When viewing the legendary kiss in the 1999 film Never Been Kissed starring Drew Barrymore and Michael Vartan, it’s difficult not to get a little choked up. Vartan claims that as they were filming the moment, he experienced a little more than just emotion.

The sequence has grown to be a rom-com staple. Barrymore plays Josie Geller, a journalist who decides to pose as a student at a high school in order to give parents greater insight into their children’s life. She develops feelings for her instructor Sam (Vartan), which results in a dramatic climax in which Josie, who has never been in a committed relationship, shares a passionate kiss with him on a baseball field’s pitcher’s mound.

On Tuesday’s edition of The Drew Barrymore Show, Molly Shannon and David Arquette joined host Barrymore, 46, for a cast reunion for the 1999 romantic comedy. He also ran up on stage as Barrymore showed a clip of the famous kiss between her and Vartan, 52, at the conclusion of the movie.

The Alias actor was visibly moved as he stood there, saying, “I’ve got to say I haven’t seen that clip in years.”

The Alias actor admitted: ‘I’ve got to say I haven’t seen that clip in years and standing there I got emotional.’

‘This movie has been a huge part of my life. Every time I am stopped it’s always, Never Been Kissed.

‘That’s a pretty amazing thing to be a part of and this reunion is just wonderful.’

The 52-year-old Alias actor talked about their passionate kissing sequence and said he felt a bodily reaction that made him nervous when 46-year-old Barrymore asked him if he had any special memories of filming.

He stated, noting that not even Barrymore was aware of his predicament at the time, “Yeah, there’s a story about the famous scene that very few people know about and I’m not sure I should… So, I get up to the mound, we embrace and we start kissing, and you really kissed me. I mean, you really kissed me. I was not ready for it in the least and I’m a man, I was a very young man back then, and I had uh, feelings.”

“The feelings were, they just happened, and I very quickly realized I was in a very bad spot because I was wearing very loose sort of like slacks and I thought, ‘This is going to be a disaster when they cut, I must preemptively end this,'” he continued. “So what I did, in a panic, I just yelled cut, and bent over and said, ‘Oh guys, sorry, my back, I put my back out playing ball.’… Anyway, I went off into my corner and … finally I was able to compose myself, and luckily the subsequent scenes went on without a hitch. You are a very good kisser.”

She observed that they had kissed quite passionately, just as she had wanted. “You weren’t married at the time, so yeah I went for it,” she teased. “Because you were single, and I felt like I wasn’t going to offend anybody.  He later started dating Jennifer Garner, his Alias co-star, and he was wed to Lauren Skaar from 2011 to 2014.

“You did something that for me is the ultimate in romance with a kiss, which is when you put your hands on a woman’s face,” she said.

Vartan also revealed that he has kept the wrap gift Barrymore gave him, originally a small plant, for over 20 years, and that he’s kept a picture of the “now 15, 16 feet tall” plant on his phone in case he ever ran into her.

Barrymore described the gift as a “perfect metaphor” for the cult classic, which, she added, helped launch the careers of James Franco, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Alba and John C. Reilly. “It was a real dream cast. It just was lightning in a bottle and a moment that we all cherish,” Barrymore said.

In a recent interview with ET, Barrymore discussed season 2 of The Drew Barrymore Show. She said that in addition to the Never Been Kissed cast reunion, she intends to bring back reporter Josie Grossie and send her to film premieres to conduct interviews with celebrities.

Drew added, “stepping back into Josie Grossie’s shoes is so easy.”

‘I don’t think I have ever not been in her shoes. I loved this character so much. She was so personal for me. This whole story for me was not to do another rom-com, it was to embody a human being that represents us all. How and when do we become OK with ourselves? That is what Never Been Kissed is all about.’