“The show is not about a gay superhero. It’s about a superhero”
WORDS BY FELICITAS SOPHIE VAN LAAK, IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM
For Glamour’s TV issue, Orange Is The New Black star Ruby Rose has been photographed – and filmed – dressed all in leather. Effortlessly adjusting her cuffs, she strides past the camera with alluring self-assurance. And if that doesn’t get you hot and bothered, the close-up of her cocky wink at the end certainly will.
In the interview, she addresses her media coverage as “the lesbian actor”, stressing, “That’s not a part of my job. That’s not on my business card. I didn’t study to do that, did I?” Indeed, Ruby is increasingly “getting frustrated at always having to have my sexuality be a part of it, like, you’d never say, ‘the heterosexual DJ.’ That’s bizarre.”
Recently, some people have been quite opinionated about her casting as Kate Kane in the upcoming Batwoman series, arguing that while the character being Jewish and lesbian, Ruby isn’t Jewish and identifies as gender-fluid. To this, Ruby says: “Her being gay, it’s definitely part of who she is, and it’s definitely part of the story and establishing why she’s not in the military anymore. But the show is not about a gay superhero. It’s about a superhero.” Besides that, her only response to the backlash is: “On my deathbed, I’m not going to be like, ‘I really wish that more people, more strangers on the internet that I didn’t know, liked me.’”
In retrospect, what made her realise that her sexuality really wasn’t that big of a deal was an interview with Angelina Jolie. Being asked why she though both men and women felt attracted to her, “she said some throwaway comment like, ‘Probably because I’m most likely to sleep with my female fans,’ or something like that”. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Even if I’m the only gay person I know right now, if there’s other ones out there and any of them look anything like this… I’m gonna have some fun.’” You certainly wouldn’t find it hard to imagine that Ruby has had some… um… fun. “She just made it seem really no big deal,” she concludes. “It was those little things that made me realise that it was no big deal. And the moment you start acting like it’s not a big deal, people stop treating it like it is.”
Batwoman airs on 6 October on The CW #hertimeisnow
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Ruby Rose made it about her sexuality.
“This is something I would have died to have seen on TV when I was a young member of the LGBT community who never felt represented on TV.”
Last time I checked, we are all human, but apparently, because her “sexuality” wasn’t represented, she didn’t feel represented. Now she doesn’t want to be represented for her sexuality. How about stop everyone shoving their sexuality into public spaces and go be yourself. I have two gay brother-in-laws, but I don’t think of them as gay, I think of them as my family. It’s not that people do or don’t like others who are gay, it is when they feel a need to put it out there so they can earn points with the public/hollywood.