Legendary actor Denzel Washington has locked lips with co-stars in many of his movies, but it appears a recent kissing scene that he was involved in will be kept away from the audience.
While promoting Gladiator II in an interview with Gayety, the 69-year-old touched on his character in the movie. He also revealed that he actually kissed a man in one of the scenes when he was asked to share his opinion on “how gay” the Roman Empire was, CNN reported.
“I actually kissed a man in the film but they took it out. They cut it,” the Oscar winner said. “I think they got chicken.” He also revealed that he “kissed a guy full on the lips” before adding, “I guess they weren’t ready for that yet.”
He then jokingly said that he killed the character not too long after locking lips with him, describing it as the “kiss of death.”
In the movie, Washington portrays the role of Macrinus, a wealthy powerbroker who “runs a gladiator training stable”, Gazettely reported. The movie also stars Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Connie Nielsen.
But Washington wasn’t the only character who had a same-sex kiss in the movie as Mescal in an interview with Entertainment Weekly also said he did something similar in a scene with Pascal.
“There was a moment when we were rehearsing my fight scene with Pedro, and I had an idea towards 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 [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.’”
Gladiator II is scheduled to hit the theatres on November 22.
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