Harry Styles has a tradition of spitting at concerts

Last night amidst all of the crazy Don’t Worry Darling premiere drama, including Florence Pugh ignoring director Olivia Wilde during a four minute standing ovation, another little piece of drama bubbled to the forefront.

A video that quickly went viral seemed to show star Harry Styles spit on costar Chris Pine, adding more fuel to an already blazing fire of a rumor that no one in that cast was getting along ever. What made the video even more believable was that Styles actually loves spitting and it’s something he’s known for doing at his concerts.

Styles is a fan of the whale. If you’re not familiar, the whale is when you swallow a lot of water, flop your arms back like fins and blow water out of your blowhole (mouth) in a fantastic display of human dexterity. During a concert with the lights and the loudness and Styles’ incredible presence, it can be pretty spectacular.

Styles is so known for this that fans have even made compilation videos of the famous singer employing the move. Take a look below:

Because he’s Harry Styles, he doesn’t half ass it. It’s a powerful move that uses every muscle of his body, and he expels the water quickly like a cannon or a firecracker. This is Styles at his peak. He generally employs the whale at the end of a song when he gives the crowd two peace signs then he bows.

As he whales it up, the lights flash and the drummer hits a cymbal at the perfect time. It’s physical poetry and the more you watch it the more you realize that Styles is such a good spitter that it’s seemingly whale or nothing. Would he really have spit on Pine in such a wimpy fashion? Wouldn’t he swallow a whole bunch of water and whale his costar?

Regardless, the spit incident in question never happened, Pines rep told Variety.

“This is a ridiculous story — a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation. Just to be clear, Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine. There is nothing but respect between these two men and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant attempt to create drama that simply does not exist.”

The video was slowed down, analyzed and watched more than 1.6 million times but it still seemed somewhat inconclusive. What we do know is that Styles likes to make a spectacle of his spitting, so in that sense it was definitely believable.

So what actually happened? It looks like Pine simply lost and then found his sunglasses in his lap. Boo. Long Live the Whale.

You can see what all the fuss is about yourself when Don’t Worry Darling hits theaters on Sept. 23.