Thor: Love and Thunder actress Tessa Thompson has said it’s been a ‘tremendous’ privilege to empower her LGBTQ+ fans to come out.
The latest Thor flick has seen the return of Tessa’s character, bisexual icon Valkyrie, and during a recent interview she said it was a ‘dream’ to inspire her fans to open up when it comes to their sexuality.
‘That’s been tremendous,’ the 38-year-old, who revealed in 2018 that she’s attracted to both men and women, said. ‘I’ve had so many folks write me and say that they were able to come out or to talk to their family, which is a dream.’
She returns to her Marvel role as Valkyrie in Thor: Love and Thunder, following her debut as the MCU’s first LGBTQ+ superhero in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok.
‘There is something powerful about seeing an image of yourself reflected in any way. But we know all too well there are some ways that really just matter because we don’t have enough of it,’ she added to the Just for Variety podcast of the importance of LGBTQ+ representation on screen.
She feels extremely lucky, she said, to be able to be true to herself in Hollywood – an industry that isn’t open about owning sexuality.
‘It’s a real problem,’ she added. ‘I feel really lucky in the sense that I work in real close proximity to people that I think want to advocate for me to be myself and be the fullest expression of myself.
‘I think the industry at large might put a tremendous amount of pressure, never mind their sexuality, but a real pressure, I think, to be a certain kind of thing. And I think that’s intensified particularly where sexual orientation is concerned and that’s a real problem.’
When talking of her character’s love life, she said Valkyrie is looking for love, but explained she didn’t feel romance was a necessity in showing her character’s queerness, noting: ‘She’s out in the world. She’s ready for love. She’s definitely single and ready to mingle, but also I think when the time is right.’
‘I think a part of really being able to normalise queer characters, LBGTQIA characters, is to allow them to exist in their humanity and that doesn’t always mean that they’re in love or in a partnership because plenty of us know that sometimes you’re not,’ she said.
This isn’t the first time Tessa opened up about the representation in Thor: Love and Thunder.
‘We talked about it a lot, it was a big topic of conversation,’ she told Yahoo recently.
‘Because I think, rightfully, there’s this real want in audiences to see characters be very clearly queer or LGBTQIA inside these spaces. And I think it’s hugely important to have representation.’
Thor: Love And Thunder is in cinemas now.
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