If we don’t get that Denzel kiss cut released right away, Ridley Scott and I are going to have some serious problems. Even a sneak peek will do.
“How gay is the Roman Empire” was the question asked by Gayety to the man, the myth, Macrinus aka Denzel Washington when the actor dramatically revealed that he had actually “kissed a man” in his upcoming epic action Gladiator 2. Right then, we all gasped just like the interviewer, both in awe and disappointment. Awe because Oh. My. God. and disappointment because the kiss didn’t quite make it past the cutting room floor. “They took it out, they cut it, I think they got chicken,” Washington confided.
This juicy tidbit came from Gayety’s Oct. 31st interview, where Washington discussed his role as the ruthless Macrinus, a former slave plotting to seize control of ancient Rome. But forget the blood-soaked battles and political intrigue—the real drama came in the form of his unexpected and first-ever on-screen gay kiss. “I kissed the guy full on the lips and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet,” Washington said.
While he didn’t spill the beans on the identity of his lucky lip-lock partner, Washington did drop a deliciously dramatic detail: “I killed the guy five minutes later” in the film. He also called the kiss “the kiss of death” and a source confirmed to The Post that the kiss was filmed but it “wasn’t a sexy kiss.” The kiss had all the passion of a dagger to the heart, fitting Washington’s “kiss of death” label.
But hey, a kiss is a kiss, and now we all will be watching Gladiator 2 with our eyes peeled for every guy Macrinus slays, taking notes on which one might have had the honor of tasting those fatal lips before death. On that note, we need to congratulate Scott. It must’ve been fun keeping the scene all to yourself and leaving us all hanging?
What makes this revelation even more frustrating is that it comes right after we hear of a forehead kiss between Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal getting omitted from the film’s final cut. Like okay, we get that they want the film to be all about big tough guys with their swords clashing against each other and buckets of blood, but a little fan service doesn’t hurt anybody.
Given that Denzel Washington is eyeing a break from acting soon after he finishes his last batch of films, this was probably our only chance to ever see him anywhere near a man’s lips. And we all already know that the Roman Empire was all for same-sex romance, so it’s a bit of a missed opportunity that the kiss didn’t make the final cut.
But okay, life has to go on. We can still catch the soon-to-be-70-year-old actor delivering his signature action sequences, albeit in a hot Roman soldier ensemble that’s sure to make even the gods take notice. The epic sequel will rush into the US theaters on Nov. 22 and is already in the buzz for several potential Oscar wins.