Same-Sex Kiss Cut from ‘Gladiator II’

metroweekly.com:

Gladiator II.The Oscar-winning actor plays Macrinus, an ambitious, wealthy Roman businessman who is presumed to be bisexual in the film.“I kissed the man in the film but they took it [out].

I think they got chicken,” he told Gayety. “I kissed a guy full on the lips, and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet.”The gesture, at least in the context of the movie’s plot, was not a romantic one, but more of a sealing of one’s fate. “I killed him about 5 minutes later,” Washington says of the character kissed by Macrinus. “It’s Gladiator.

It’s the kiss of death.”According to Page Six, Washington’s wasn’t the only same-sex kiss cut from the final edit. Paul Mescal, who plays protagonist Lucius, recently told Entertainment Weekly that he took some creative liberty while filming a fight scene alongside Pedro Pascal, who plays the Roman general Acacius.“There was a moment when we were rehearsing my fight scene with Pedro, and I had an idea toward 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 [Scott], and I was like, ‘Ridley: Kiss on the forehead, did you like it?