Yellowjackets star Liv Hewson, who plays a cisgender character named Van on the thrilling drama but who is nonbinary in their real life, has elected to remove themselves from awards contention for the Emmys this year due to the awards’ gendered categories, the actor told Variety in an interview published Wednesday.
“There’s not a place for me in the acting categories,” Hewson said, adding that they’d shared their decision to opt out with the producers of the show and with the network, and that their fellow cast members had supported their decision. “It would be inaccurate for me to submit myself as an actress. It neither makes sense for me to be lumped in with the boys. It’s quite straightforward and not that loaded. I can’t submit myself for this because there’s no space for me.”
It was only as recently as 2017 that Asia Kate Dillon became the first nonbinary actor to play a nonbinary character on a major TV show—Billions on Showtime—and later wrote a letter to the Screen Actor Guild Awards Committee, requesting that the body abolish its award ceremony’s categories divided by gender. Their request was ultimately not honored.
Hilariously dry nonbinary comedian Mae Martin told The Daily Beast in March that the experience of being nominated for a BAFTA and getting misgendered at the same time can be an odd one.
“You don’t want to seem ungrateful, but then so many posts are like, ‘these amazing women,’” Martin said. “And even the other nominees are like, ‘I’m thrilled to be nominated alongside these ladies.’ So it’s tricky. If I had won, I would have made some kind of funny comment in my speech, I hope. But yeah, I was super grateful to be included, but it is bittersweet.”
Nonbinary actor Emma D’Arcy had a huge year in 2022 as the star of the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, a turn of events which they branded “ironic” on the red carpet in January of this year.
“It’s kind of a surreal thing because when I was starting out, I really felt that I had to pretend to present as a woman in order to find success in this industry,” D’Arcy told E! News.
“Anyway, it wasn’t sustainable, and I stopped pretending, and weirdly, it’s at that point that I got nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes,” D’Arcy added. “Which is beautifully ironic. I think the most important thing is that it implies that the space for trans people and gender-nonconforming people is getting bigger all the time. So, I feel very privileged.”
