Actor Washington said he had a gay scene that was left on the cutting room floor.
“I actually kissed a man in the film, but they took it out,” revealed the Glory and Training Day Oscar winner – adding: “I think they got chicken. 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.”
And talk about hot and cold – the epic boat battle in the Gladiator sequel began filming on Malta in the summer of 2023, when temperatures soared to 110 degrees. But an actors’ strike shut down production, and the scene was resumed at the same place in January 2024 in chilly 50-degree temperatures.
Gladiator II drew just one Oscar nomination for Costume Design but lost out to Wicked. The original Gladiator won five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor (Crowe), Best Supporting Actor (Phoenix), Best Director (Scott), and Best Screenplay.
The historical epic film made more than $462million at the box office against a budget of about $250million, a tidy sum that fell short of the Gladiator numbers – a $465million take and a $110million budget.
But viewers were ultimately turned off by what critics branded Mescal’s “wooden” acting and the wild historical innaccuracies in the flick.
