Hollywood star Denzel Washington once revealed why he opted out of a kissing scene with his close pal Julia Roberts. Read on!

Denzel Washington Once Refused To Kiss Julia Roberts For The Movie The Pelican Brief (Photo Credit – Instagram; IMDb)

Academy Award-winning star Denzel Washington is a man of his word so when he refused to kiss his close friends Julia Roberts on-screen, he stuck to his promise.

The actor despite sharing a good rapport with Roberts opted out of a kissing scene out of loyalty to his female African-American fans. Read on to know what he said about it.

Denzel was at the height of his success and so was Julia when the two were filming the 1993 thriller, The Pelican Brief. The actor at the time shared his reason as to why he refused to kiss Roberts.

The award-winning star is best known for his movies like The Equalizer, Training Day, Fences, The Book of Eli, and American Gangster among others.

According to the website Cheatsheet Showbiz, Denzel Washington explained the reason behind not kissing Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief saying, “Black women are not often seen as objects of desire on film.

They have always been my core audience.” It was also reported that Washington earlier drew criticism from his Black fans for his on-screen kiss with Tom Cruise’s ex-wife, Mimi Rogers in a test screening of 1989 film The Mighty Quinn.

Speaking of the movie The Pelican Brief, Roberts in a different interview stated that she had suggested Washington’s name for the movie. “I had suggested him from the beginning, and he did amazing things with a character that didn’t look like much on paper,” said Julia Roberts. The Eat., Pray, Love star added, “What more could you want?”

She also added, “I have taken so much sh*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.”

For the unversed, the Denzel Washington starrer movie went on to earn nearly $200 million at the box office. The film was based on John Grisham’s 1992 novel of the same name.