In this Gladiator II interview, Denzel Washington opens up about his ruthless character, Macrinus, a powerful Roman businessman who’ll do whatever it takes to stay on top. Denzel also reveals a kiss that was cut from the film. "I kissed a man on the lips, but it got cut. I guess they weren’t ready for that…” Watch the full interview here! Gladiator II hits theaters on November 22
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00:00Okay, good. Hi, Mr. Washington, it's wonderful to see you. I loved the film. I wore rings
00:10and, you know, inspired by your character.
00:13Yeah, I see you got open fingers. There you go.
00:16Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Double sometimes, you know, you got to get them all in. Like, every
00:21time.
00:22What about the earring game?
00:23Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, not yours is probably your game is probably better than mine, but
00:29I'm trying. I'm trying to be as cool as him because really, he is. He's very cool. And
00:36I just I wanted to get started in a recent Q&A that you did. You mentioned your excitement
00:42to work with Ridley Scott and that he was a big part of you wanting to be in this film.
00:48So I'm curious, is there any other directors that you would sign on to a project in a heartbeat
00:53if you saw their name?
00:56I've been having great conversation or I've had some great conversations with Paul Thomas
01:03Anderson, Steve McQueen. Ryan Coogler, all great directors. And I don't know, I would
01:11love to work with them.
01:14Absolutely. I can't wait to see something in the future. And you work alongside Paul
01:21Meskel. And I have to ask, is it is it difficult being tough and sometimes ruthless to him
01:27when he seems like like such a sweetheart? Your character has to has to kind of get into
01:32him sometimes.
01:33Being a little sensitive, he's a sweetheart. Well, you would know better than me. So you
01:41tell him.
01:42I'm supposed to kill him. I mean, he's a sweetheart. That's what's wrong. That's what's wrong in
01:47this world. No, I'm sorry. What was the question? You said what? You said, was it hard to want
01:53to kill him?
01:54Yes. Was it hard?
01:57No, I want power. I want everything. I want it all. So no, it wasn't hard. Well, no, I
02:03can't give it away. It didn't how it turns out.
02:06Right, right. We'll have to see who wins in the end. But but you were you were on your
02:10own side. I love to see that. And your character makes a few remarks throughout the film about
02:16having a relationship with other men in the film. So I wanted to ask how how gay is the
02:22Roman Empire?
02:25The entire empire or the I actually kissed the man in the film, but they took it. I think
02:32they got chicken.
02:33I was going to ask because I just heard about the Paul and Pedro forehead kiss that apparently
02:38got cut from the movie.
02:40I'm not sure about that one, but I kissed the guy full on the lips and they I guess
02:46they weren't ready for that yet.
02:47Oh, man. Well, I told him about five minutes later, but I mean, it's gladiator.
02:53It's gladiator. The kiss of death.
02:58And we I know we can't say a lot about what goes on in the film, but there is a prop that
03:03you use towards the end to kind of wield power over others.
03:07And it's kind of disturbing.
03:11I just wanted to ask, you know, what was your what was your reaction to that, if you can
03:15say anything on it and how you went about that scene?
03:19You got to stay ahead of the game.
03:22Exactly.
03:24Did you catch me?
03:28I love that.
03:30I love that.
03:31Thank you so much.
03:33That was it was a wonderful to chat with you and congratulations on the movie.
03:37Thank you so much.