Bad Bunny Has Big Feelings About His First Onscreen Gay Kiss

Although the upcoming wrestler biopic, Cassandro, is Bad Bunny’s third role in a major motion picture, it represents more than a few firsts for the Puerto Rican rap star. Not only is Bad Bunny playing queer for the first time, he has his first onscreen kiss—with a man. And according to him, that kiss “was very cool.”

Cassandro follows the life of Saúl Armendáriz, an openly gay luchador who got his start as an exótico (a comic drag performer) before breaking through to the late 80s professional wrestling circuit. Armendáriz, better known by his stage name Cassandro, is being portrayed by Gael García Bernal while Bad Bunny will play one of his lovers—an as-yet-unnamed character.

In a recent cover story for Time Magazine, Bad Bunny reflected on the role—particularly the movie’s steamier scenes. “My first kiss for a movie and it was with a man. That’s the penalty I get for being with so many women during my life,” he joked. As anyone who’s seen The Motorcycle Diaries or Y tu mamá también knows, you can do a lot, lot worse than Gael García Bernal.

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Bad Bunny went on, “If you’re acting, you’re being someone you’re not. So, when they asked me for that, I said, ‘Yes, I’m here for whatever you want.’ It was very cool, I didn’t feel uncomfortable.”

Although it’s his first kiss in a major film, it’s definitely not his first gay kiss in front of a camera. During a 2022 VMA performance of the song “Titï Me Pregunto,” Bad Bunny turned a church wedding into an electric (and sexy) spectacle. At the height of the song, grinding on a group of background dancers, Bad Bunny took a brief pause to kiss one of the female performers and then a man.

The kiss came days after trans Puerto Rican artist Villano Antillano and queer Dominican artist Tokischa received death threats after kissing on stage. And it also wasn’t the first time Bad Bunny used his public platform to stand up for trans rights. During a 2020 performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he wore a skirt and a t-shirt that read (in translation) “They Killed Alexa. Not a Man in a Skirt.” This was a reference to how the Puerto Rican media had framed the murder of trans woman Alexa Negrón Luciano.
In addition to acting, Bad Bunny is executive producing an adaptation of the queer YA novel They Both Die at the End for Netflix. While Bad Bunny is straight in his personal life, he has thoroughly shown himself to be a consistent advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

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