Actor Denzel Washington says he “kissed a guy full on the lips” in the 2024 movie Gladiator II, but that the queer scene ended up being axed from the film.
“I actually kissed a man in the film but they took it out, they cut it, I think they got chicken,” Washington, who plays Macrinus in the Gladiator sequel, told the LGBTQ-focused media company Gayety in a recent interview.
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“I kissed a guy full on the lips, and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet,” the actor elaborated.
Washington went on to reveal, “I killed him about five minutes” after the gay kiss, adding, “It’s Gladiator. It’s the kiss of death.”
It remains unclear which of his co-stars Washington kissed while playing Macrinus, a ruthless Roman businessman, in Gladiator II.
Gayety also inquired about a supposed forehead kiss between actors Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal that was also cut from the film, to which Washington replied, “I’m not sure about that one.”
In another interview with Cinemablend, Mescal informed the outlet of an axed scene in which he kissed Pascal on the forehead.
“I didn’t tell [filmmaker] Ridley [Scott] I was gonna do it,” Mescal revealed. “And then I was nervous after we did it because I thought he was going to fucking 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,” the actor continued.
Mescal went on to say, “But I trust this man entirely, though — how he cuts his films.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
