 2 and 4's remakes) is very vocal about his support for the Leon/Ada (Aeon) ship, liking and sharing fanart of the ship and even taking part in cosplay. In streams and posts he also regularly refers to Ada as his (Leon's) wife despite the characters not being married.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Jun'ichi Kanemaru and Taeko Kawata, the Japanese voice actors of Sonic and Amy, have shared Sonamy-themed Tweets and sung the infamously ship-teasing "Shining Road" from Sonic X as an in-character duet.
• Tales of Vesperia:
  • Kosuke Toriumi, the original Japanese voice of Yuri Lowell, insists that Yuri/Flynn and Rita/Estelle are the canon pairings. During an event for the Tales series where the voice actors Tales of... heroes were meant to shout the names of their respective heroines, Toriumi went off script and had Yuri shout "Flynn! I love you!" instead of Estelle.
  • Bonnie Pink, who did the opening theme to Tales of Vesperia, ships Yuri/Flynn and she has stated she wrote the Japanese lyrics to "Ring A Bell" to be about Estelle being a third wheel to Yuri and Flynn.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Malos' English voice actor, David Menkin, supports the Malos/Jin ship and read their interactions that way during his performance, as stated during an interview:
  Several of the characters I’ve voiced through the years have let me know that they were queer, without there being anything necessarily implicit in the writing. An example is Malos: nowhere does it say that he is actually in love with Jin... but come on!?

Visual Novels

• The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog: DEEGEEMIN, the game's artist, ships player character Barry the Quokka with the default avatar of Sonic Forces, Gadget the Wolf.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • The show's famous Fan-Preferred Couple Zuko/Katara (Zutara) has the support of Zuko's voice actor Dante Basco, to the point that fans call him the captain of the ship. The man has sold Zutara merch online.
  • Mae Whitman, the voice of Katara, has also shown support for the ship.
• The Dragon Prince: Before becoming the Official Couple, the pairing of Rayla and Callum had the support of Soren's voice actor, Jesse Inocalla. After their Relationship Upgrade in Season 3, their own voice actors, Paula Barrows and Jack DeSena, have since expressed support for their characters relationship on social media many times.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: Alan Lee supported the pairing of Molly and Libby during the show's first season. Ironically, he's the voice of Oliver "Ollie" Chen, a character introduced in the second season to serve as Molly's canon love interest.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Ashleigh Ball, the voice actress of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, is apparently a fan of the AppleDash fan shipping, if these posts are any indication.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Marco Diaz’s voice actor Adam McArthur has made it abundantly clear from the beginning that he is the biggest Starco shipper in the world, even before the actual show started giving obvious Ship Tease for Star and Marco.
• Star Wars Rebels: Steve Blum (who voices Zeb) was very vocal in his support of the "Kalluzeb" (Zeb/Kallus) ship, with him regularly hyping it up and saying how much he wanted it to happen. One of his most mentioned wants for Zeb is that he and Kallus would settle down on Lira San, which did happen (although without it being confirmed rather it was romantic or not), much to Blum's vocal joy as shown in this one interview:
  "From the very first time Zeb and Kallus appeared together, I joked that someday they'd become a couple and end up on Lirasan (sic) together. I had NO idea that it would actually happen! It was the greatest gift anyone had ever given me in terms of a character's evolution. I've been thanking Dave Filoni ever since. The shippers went out of their minds and I wholeheartedly encourage that. Could just be buddies/brothers, but I love the idea that they could be more."

---