The stars and filmmakers behind Booksmart have responded in frustration and shock after hearing social media reports that an airline edited out the 2019 film's lesbian kiss scene.
Speaking to Variety during a number of red carpet interviews, director Olivia Wilde and actresses Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein promised to get to the bottom of the censorship drama, after a Twitter user complained over the weekend that an unspecified airline had removed the entire scene.
“There is no nudity in this scene. What makes it too obscene for airplane viewing?”
The scene in question depicts characters Amy and Hope drunkenly making out at a party - and beginning to have sex before one of them throws up.
“I don’t understand it,” Wilde told Variety at the Governors Awards.
“There’s censorship airline to airline of films. There must be some kind of governing board to determine. We rated a certain way. If it’s not X rated, surely it’s acceptable on an airplane.
"There’s insane violence of bodies being ripped in half and yet a love scene between two women is censored from the film. It’s such an integral part of the character’s journey. My heart just broke. I don’t understand it. It’s confusing.”
Feldstein added: “We’re on the case to get this rectified. Our movie is a beautiful representation of the queer experience as young people. I’m a queer person. So we’re getting to the bottom of it.
"If you can watch me and Skyler [actor and co-star Skyler Gisondo] kiss, you can watch Kaitlyn and Diana kiss.”
