When I found out Red, White & Royal Blue was rated R, I can’t say I was shocked. If the film were to show every sex scene and incorporate the language from the book, this rating would track. It’s a fairly spicy romance novel about the First Son of the United States and the Prince of England. To put all those scenes on screen would likely make it a shoo-in for the more mature rating – much like how Bridgerton is rated TV-MA. However, the director Matthew López explained that he was trying to get a PG-13 rating, and was shocked when it got an R. Knowing this, and hearing his question about how the film’s queerness may have impacted its rating, I understand his confusion.
The MPAA rated this film R because of “some sexual content, partial nudity and language,” via People. López explained that he was going to go for PG-13 in an effort to make the book-to-screen adaptation as “accessible” as possible. He said he “wouldn't step a toe over the line” when it came to language, and said there is no violence. In terms of the romance in the story the director explained that he would “do what I felt was right for the story when it came to the sexuality.” The movie ended up with the mature rating from the MPAA, which surprised López. He said:
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. But I do question whether or not if it had been a man and a woman, if we'd still gotten an R rating.
His reasoning about the movie being about two men in love influencing the rating goes along with a debate that’s been present for a while. As the MPAA has released mature ratings to films that feature an LGBTQ couple having sex, filmmakers have claimed that the organization would be less likely to give their project the rating they did if the couple would have been heterosexual.
For example, last month Ira Sachs, the director of the NC-17 rated Passages, which is on the 2023 movie schedule too, denounced the MPAA for giving the film said rating, per The LA Times. The movie centers around a love triangle between a director, his husband and a teacher. Sachs said the rating it received was “depressing and reactionary.” Other films that feature a love story between queer characters, like 2013’s Blue is the Warmest Color, also received an NC-17 rating and the very first NC-17 film, Henry and June.
While Red, White& Royal Blue received an R not NC-17, this long standing criticism of the MPAA makes the director’s comments logical. He also noted that he questions how violence and sexuality is considered when rating films, saying:
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.
After he received the rating, López said he want back in ADR to “put a couple more ‘fucks’ into the film.” He also noted that he wasn’t contracted to make a specifically rated film, so there was no bad blood between him and the studio over the rating, he was simply surprised by it.
Now that fans have streamed Red, White and Royal Blue’s trailer, and some have even seen the film, RWRB has received lots of love. Overall, it seems like Matthew López made a movie that readers of the book and casual viewers will appreciate, R-rating and all.
Red, White & Royal Blue will be available with an Amazon Prime subscription on August 8.
