Thor star Tessa Thompson reveals being open about bisexuality has helped fans come out
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.
