Denzel Washington said he filmed a same-sex kiss scene, but it was ultimately cut from his upcoming film, “Gladiator II.”
The 69-year-old Oscar-winning actor stars in Ridley Scott’s historical action film as Macrinus, a wealthy Roman businessman who keeps a stable of gladiators for sport, per Variety.
The “Gladiator II” script says the character had been in relationships with other men in the past. This fact inspired an interviewer for Gayety to ask Washington, “How gay is the Roman empire?”
“I actually kissed a man in the film but they took it out, they cut it, I think they got chicken,” the actor replied. “I kissed a guy full on the lips and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet. I killed him about five minutes later. It’s ‘Gladiator.’ It’s the kiss of death.”
Scott responded to a question from The New York Times about Macrinus’ “hints of bisexuality” by saying, “There’s a twinkle.”
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“Also, he’s a gangster,” the director continued. “I think he was clearly a prisoner of war, went to the ring, earned his freedom, suddenly working in a giant bread factory and supplied bread for the Roman army. He maybe eventually took that over, then goes to munitions, so he’s an arms dealer. I thought that was his evolution. He said, ‘Oh, I like that. I’m a gangster.’”
Paul Mescal, who plays Lucius Verus in the upcoming film, said he threw in an unscripted kiss scene and didn’t know how it would be received. The actor told CinemaBlend recently that he sporadically kissed Pedro Pascal, who plays Marcus Acacius, on the forehead during a fight scene.
“I didn’t tell Ridley I was gonna do it. And then I was nervous after we did it because I thought he was going to f***ing hate it,” Mescal told the outlet. “So I nervously go over the radio being like, ‘Ridley? Did you like the kiss on the forehead? Yay or nay?’ And there was this kind of, like, [static] ‘I’m afraid I did.’ So I don’t know where it got lost in the edit, but I trust this man entirely, though. How he cuts his films.”
Scott told the outlet that the deleted forehead kiss scene could make the director’s cut.
“Gladiator II,” the follow-up to a five-time Academy Award-winning historical epic from 2000, is already generating Oscar buzz, specifically for Washington.
