80 For Brady Removed Gay Kiss From Final Cut

When a film studio has to put out a statement insisting upon their love and support for the LGBTQ community, it doesn’t bode well that their actions have matched that statement. “We value and celebrate the contributions of the filmmakers and all of the incredible talent involved with the movie, including those members of the LGBTQ community,” reads a statement from Fifth Season studio. “We are deeply committed to meeting the needs of each individual film while maintaining our values as an inclusive studio.” Why did they feel the need to make such a claim?

Because they cut a cameo from their upcoming film, 80 For Brady, in which Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy and M3GAN actor Brian Jordan Alvarez played boyfriends and “made out.” About the filming process, Kenworthy says, “They used the script for one take, but then we did it like four or fives times where we would just ad-lib insults at each other and then make out.” With a laugh, he adds, “Some of them got raunchy.”

Fifth Season studio told CNN, “A total of 20 minutes was cut from the film purely for pacing reasons, including key scenes with cast members, along with cameo appearances such as Gus and Brian’s kissing scene.”

On the surface, this sounds reasonable. Studios cut large swathes of their movie out as a matter of course, to make a better, more coherent film. Kenworthy doesn’t buy the studio’s explanation, though. “They said they had to cut it for time, but I think they cut it for Middle America,” he said in an interview with Variety.

Even without the kiss, 80 For Brady has been performing well at the box office since its release, with an 89% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Though critics are not quite so impressed, people seem to love the comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field as friends on a mission to see the titular Tom Brady play in the 2017 Super Bowl.