Director Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II may be set in ancient Rome, which was relatively tolerant of certain forms of same-sex relationships, but don’t expect to see much queer smooching in the film.
In fact, according to star Denzel Washington, a scene in which his character kisses another man was cut from the film.
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In a recent video interview with Gayety, the LGBTQ+ outlet’s reporter noted that Washington’s character, ruthless Roman businessman Macrinus, remarks several times in the film about “having a relationship with other men.”
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“I actually kissed a man in the film,” Washington responded, adding that the moment was ultimately left on the cutting room floor. “I think they got chicken.”
“I kissed a guy full on the lips and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet,” he added.
Even if the scene had remained in the film, it doesn’t sound like the Washington’s Macrinus and the unnamed character were headed for a happy ending.
“I killed him about five minutes later,” the actor said, describing it as “the kiss of death.”
The highly anticipated sequel to Scott’s Academy Award winning 2000 epic picks up more than 20 years after the events of the original film and finds Paul Mescal’s Lucius Verus taken into slavery and forced to become a gladiator after Pedro Pascal’s Marcus Acacius invades his home city.
Gladiator II, has already made headlines after it was reported that Scott also cut another same-sex kiss from the film, this one involving Mescal planting a peck on Pascal’s forehead.
“I didn’t tell Ridley I was gonna do it,” Mescal told Cinema Blend this week. “And then I was nervous after we did it because I thought he was going to f***ing hate it. 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 has promised that the Mescal-Pascal kiss will be restored in the film’s director’s cut.
Still, Gladiator II isn’t without queer cache. Last year, Mescal starred in Andrew Haigh’s acclaimed gay romance All of Us Strangers, while Pascal played a gay cowboy in Pedro Almodovar’s Strange Way of Life and has been a vocal supporter of his transgender sister, actress Lux Pascal. Washington, meanwhile, starred opposite Tom Hanks in the 1993 AIDS drama Philadelphia, and out British actors Derek Jacobi and Matt Lucas both have supporting roles in Scott’s film.
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