After starring together in the 1993 drama The Pelican Brief, Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts have continued to describe each other as close friends.
The film became a box-office success despite mixed critical reviews. One major point of debate was the absence of a kiss between the two main characters — a decision that was widely discussed in the press, especially after the real reason for cutting the planned kissing scene became known.
In 2002, Roberts stated that she was still being criticized for the kiss that never happened and explained that it had been Washington’s idea to remove the romantic scenes. She said she had no objection and would have been happy to film the kiss.
Read more: The True Story of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere’s Relationship
According to her, Washington declined a passionate love scene because he was very careful about how his Black female fans would react to him in interracial romantic scenes. He became discouraged about such scenes after a kiss between him and Mimi Rogers in the 1989 film The Mighty Quinn led to loud boos from Black women during a test screening. Washington emphasized that Black women were rarely portrayed as desirable in film and had always been his core audience.
Robert Staples’ book Black Sexuality: A Documentary and Reference Guide notes that this was not the first time the actor refused to film a kissing scene with a co-star. Staples wrote that white actress Kelly Lynch once claimed she begged Washington for their characters to kiss in a film, but he declined, believing that white male viewers would disapprove.
Rumors suggested that Washington also pushed to remove scenes between him and Australian actress Radha Mitchell in Man on Fire for the same reasons, although a representative denied this. By the time Flight (2012) was released in theaters, it appeared that Washington had changed his stance on kissing white actresses on screen.
