Unless you're Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin (who loathes Julia Roberts), the Pretty Woman star is broadly seen as an incredibly alluring woman. But one major star allegedly refused to lock lips with her.
While Julia has publically maintained one perspective over the last couple of decades, her leading man has been far more silent about the reason why he had the scene cut. Here's everything we know...
Julia Roberts Didn't Get To Kiss... Denzel Washington
Yes, Denzel Washington refused to kiss Julia Roberts in the 1993 movie, The Pelican Brief. At the time, Denzel and Julia were two of the biggest movie stars in the world. They were also seen as two of the most attractive. People of all ages swooned over the two and that is part of the reason why Denzel decided to make a statement by not kissing the Pretty Woman star, according to Julia.
Julia Roberts has had a few major feuds with famous people. The shared hatred between her and Nick Nolte is particularly famous. Then again, so is the fact that director Steven Spielberg never wanted to work with her again after they shot Hook together. But Julia's relationship with Denzel doesn't fall into this category. In fact, to this very day, Julia and Denzel remain extremely good friends. Julia is even close with Denzel's longtime wife.
Julia was actually the one who suggested Denzel Washington to the film's director, Alan J. Pakula. And Julia is quoted as saying that Denzel did things with the role that simply weren't in the screenplay. He lifted it up to new heights... But is that really all that surprising? It's Denzel freaking Washington, after all.
But because of Julia and Denzel's electric chemistry on screen, and the fact that they played love interests, fans spent years questioning why the two didn't kiss on screen.
Initially, fans blamed Julia for this decision, claiming that she refused to have any on-screen romances. But this is something Julia refuted in an interview with Newsweek, shedding light onto what really went on between them behind the scenes. "I have taken so much s**t over the years about not kissing Denzel in that film. Don’t I have a pulse? Of course, I wanted to kiss Denzel. It was his idea to take the damn scenes out."
The Real Reason Why Denzel Washington Refused To Kiss Julia Roberts... According To Julia And Almost Everyone Else
According to Cheatsheet, Denzel Washington made it clear that he wouldn't kiss Julia Roberts in 1993's The Pelican Brief because it wasn't fair to Black Women. "Black women are not often seen as objects of desire on film. They have always been my core audience," Denzel Washington said to Newsweek.
Because of this, Julia believes that Denzel felt that kissing a well-known white woman would be doing a disservice to his biggest fans, particularly because women of color were not being heralded as the 'desired' leading ladies in the early 1990s. However, the reason for Denzel refusing to kiss Julia Roberts on-screen allegedly went beyond this noble position. In fact, they came from very real reactions that Black audiences had his early movie, The Mighty Quinn, where he kissed a white actress (Mimi Rogers). The scene was negatively reviewed by Black female audience members when it was tested, which caused Denzel to push the director to cut the scene out of the final movie.
So, when The Pelican Brief crossed his desk a couple of years later, Denzel made the preemptive strike to have the kissing scene cut before principal photography. At least, this has been the story in Hollywood for decades. Denzel's representatives, however, have disputed Julia's claim but have never given any concrete reasons as to why. And Julia is far from the only one with the belief that Denzel has refused to kiss white women on-screen.
For both Man On Fire and Virtuosity, rumors circled Denzel again as neither movie (which featured a white love interest) were given a kissing scene. In fact, Denzel has seemingly made a point to not kiss any white actress in his movies up until 2012's Flight, where he kissed Kelly Reilly.
While the rumors about Denzel's true reasons for not kissing Julia Roberts on-screen (or any white actress up until 2012) have been constant and widespread, the truth is that we will never truly know if this is true. This is because Denzel remains an extremely private person. He'd rather you guess at things than just come right out and say it. But it seems more than plausible that he was making a big statement for and on behalf of his core audience when he decided not to lock lips with Julia on the big screen.