15 Actors Who Asked The Studio To Make Their Character Queer

For many years, viewers have been asking for more (and better!) LGBTQ+ representation in their favorite TV shows and movies. However, it's not just the fans — many actors have been, too.

Here are 15 actors who asked the studio to make their character queer:

1. From his audition with John Boyega for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Oscar Isaac felt "an absolute natural chemistry" with him, so he didn't find it "a total shock" when fans began shipping his character, Poe, with John's character, Finn. He "kind of hoped and wished that maybe that would have been taken further in the other films, but [he doesn't] have control over that."

He told Variety, "I remember, it was an audition and the two of us just, like, did that first scene back to back, butt to butt, you know, just like doing the scene together, practicing it in this room. And it was just like immediately all kind of artifice, everything just collapsed, and there’s like an intimacy that was very just, like, there. And I think the fact that neither of us shied away from that while we were shooting as well, I think it was just like, these are two guys that are happy being intimate with each other emotionally."

2. While working on The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield suggested to producer Matt Tolmach and director Marc Webb that his version of Peter Parker could be gay or bisexual. He asked them, "What if MJ is a dude? Why can't we discover that Peter is exploring his sexuality? It's hardly even groundbreaking! … So why can't he be gay? Why can't he be into boys?"

He even had the perfect actor in mind to play MJ.

He told Entertainment Weekly, "I’ve been obsessed with Michael B. Jordan since The Wire. He's so charismatic and talented. It'd be even better — we'd have interracial bisexuality!"

3. A year after Stephanie Beatriz came out as bisexual on Twitter, Daniel Goor, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator, asked how she'd feel about making her character, Rosa Diaz, bi as well. She agreed, and they worked together to create the storyline.

She told the Independent, "It was important to me that 'bisexual' was said because I grew up in a time where it wasn't heard often."

4. When Asia Kate Dillon joined the John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum cast as the Adjudicator, they "just said to [director] Chad [Stahelski] and Keanu [Reeves], 'You have a real opportunity here. I'm a nonbinary person. This character could be nonbinary.'"

They told Insider, "There's nothing in the film to indicate that they have to be a cisgender person with a binary gender identity. ... Adding gender diversity to the John Wick universe was something that Keanu and Chad and Lionsgate were totally on board for, because to them, it's just a no-brainer. They want the John Wick world to be as diverse as possible. So it was a real thrill for me to get to bring that to the table and have it be warmly received."

5. While filming Stranger Things, Maya Hawke "started to feel like [her character Robin] and Steve shouldn't get together, and that she's gay." So, she talked it over with the series creators and directors, who all felt the same way.

She told the Wall Street Journal, "The Duffer Brothers and I — and Shawn Levy — had a lot of conversations throughout shooting and it wasn't really until we were shooting Episode 4 and 5, I think, that we made the final decision. It was a collaborative conversation, and I'm really, really happy with the way that it went."

6. For Thor: Ragnarok, Tessa Thompson pitched the idea of Valkyrie being bisexual (like she is in the Marvel comics) to director Taika Waititi. He fought to keep a scene where a woman walked out of Valkyrie's bedroom in the movie as long as he could, but it ultimately had to be cut.

Tessa told Rolling Stone, "There were things that we talked about that we allowed to exist in the characterization, but maybe not be explicit in the film. ... There's a great shot of me falling back from one of my sisters who's just been slain. In my mind, that was my lover."

However, Valkyrie's sexuality was confirmed on screen in the next movie, Thor: Love and Thunder.

7. Anna Kendrick acknowledged the Pitch Perfect fans who shipped her character, Beca, with Brittany Snow's character, Chloe. She also confirmed that she and Brittany played their characters as if "they're secretly in love."

Anna told the Advocate, "I feel like it would be a real betrayal to not choose Brittany. I mean, our characters are pretty much in a lesbian relationship. ... We've joked that there will be all-out passionate lovemaking in the third movie. Too bad we still need that PG-13 rating."

They reportedly filmed a kissing scene for Pitch Perfect 3, but it was cut.

8. After her character Santana hooked up with Brittany on Glee, Naya Rivera was "kind of encouraging [the showrunners] to make it more serious and not play around with it 'cause there are people out there that it's not a joke to."

According to NME, she added, "It's their real lives."

9. In The Conversation, Harrison Ford secretly played Martin Stett as gay "so nobody would recognize [him] from American Graffiti."

According to the Guardian, he said, "There was no role there until I decided to make him [gay]."

10. When Ellen's viewership dropped, ABC reportedly suggested the titular character get a puppy, but behind the scenes, Ellen DeGeneres and the writers were advocating for her to come out as a lesbian.

After a lot of pushback and negotiations, the character finally got to come out in "The Puppy Episode," making her the first American TV lead to do so. Ellen herself came out two weeks before the episode premiered.

11. Ryan Reynolds is reportedly hopeful that Deadpool/Wade Wilson's pansexuality will be represented on screen in future Deadpool movies because "this universe…needs to represent and reflect the world in very real ways."

During a 2018 San Diego Comic-Con panel, he said, "The great thing about Deadpool is that we're allowed to do things that other superhero movies don't necessarily do. It's something that I'd love to see more of, certainly through Wade, certainly through this universe because it's something that we're building out more."

12. After Lachlan Watson was cast as Theo on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, they asked showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and the writers to slow down his onscreen transition. They "influenced" Theo's arc "by existing and showing up and being a different person, a different identity that the writers may not have even known about before."

Lachlan told MTV News, "I showed that it was possible to just hold off a second, and to just live in the gray area. ... What was really, really important for me with this...season was to show a powerful, strong, queer character who never has to be saved. They can, in fact, save other people."

13. In Finding Forrester, Sean Connery "wanted to play [William Forrester] as gay," but "the studio didn't want us to advertise it." So, he carried out that characterization secretly.

Director Gus Van Sant told the Guardian, "It wasn't in the script."

Sean told Entertainment Weekly, "I suppose there could be undercurrents that [my] character is closeted. It depends on the response of people, and who's watching."

14. In the fourth season of Grey's Anatomy, Sara Ramírez told series creator Shonda Rhimes that they "wanted to pursue a storyline where Callie would discover that she was attracted to women as well as men."

Callie ended up becoming the longest-running LGBTQ+ character on TV. She got to have a romantic storyline with Jessica Capshaw's character, Arizona Robbins, and they ended up getting married.

Head writer Krista Vernoff told Variety, "I don't think it can be overstated what the social impact of Callie's bisexuality was on the culture at large. Bisexuality was almost invisible on TV at that point. I personally have two kids who have come out as bisexual, and I don't think it's disconnected from Callie and Sara publicly coming out."

15. And finally, on Rutherford Falls, Bobbie Yang was "originally male-identifying and gay." However, Jesse Leigh wanted "to make the role [them]self," so they "wore what [they] wear every day — [their] bell-bottoms — and [they] put on a cute wing liner and some blush." After they got the part, Bobbie was rewritten to be nonbinary.

Jesse told Pulse Spikes, "It wasn't until I actually booked the role that I sat down with the writers and they had asked me about growing up and being nonbinary and stories about being nonbinary from my childhood. I felt super lucky that the character was kind of sculpted around my life."

Looking for more ways to get involved? Check out all of BuzzFeed's posts celebrating Pride 2023.