As Oscar bells are beginning to ring around the actor’s performance as Macrinus in Gladiator 2, Denzel Washington has made headlines with his claim that he filmed a gay kiss scene for the film but the higher-ups ultimately “got chicken” and left it on the cutting room floor.
However, according to the film’s director Ridley Scott, Washington’s conclusion could not be farther from the truth.
Washington revealed this behind-the-scenes factoid while speaking to the LGBT+-centric news outlet Gayety as part of the Gladiator 2 press tour.
Asked by his host as to “how gay is the Roman Empire” as portrayed in the film, the actor revealed, “I actually kissed a man, but they cut it.”
“I think they got chicken,” he said. “I kissed a guy full on the lips. I guess they weren’t ready for that yet.”
“I killed [the character I kissed] about five minutes later,” Washington further clarified. “It’s Gladiator – It’s the kiss of death.”
In Gladiator 2, Washington plays the aforementioned Macrinus, a wealthy arms dealer who also owns the local gladiator training grounds.
But as the film delves into his past, it is discovered that not only was he once a slave himself, having earned his freedom through the arena, but that he also is also bisexual, having previously shared relationships with men.
Notably, Macrinus is the first openly gay/bisexual character Washington has ever played in his four-decade-long career. To this end, regardless of one’s opinion on the overall subject matter, the inclusion of his supposed ‘man-on-man’ kiss would have marked a defining moment it in his career.
However, according to both Denzel’s costars and members of the film’s production team, it was simply the nature of film editing, rather than malice, that resulted in the scene’s absence from the final cut.
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The first to speak up was an anonymous Gladiator 2 production insider, who alleged to TMZ that the scene, as recapped by the site’s writers, “was not in the script — and done during an improvised take of which there were many for the scene”.
Likewise, on November 17th, Lucilla actor Connie Nielsen rebuffed the claims of homophobia, telling Variety during the recent Governors Awards event, “My grieving scene didn’t make it into the film either. It is not homophobia. It is just, there was no room for it.”
Appearing alongside Nielsen, the film’s producer, Michael Pruss, agreed, “There was so much stuff that was shot that didn’t make it into the film. It was truly, a non-event.”
#Gladiator2 star Connie Nielsen on the gay kiss that was cut from the final film: "It's not homophobia. There was no room for it." https://t.co/THP0HYn2wa pic.twitter.com/lMLU2JcnBN
— Variety (@Variety) November 18, 2024
Then, at Gladiator 2’s November 18th premiere in Hollywood, the aforementioned Scott dismissed Washington’s assertion that the scene was cut because the production team got cold feet.
“No, that’s bulls–t,” the director told Variety‘s Marc Malkin. “They never did. They acted the moment — it didn’t happen.”
And in apparently recanting his previous statements, on the red carpet, Washington clarified that the noise around the kiss was “much ado about nothing”.
“They’re making more of it than it was,” he ultimately downplayed his words. “I kissed him on his hands, I gave him a peck, and I killed him.”
