Emma Corrin says the reaction to revealing their gender identity was “quite a reality check” and expresses openness to taking on male roles amid Hollywood’s dearth of non-binary characters.
In a interview with Vanity purse, The crown And Deadpool3 star opened up about their experience of publicly coming out as non-binary — after updating their pronouns on social media — and the lack of opportunities currently available to non-binary actors.
Speaking about how they publicly identified as non-binary, Corrin — who didn’t speak to their team before sharing it publicly — said they experienced an amount of hate that they weren’t prepared for.
“I may have [messaged them] via WhatsApp and just said, “I’m going to post this.” I don’t think there was a big discussion about it,” they said. “Perhaps naively, I was surprised how much hate I got for that. It was quite a reality check.”
Despite this, Corrin says the decision was ultimately worth it for the people it may have helped. “Especially around conversations about gender and stuff, it helps a lot of people to see someone living in the world as a non-binary person. I know how much other people’s accounts have helped me, that’s my motivation to keep my social media at the moment,” they said.
After updating their Instagram biography in July 2021, the Golden Globe winner shared at the time that “visibility is key with these things,” even though they weren’t exactly sure how they identified under the non-binary label. “I think we’re so used to defining ourselves,” they said in an interview in August 2021. “That’s how society works within these binaries and it’s taken me a long time to realize I exist somewhere in between and I still don’t know sure where that is.”
In the interview, Corrin also touched on the lack of non-binary roles in Hollywood and how that has affected their decision making around the roles they take on.
“There aren’t many non-binary parts out there. We need to support queer writers and develop projects and welcome these stories into the creative space,” they said. “But being non-binary is also a very fluid space for me where it’s not a rejection of femininity or masculinity, it’s kind of an embrace of both. My experience on this earth until recently was a female one, and I still love all those parts of me.
Corrin found it “interesting that I’m not being offered male roles”, and said the lack of roles specified by men on their resumes is not due to a lack of interest. “I would be equally attracted to that! I suppose it’s also how the industry sees you, and I think hopefully that’s shifting,” they explained. “The beauty of acting is that you take on a character that doesn’t necessarily have to be completely consistent with your own experience. It’s kind of a way to explore. But I would love to play non-binary, new roles, male roles. Anything, as long as it’s good.”
The actor – who played Lady Diana Spencer in an award-winning performance for The crown in season four – also discussed the same feeling as Diana, or even her son and wife Prince Harry and Megan Markle, in terms of living in relative obscurity and then being thrust into the spotlight.
“I had this weird parallel experience of being plucked out of nowhere and suddenly having people outside my house or knocking on my door or following me home,” they said of their experience after being cast on the hit Netflix royal drama. ‘I have to the Harry and Megan documentary and I think they talked about it so well – especially about the nature of the British tabloid press. you [have to] make sure you have a public and private side of your life because it changes a lot of things.
