Photo via @Variety/Twitter
October 27, 2021, 11:40 am
Queer actress Kristen Stewart just closed the book on whether having LGBTQ+ characters in any piece of fiction is simply people representing real people who exist in the world because they feel like it or if it’s “pandering” or whatever bigots are saying these days. During an interview with Clayton Davis on Variety’s “The Take” and while talking about the upcoming film Eternals, which includes multiple queer characters, Davis asked Stewart what she thinks about those who feel that “this is not how superheroes should be portrayed.”
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Stewart seemed rather unbothered by these folks and offered up the idea that instead of complaining, homophobes and transphobes can go ahead and continue to watch all the thousands upon thousands of films full of straight cis people and fade gently into irrelevance.
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“I don’t know much about the storyline in this one, but I’m glad there’s gay people in it,” she said of Eternals.
“I would say you’ve had your time,” she said on anti-LGBTQ+ bigots. “If you’re happier and more comfortable looking in the rearview mirror, that is where we’ll leave you, bruh. But yeah, sure, go watch every other movie that hasn’t really touched on what we are, and we will just continue growing without you.”
Eternals is being credited as the first MCU film to feature a confirmed and named queer superhero, with the character Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry) confirmed to be a gay man with a partner and child, also marking the fictional universe’s first LGBTQ+ family. Stewart came out as bisexual in 2017 and has been a vocal supporter of queer representation in film ever since, and also somewhat before that.
While some losers are fretting that there’s simply too much gay in their movies about people who fly and shoot lasers from their eyes, etc., the director of the upcoming film, Chloé Zhao, has to worry that the scenes with Phastos and his family will be censored in theaters overseas, or even in the U.S.
“I don’t know all the details but I do believe discussions were had and there’s a big desire from Marvel and myself – we talked about this – to not change the cut of the movie,” she told IndieWire. “Fingers crossed.”
Phastos’ storyline involves his struggle to rediscover faith in humanity after everything they’ve done over the centuries, but finds that faith again through the love of his partner and child. You’d think perhaps the “family values” section of the American population would approve of such a narrative, but they’ll just have to go watch Die Hard again if they don’t like where the new movies are going. Free market and all that.
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Meanwhile, Stewart fans, LGBTQ+ folks, and allies are loving her recent statement.
*First Published: October 27, 2021, 11:40 am
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