Original cuts of The Legend of Tarzan reportedly included a passionate kiss shared between Alexander Skarsgard and Chrisoph Waltz, but the scene was cut from the final version.
“We pared it back because it was almost too much,” says David Yates, the film’s director. “It was this really odd, odd moment when Christoph kisses him.”
Related: Alexander Skarsgard Opens Up About The “Incredible” Gay Sex He’s Had
“We loved it at the time,” he tells The Australian, but early test audiences were perplexed by it and in the end it just felt too clever and overworked.”
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In the scene, Captain Rom winds up kissing Tarzan while unconscious, which admittedly does sound rather peculiar. (Then again, so does Tarzan swinging around the jungle in sensible slacks rather than the traditional leopard-print loincloth.)
Related: Alexander Skarsgard Is Happy To Get Naked As Often As We Need Him To
Perhaps we’ll get to see the omitted gay kiss when the film is released on DVD in October.
RomanHans
Tarzan’s deleted gay kiss is far more believable than a director desperately trying to create buzz for a POS movie.
ingyaom
Too bad… might have been interesting then.
MacAdvisor
“Then again, so does Tarzan swinging around the jungle in sensible slacks rather than the traditional leopard-print loincloth.”
I am rather sure the traditional loin cloth was leopard skin, not leopard print.
DCguy
No doubt the studio saw it, pulled it because it was “Too Gay”.
[email protected]
That could have been the start of something good. Pity.
Xzamilio
But, don’t worry guys. A conversation’s going on… there’s talk of more LGBT visibility in movies. More studios and directors are open to discussions about having more gay characters in major films. Talks.. talks… talks… and conversations. But, not right now… no, not right now.
Bob LaBlah
I don’t know if you guys got the memo but George Takaei is NOT happy with Sulu being openly gay in the new Star Trek movie. I am on board with that. I am all for us being presented in a positive light but lately, I think things are being “over gayed” in the movies. The idea of both Star Trek and Tarzon having characters that are openly gay or scenes that hint or depict gays are a clear sign of their desperation for publicity than the movie being of any good quality.
The latest Independence Day was such a bomb that not even a hardcore, nothing left to the imagination sex scene could have saved it. This is the year of duds for Hollywood and these gay characters are not going to stop this year from being another dud just as last year proved to be.
adrussell
As a lifelong fan of Tarzan, this reimagining of the character, not in sensible slacks but rather in a male version of capri pants, baffles the hell out of me.
As for a male-on-male kiss, I could see it with Tarzan in the proper context. Tarzan was raised in the wild, not indoctrinated by societal conventions about sexuality.
Bob LaBlah
@adrussell: “Tarzan was raised in the wild, ”
The fact that it was the wilds of Africa is what makes the kiss scene preposterous.
Brian
Women tend to feel threatened by male-male desire. Even if that desire is not strictly sexual, women find it offensive, especially if they see it in men – such as Tarzan – who are also attracted to women. Such male-male desire dis-empowers women.
I’ve always said that the greatest threat to male-male desire comes from women. Women fear it because it destroys their ability to control men.
By the way, don’t just blame the studio for the censorship of the kiss. Think about all the women in the test audience who were “perplexed” by the kiss. Their negative feedback would have played a role.
Paco
@adrussell: “Societal conventions about sexuality” tried to beat heterosexuality into me since birth. I still turned out gay.
——
I haven’t seen the movie, but why were test audiences “perplexed” by the kissing scene? Perplexed because these two men were suddenly kissing with nothing leading up to it? Or were they perplexed because they expected him to be straight?
Violent Rainbow
What the hell? How would this have even fit into a Tarzan movie? Isn’t he all about Jane? Where was a passionate gay kiss gonna fit in it makes absolutely no sense! I mean yes I would have loved to see that but still how weird and random that would be.
Brian
@Paco: Female members of the test audience were perplexed that a man who is attracted to women would want to kiss another man. Women are very possessive creatures, and this is one reason why they are so intolerant of men who swing both ways.
Daniel-Reader
Glad they cut it… it’d be another old trope of a creepy gay villain in a film that many folks think is ra cist to begin with.
Dave Downunder
I just saw the movie tonight and loved it. I can see where they might have inserted a kiss but I doubt it would have been mutual. It would have been more a case of the bad guy kissing Tarzan because he thinks he has won. All that said and done I am glad they deleted it. The film didn’t need it.
Just a side note. If they would have had Skarsgard kissing Djimon Hounsou I would have been down with that no matter how irrelevant it was to the plot.
Not really but what a great image.
To those who haven’t seen it yet it is wall to wall muscle. Great perv even if you do think it’s a crap movie.
Bob LaBlah
In two of the last four James Bond films featuring Daniel Craig there were two memorable scenes that had a gay slant but it went over pretty well with the audience. One was when he was battling a guys who had stripped him naked and tied him to a chair and hit his balls with a rope. The other, Skyfall, (which I think was the best Bond film of them all featuring Daniel Craig) again had him in tied to a chair and he asks the guy “what makes you think I haven’t done this before?”. There was talk of making James Bond’s character bi but happily that foolish idea was passed on.
Its all in how you do it but overall I am glad they cut the scene out of the Tarzan picture. I think we are suffering overkill in many areas. Pretty soon we just might find ourselves irrelevant.
balehead
Kiss was too Clever?….I wonder if the Director or Producer are Secretly Gay…Closets can really “straighten up” a movie more than homophobes..
balehead
@Brian: Very true!!