‘Red, White, and Royal Blue’ director Matthew Lopez said he is “surprised” at the rom-com’s R rating.
Speaking to People Magazine, Lopez said he queried about the film’s 18+ rating despite ensuring that it had “minimal swearing and no violence.”
The director expressed his surprise at the rating and said that while he was not encouraged to limit what they were showing, he showed exactly how he wanted things to play, in reference to a sex scene.
He added that he questioned whether or not it had been a heterosexual depiction if the film would have still gotten an R rating. Lopez said if there had been a scene of violence between them, it “could have kept a PG-13 rating,” but said that the film ultimately got an R rating “because they’re having sex and they’re two men.”
Lopez also talked about keeping the film “accessible” to a wider audience by ensuring the film had minimal swearing and no violence. However, after getting the rating, the director decided to add more swear words to the film.
“The funny thing is that once I realized we were going to be rated R, in ADR I went back and put a couple more ‘f—s’ into the film. I figured why not now?”
