Gladiators
Denzel Washington Reveals His Same-Sex Kiss Was Cut From ‘Gladiator II’
Gladiator II is coming to the big screen on November 22, and people are already thrilled to see the highly-anticipated Ridley Scott sequel. With a bunch of new characters, the world will be introduced to the latest set of fighters and another gladiatorial manager: Macrinus (Denzel Washington).
With the promise of even more villainous plot points, there’s got to be some romantic distraction, right? Well, a same-sex lip lock did not make it into the film. Perhaps, if they had more closely followed the history of the ancient Greeks, it could have become a reality.
When asked “how gay” the Roman Empire was, Washington told Gayety that he filmed a scene where he kissed a male costar on the mouth. “I think they got chicken,” the 69-year-old iconic actor stated. Clarifying that he “kissed a guy full on the lips,” he then concluded, “I guess they weren’t ready for that yet.”
Talking more about the segment, Washington joked that in the sequence he “killed him [the character he kissed] about five minutes later” in what he called the “kiss of death.”
This was not the first time news about a scrapped male-on-male act of affection was shared about Gladiator II. Previously, Paul Mescal, who portrays the main character Lucius, told Entertainment Weekly that a forehead kiss between him and Pedro Pascal‘s Marcus Acacius also didn’t make it into the film.
The Normal People alum said that he and Pascal were rehearsing a fight scene while filming when suddenly he “had an idea” of kissing The Last of Us star “on the forehead” toward the end of combat.
He disclosed more about the improvised instance: “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.'”
Mescal added, “I think Ridley’s one of the funniest men I’ve ever come across,” before sadly announcing that the filmed kiss was also scrapped.
Gladiator II, In Theaters, November 22, 2024
