‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Director Says He’s ‘Surprised’ His Gay Rom-Com Got an R Rating (Exclusive)

Red, White & Royal Blue director Matthew López admits he questioned why his new gay rom-com scored an R rating.

An adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s 2019 bestseller, the film places actors Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine in a juicy romantic scenario: the U.S. president’s son Alex Claremont-Diaz and England’s Prince Henry fall for each other.

Director López, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ted Malawer, calls Red, White & Royal Blue a “wonderful fairy tale” for LGBTQ+ audiences who don’t typically get the spotlight.

“It made me understand how queer audiences don’t actually get to participate in fairy tales themselves too often,” he tells PEOPLE. “It’s interesting because it feels like queer audiences are one of the main consumers of such stories, and yet we didn’t have a lot of our own.”

When Red, White & Royal Blue got labeled with an R rating from the Motion Picture Association, López admits he was surprised by the stamp. The MPA cited “some sexual content, partial nudity and language” in its rating.

“I think I was a little surprised at the R rating just because, while I never was encouraged to limit what we were showing or limit what I was depicting, the scene is what I intended to show. It plays exactly how I wanted it to play,” López says of a sex scene between the two leads.

“But,” he continues, “I do question whether or not if it had been a man and a woman, if we’d still gotten an R rating.”

Everything to Know About Prime Video’s ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Film

Director Matthew Lopez (right) with stars Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez while making “Red, White & Royal Blue”.

Rob Youngson/Prime

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“I also generally question the MPA’s preference for violence over sexuality, it seems. I think if there had been a scene of violence between them, I could have kept a PG-13 rating, but because they’re having sex and they’re two men, we got an R,” López says.

The Tony winner explains that he had free rein to include whatever he felt necessary onscreen while depicting the love story: “It’s the movie I set out to make.”

Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez in “Red, White & Royal Blue” (2023).

Jonathan Prime/Prime Video

“Contractually, I had the ability to deliver an R rating. There was no limitations on it. I didn’t have to do a PG-13 movie,” says López. “I wanted to make sure the film was going to be as accessible to as many people as possible. I didn’t want to limit who the audience would be, but I also didn’t want to limit my ability to tell the story in the way that I wanted to tell it.”

He adds, “I essentially decided to hedge my bets, in that I wouldn’t step a toe over the line of PG-13 into R when it came to language, when it came to— there’s no violence in the story, of course. But I would just do what I felt was right for the story when it came to the sexuality of the film and let the chips fall where they may.”

Once the R rating was official, though, López went back and got some more bang for his buck in the swear-word category.

“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?”

Red, White & Royal Blue arrives on Prime Video Aug. 11.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education