Was There A Gay Kiss In Gladiator II? All The Confusion, Explained

There’s some confusion about what exactly went down in the ring during Gladiator II. ICYMI, during an interview with Gayety, posted on YouTube on Oct. 31, Denzel Washington said that the sequel featured a gay kiss before it was cut. But the film’s director, Ridley Scott, remembers it differently.

“I actually kissed a man in the film but they took it out. They cut it. I think they got chicken,” Washington told Gayety during the video interview. “I kissed a guy full on the lips and I guess they weren’t ready for that yet. I killed him about five minutes later. It’s Gladiator. It’s the kiss of death.”

On the red carpet, however, Scott called the whole story “b*llsh*t.” When Variety asked him about Washington’s quote, he seemed confused about what kiss was in question. “No, that’s b*llsh*t,” he told the outlet at the Nov. 18 premiere in Los Angeles. “It was a senator. They never did. They acted the moment — it didn’t happen.”

Washington then clarified his comments. “It really is much ado about nothing. They’re making more of it than it was. I kissed him on his hands, I gave him a peck, and I killed him,” he said, per Variety.

One of Gladiator II’s producers, Michael Pruss, added his two cents to the discourse at the Governors Ball on Nov. 17. “There was so much stuff that was shot that didn’t make it into the film. It was truly a non-event,” he told Variety at the time.

Despite the kiss confusion, Washington has had great things to say about working on the film, seemingly confident that it will live up to the hype of the original Gladiator, which was released back in 2000. “Gladiator II is Gladiator II,” Washington told CBS in a Nov. 18 interview. “It stands on its own.”

He also had compliments for Scott as a director. “It made our job easy,” Washington added to CBS. “He built Rome. So all we had to do was put the gear on, you know, affect an accent if you will — or not — and be.”

“He's a master at what he does. I'm pretty good at what I do too. So, there's an understanding and a freedom,” Washington continued to describe working with Scott. “Sometimes I'm setting him up, sometimes he's setting me up. It's inspiring.”