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“No one asks straight people about their journey of discovery,” she said, “but I guess it felt like if I didn’t say anything, I’d be ignoring a part of me, and that doesn’t feel good.”
This article originally appeared on Pride.com.
As if we weren’t already excited enough as it was for how queer Disney+’s Agatha All Along is going to be, star Sasheer Zamata took it a step further by coming out as a “late-in-life lesbian.”
In an interview with Them, the Saturday Night Live alum discussed her stance on coming out in general, saying, “I’m out in my life and I do keep my personal life kind of private, but I also don’t necessarily want my identity to be private.”
Ahead of her role as Jennifer Kale in Agatha All Along, Zamata also admitted she’d been asked to play lesbian characters quite often since leaving SNL.
“I kept getting cast as queer women,” she said, which included her characters on Home Economics, Woke, Tuca & Bertie, and Last O.G. “This is before I myself was figuring out my identity. I was like, ‘Whoa, what are these casting directors seeing that I’m not seeing?’”
After a joke from interviewer Amos Mac about how “Hollywood made her gay,” Zamata said, “That’s what conservatives joke about all the time. They’re like, ‘Oh my God, they’re turning everyone gay.’ And it happened.”
As to why Zamata chose now to go public with her sexual identity, she noted that going off of birth control for the first time since age 16 played a pivotal role.
“It really did kind of change everything,” she said, adding even her friends noticed something was different about her.
Zamata also recently brought more lesbian-centered material to her stand-up comedy, which is when she decided censoring herself to avoid coming out would be like “being silenced.” Of course, Zamata is among a wave of women in the entertainment industry who have come out later in life, though she doesn’t understand why people hone in so much on people’s sexualities.
“No one asks straight people about their journey of discovery,” she said, “but I guess it felt like if I didn’t say anything, I’d be ignoring a part of me, and that doesn’t feel good.”
As to what people deserve to know?
“Nothing,” Zamata said, adding, “I feel very fortunate so far. I have fans who are good about respecting my privacy, and I hope that continues.”
Additionally, she drove home, “I don’t want to be the representative of anything. I just got here. But I do want to be a part of the community.”
Agatha All Along premieres on Disney+ on September 18.
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