New twist in Denzel Washington's axed scene in 'Gladiator II'

Denzel Washington recently revealed that Gladiator II makers cut a scene where he kissed a male character.

It reportedly created a storm on the internet. Now, the insiders close to the production are giving a much-needed context.

Sources told TMZ that Denzel, in his first non-straight role, had improvised the kissing scene as it was not in the script.

The Academy winner who played slave-turned-powerbroker Macrinus previously said that he believed the scene was axed because the makers thought that in other countries, it would not get passed to the censors.

"I think they got chicken. I kissed a guy full on the lips and I guess they weren't ready for that, he told Gayety.

However, insiders stressed that there was no prejudice against anyone regarding the axing of this particular scene from the final cut.

However, it was not the first improvised man-to-man kissing scene that was cut from the film.

Earlier, Paul Mescal, who played Lucius Verus, said he thought of kissing his costar, Pedro Pascal, on the forehead during their fight scene.

"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," he told EW.

The British star continued, "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?"

"There was radio silence for a second. His radio crackles back and [sarcastically] goes "I'm afraid I did." I think Ridley's one of the funniest men I've ever come across."

Gladiator II will open in theaters on November 22.