Gus Kenworthy melted hearts around the world by sharing a kiss with a former boyfriend at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but moviegoers will have to wait a bit longer to see him repeat such a feat on the big screen.
The former Olympic freestyle skier has a much-buzzed-about cameo in the new comedy “80 for Brady,” directed by Kyle Marvin and starring Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin. In an interview with Variety published Tuesday, Kenworthy revealed that the film originally showed him “making out” with actor Brian Jordan Alvarez, who plays his boyfriend.
The scene, however, wound up on the editing room floor.
“They said they had to cut it for time, but I think they cut it for Middle America,” Kenworthy said, noting that he and Alvarez shot several takes of the kiss. “Some of them got raunchy.”
A representative for production company Fifth Season confirmed in a statement that 20 minutes of footage, including “cameo appearances such as Gus and Brian’s kissing scene,” were removed from the film “purely for pacing reasons.” The rep denied that the scene was cut out of concern for less inclusive viewers.
“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,” the statement read, according to Entertainment Weekly. “We are deeply committed to meeting the needs of each individual film while maintaining our values as an inclusive studio.”
Kenworthy, meanwhile, is hopeful at least one of those lost scenes will resurface in a director’s cut.
“They used the script for one take,” he told Variety. “But then we did it like four or five times where we would just ad-lib insults at each other and then make out.”
Kenworthy, a British native, came out as gay in a 2015 ESPN interview. Three years later, he and figure skater Adam Rippon became the first two openly gay men to compete for the U.S. in the Winter Olympics. He retired from freestyle skiing after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Prior to his “80 for Brady” appearance, he’d dabbled in acting with roles on “American Horror Story: 1984” and NBC’s “Will & Grace” revival. In a separate interview with People, Kenworthy said his dream is to star in an LGBTQ-themed romantic comedy similar to Billy Eichner’s “Bros.”
“I loved romantic comedies — to this day, they’re still like my favorite movies,” he said. “I just think it’s such a great formula and I would love to get to plug into that and play the lead of a rom-com, but also [to] get to play gay would be a dream.”