Same-Sex Kiss Cut from ‘Gladiator II’
Star Denzel Washington says a scene featuring his "kiss of death" was removed from the final version of the film.
Denzel Washington revealed that a scene in which he kisses another male actor was cut from the final version of the movie Ridley Scott’s upcoming Gladiator II.
The Oscar-winning actor plays Macrinus, an ambitious, wealthy Roman businessman who is presumed to be bisexual in the film.
“I kissed the man in the film but they took it [out]. I think they got chicken,” he told Gayety. “I kissed a guy full on the lips, and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet.”
The gesture, at least in the context of the movie’s plot, was not a romantic one, but more of a sealing of one’s fate.
“I killed him about 5 minutes later,” Washington says of the character kissed by Macrinus. “It’s Gladiator. It’s the kiss of death.”
According to Page Six, Washington’s wasn’t the only same-sex kiss cut from the final edit. Paul Mescal, who plays protagonist Lucius, recently told Entertainment Weekly that he took some creative liberty while filming a fight scene alongside Pedro Pascal, who plays the Roman general Acacius.
“There was a moment when we were rehearsing my fight scene with Pedro, and I had an idea toward the end of the scene to kiss Pedro on the forehead,” Mescal said.
“I did it in one of the takes, and then we’re getting the radio messages back to [director] Ridley [Scott], and I was like, ‘Ridley: Kiss on the forehead, did you like it? Yay or nay?'” Mescal said. “There was radio silence for a second. His radio crackles back, and [Ridley] goes, ‘I’m afraid I did.'”
But that take also ended up being removed from the sequel to the 2000 blockbuster starring Russell Crowe.
It’s not uncommon for displays of same-sex affection to be censored or cut from films.
In 2016, Delta outraged viewers when the airline began showing the lesbian drama Carol with all the same-sex kissing scenes removed.
In 2022, the country of Kuwait censored a same-sex forehead kiss between two characters in Marvel’s Wakanda Forever.
That same year, Pixar edited out, and later restored, a same-sex embrace and kiss in the movie Lightyear, a prequel to the popular children’s movie Toy Story.
Additionally, Middle Eastern nations and other countries where homosexuality is criminalized have at times banned movies depicting same-sex affection or relationships.
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