Denzel Washington revealed in an interview with Gayety that his gay kissing scene was axed in the final cut of the film Gladiator II, which rolls out in theatres on November 22. Washington, who plays a powerful Roman businessman named Macrinus, told the outlet,
"I actually kissed the man in the film, but they took it, they cut it. I think they got chicken. 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.”
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Washington's character is presumed to be bisexual. In the film, he embodies an arms dealer infamous in the Roman Empire. His character is in charge of equipping the armies with food and weapons. When he's not dealing and being cruel, he's managing a fleet of gladiators.
Learn more about how Gladiator II director Ridley Scot had to convince Denzel Washington to join the cast
Denzel Washington and Ridley Scott are reuniting after their 2007 film American Gangster. In speaking of the director, the actor told Deadline:
"I call him the governor. The word I hear is ‘evolve’. But the first Gladiator, it won Best Picture, and I guess it was a film that directed itself. I would never use the word evolve. He was a great director back then, and he will be for all time.”
Scott then revealed that to persuade Denzel Washington to take up the role, Scott had to show him a painting by 19th-century artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
"[Alma-Tadema’s] work in Roman and Greek circumstance, they are spectacular. There was a painting which I think defines the Macrinus: a guy standing there, with huge forearms. He’s African, superlatively powerful, and he’s wearing beautiful silk — orange and sky-blue silk — and he’s got a beard that hits a point. He’s got a hat on the back of his head; it looks a bit like a Dizzy Gillespie hat but woven with beads and whatever else they used back then. Denzel said, ‘What does he do?’ I said, ‘Well, he’s a billionaire.’ He said, ‘Oh, OK, send me the script.’”
Notably, Denzel Washington's gay kiss wasn't the only kissing scene between two men to get axed. Paul Mescal, the actor behind Lucius, told Entertainment Weekly that he experimented a bit while fighting alongside his co-star, Pedro Pascal:
"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. I did it in one of the takes, and then we’re getting the radio messages back to Ridley [in video village], and I was like, ‘Ridley: Kiss on the forehead, did you like it? Yay or nay?' There was radio silence for a second. His radio crackles back, and [Ridley] goes, ‘I’m afraid I did.'”
However, the scene never made it to the final cut.
Gladiator II is the sequel to part one of the same name, which came out in 2000. The Russel Crowe film was a massive blockbuster and nabbed a whopping 12 Academy Awards.
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