‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Director Questions R-Rating Of His Queer "Fairy Tale"

ICYMI, Red, White & Royal Blue — AKA the enemies-to-lovers romance of the summer — recently scored an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association, and in a new interview with People, the film's director, Matthew López, is raising the question as to why.

"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 shared.

He continued, "But, I do question whether or not if it had been a man and a woman, if we'd still gotten an R rating."

MPA scored the gay royal rom-com film (an adaptation of Casey McQuiston's 2019 bestselling novel) with an R rating, labeling it with “some sexual content, partial nudity, and language."

Surprised by the stamp, the director admitted he questioned the evaluation of the scoring and whether MPA prefers violence over sexuality. “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 said.

The film stars Taylor Zakhar Perez (as Alex Claremont-Diaz, first son of the U.S.) and Nicholas Galitzine (as Prince Henry) as the leads, who despise each other at first before forming an unlikely romantic connection.

López, who also co-wrote the script with Ted Malawer, set out to create a film with “no limitations" aimed toward LGBTQ+ audiences. "Contractually, I had the ability to deliver an R rating," he admitted. "There was no limitations on it. I didn't have to do a PG-13 movie. 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 added, "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."

When the scoring was dropped, López set forth and amped up the steamy, feel-good scenes. "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.