• yesterday
The cast of "Gladiator II" is absolutely stacked for obvious reasons. It sees the return of Connie Nielsen and a performance by Denzel Washington that folks are saying may have secured his third Oscar. But in what is perhaps a coincidental turn of events, the film also features the internet’s biggest heartthrobs Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, and the now-infamous lost take of the former kissing the latter on the forehead looks like it’s coming to VOD.

I recently spoke with the film's star and director in anticipation of "Gladiator II's" release, and to catch all of you up, Paul Mescal retold the humorous story of director Ridley Scott’s reaction to the improvised forehead kiss.
Transcript
00:00You did a take where you kissed Pedro's forehead, and it didn't make the final cut.
00:04No.
00:05I can't remember. They asked me, they said, do you mind?
00:08No, no, no. What happened was, I didn't tell Ridley I was going to do it,
00:14and then I was nervous after we did it, because I thought he was going to fucking hate it.
00:20So I nervously go over the radio being like, Ridley, did you like the kiss on the forehead,
00:24yay or nay? And there was this kind of like, shh, shh, I'm afraid I did.
00:29I trust this man entirely with how he cuts his films.
00:32No, but it could have been, I can't remember.
00:35Director's cut.
00:36The director's cut.
00:37The forehead cut. I mean, people would pay good money for that forehead, just the clip itself.

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