King Richard star Aunjanue Ellis is living her true, authentic life, revealing in a new interview with Variety that she’s bisexual.
Although the news isn’t news to those close to the actress, her sexuality wasn’t something that had been in the media before and the answer for why that was is simple.
“Nobody asked,” Ellis, 53, shared.
The Oscar nominee even recalled wearing a Dolce & Gabbana suit jacket with the word “Queer” in rhinestones back in March at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards.
“I was thinking, ‘Why didn’t more people pay attention to that? And I was like, they probably thought it said ‘Queen,'” she said with a laugh.
As for why she never brought up the topic herself, Ellis explained, “How do you work that into the conversation, in the middle of me talking about this movie? I’m not that chick.”
“My job was to talk about King Richard, the Williams family, these wonderful young women I worked with, Will Smith’s incredible work in that movie,” she continued. “I wasn’t going to be like, ‘And by the way, in case you ain’t heard yet…’ Because that’s artificial.”
Ellis said she’s “very clear about being bisexual,” noting, “I have a sweatshirt that says ‘Girl Bi’ that I wear everywhere, however she added that Black women in the entertainment industry fail to recognize her as part of the LGBTQ community.
“There is an assumption made of me, a presumption made of me. Is it because I’m a Black woman from Mississippi? Is it because I’m older? I don’t know what the mechanics are that goes into them not processing, or them not just being able to believe that in the same way I am Black, I am queer. This is who I am,” she said.
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