“Agatha All Along ”actress Sasheer Zamata comes out as queer: 'I'm one of those late-in-life lesbians'
"It felt like if I didn’t say anything, I’d be ignoring a part of me," said the "SNL" alum. "And that doesn’t feel very good."
Saturday Night Live alum and Agatha All Along actress Sasheer Zamata is ready to talk about her queer awakening.
“I’m out in my life and I do keep my personal life kind of private, but I also don’t necessarily want my identity to be private,” the actress and comedian told Them in a Sep. 9 profile. “I guess I’m one of those late-in-life lesbians. I just feel very comfortable and confident in my life.”
While the comedian had her hesitations about publicly discussing her personal life, she admits that the alternative seemed much worse.
“No one asks straight people about their journey of discovery,” she noted. “But I guess it felt like if I didn’t say anything, I’d be ignoring a part of me, and that doesn’t feel very good.”
Related: How Agatha All Along channels the history of iconic pop culture witches
That said, Zamata, 38, still plans to keep her personal life just as private as before.
She continued, “As far as what people deserve to know? Nothing. They don’t deserve anything. I feel very fortunate so far. I have fans who are good about respecting my privacy, and I hope that continues.
Referencing the queer pop star who recently made waves for reaffirming boundaries with her growing fanbase, Zamata added, “And I hope artists like Chappell Roan who are very clear about boundaries keep going.”
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Zamata, whose four-season stint on SNL came to an end in 2017, also joked that her personal realization came after years of portraying lesbian characters onscreen.
“I kept getting cast as queer women,” she said. “I played a lesbian on Home Economics. I played a lesbian on Woke. I played a lesbian on Tuca & Bertie. A lesbian on Last O.G. I kept getting these roles. And this is before I myself was figuring out my identity. I was like, ’Whoa, what are these casting directors seeing that I’m not seeing?’”
She added, “That’s what conservatives joke about all the time. They’re like, ‘Oh my God, [Hollywood is] turning everyone gay.’ And it happened.”
Related: How Marvel expands 'the WandaVision corner' of the MCU with Agatha All Along and Vision Quest
The Last O.G., Woke, Home Economics, and Tuca & Bertie are just a few of the roles that have kept Zamata busy since her SNL departure. She has also continued performing stand-up (her second special The First Woman is now streaming on Hulu) and hosts the beloved Best Friends podcast with her “soulmate” Nicole Byer. She is next slated to star as sorceress Jennifer Kale in Marvel’s much-anticipated WandaVision spinoff, Agatha All Along.
As Jennifer, Zamata will be a key member of the coven led by the titular Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), the villainess still reeling from the loss of her witchy magic a la Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) revenge. Though the comedian admits her character wasn’t explicitly written into the series as queer, the role still came with plenty of relatable themes.
“It’s nice to be able to portray a character who has been an outcast for a lot of her life, and to be in a show that’s exploring so many cool female themes and queer themes,” Zamata said. “It feels very appropriate.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.