Tessa Thompson Believes Her Being Out As Bi Helped Save Lives

This week, Thor: Love and Thunder finally makes its way to movie screens where audiences will get to catch up with Tessa Thompson’s King Valkyrie of New Asgard. Like her character, Thompson is an out and proud bisexual. Speaking with Variety, she explained how much her living her life out loud and authentically has meant to her queer fans.

“I’ve had so many folks write to me and say that they were able to come out or to talk to their family, which is a dream,” she told Variety. Thompson explained that she’s been very fortunate in her career to have never felt any pressure to stay in the closet. “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. And I think that’s intensified particularly where sexual orientation is concerned and that’s a real problem,” she said, sharing that she has friends who’ve been less fortunate and have been deeply affected by the industry’s inherent prejudices and pressure to stay closeted. “To those folks that don’t have those spaces, I see them,” she said.

When asked if her being out and visible had the potential to save lives, she agreed. “Here 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 said.

As for her character Valkyrie, she is, in Thompson’s own words, “ready for love. She’s definitely single and ready to mingle.” The question is, is there hope for a future with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman)? Thompson kept the possibility alive. “I think that’s also the fun thing about the MCU in general, is there’s a world in which you could see a lot of these characters in different multiverses ending up together,” she acknowledged.

Thor: Love and Thunder premieres tomorrow, July 8, only in theaters, with sneak preview screenings in select locations occurring tonight.

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