During the Gladiator II premiere on November 18 night, director Ridley Scott denied Denzel Washington's gay kiss claim and said that they "acted" the moment. In an interview with Gayety earlier this month, Denzel claimed that he "actually kissed a man in the film but they took it out, I think they got chicken." He also added,
"I kissed a guy full on the lips and they...I guess they weren't ready for that yet. I killed him about five minutes later."
During the premiere on Monday in Los Angeles, a Variety reporter questioned Ridley about Denzel Washington's claims to which he said,
"No, that's bulls***. It was a senator. They never did. They acted the moment and it didn't happen. It didn't happen because they acted the moment as if he (did)."
When the interviewer caught Denzel on the same red carpet quoting Ridley's words, Denzel said,
"It's much ado about nothing, it really is much ado about nothing, you know, they're making more of it that it was. I kissed him on his hands, I gave him a peck and I killed him."
More about Denzel Washington's claims on same-s*x kiss in Gladiator II
Although Ridley Scott denied Denzel Washington's claims about removing a scene involving a same-s*x kiss, the script of Gladiator II mentions Washington's character, Macrinus being in relationships with men in the past.
Paul Mescal while speaking to Entertainment Weekly also claimed that a forehead kiss between him and Pedro Pascal was also removed from the movie,
"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. I did it in one of the takes, and then we're getting the radio messages back to Ridley, and I was like, "Ridley: Kiss on the forehead, did you like it? Yay or nay?"
Connie Nielsen who reprises her role as Lucilla in the movie spoke to Variety during the Governors Awards in Los Angeles, revealing that the kiss scene was cut since "there was no room for it."
"My grieving scene didn't make it into the film either. It's not homophobia. It's just there was no room for it."
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Producer Michael Pruss also added that there "was so much stuff that was shot" and they didn't make it into the movie.
The movie is all set to release on November 22 in the USA.
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