Newest Marvel Star Surprises By Coming Out 

While Sasheer Zamata has only recently come out to the public, she clarified in a recent interview that “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.”

By publicly coming out ahead of the release of her prominent new Marvel show, the Saturday Night Live veteran is making what she saw as the morally correct choice: “if I didn’t say anything, I’d be ignoring a part of me, and that doesn’t feel very good.”

With that being said, Sasheer Zamata is quick to clarify that she won’t suddenly be sharing every detail about her personal life with the world. “As far as what people deserve to know,” she said, “they don’t deserve anything.”

The Marvel star felt obligated to mention her journey towards accepting her own queerness, but she doesn’t feel obligated to share much else, noting that “I have fans who are good about respecting my privacy, and I hope that continues.”

Sasheer Zamata refers to the realization that she is gay as “a journey of discovery,” and much of that journey ran parallel to her career. Long before getting cast in Marvel’s Agatha All Along, she played lesbian characters on shows like Home Economics, Woke, Tuca & Bertie, and Last O.G. She noted that this was before she had figured out her own identity and that she began asking questions like “what are these casting directors seeing that I’m not seeing?’”

All of this helped Sasheer Zamata realize that she was actually gay, and the stand-up comedian had a great sense of humor regarding the experience. She noted that conservatives often joke about how “[Hollywood is] turning everyone gay.”

In this case, she claims the experience of playing so many lesbian characters onscreen really did help her come to grips with her own sexual identity, which she wanted to share with the world ahead of her Marvel spinoff’s upcoming premiere.

In case you were wondering, Sasheer Zamata’s character in Agatha All Along isn’t explicitly written as a gay character, but the actor sees echoes of her own queerness and the aforementioned journey of discovery in this highly-anticipated show.

She notes that her Marvel character is a woman “who has been an outcast for a lot of her life.” Additionally, she says “it feels very appropriate” to take part “in a show that’s exploring so many cool female themes and queer themes.”

As for who Sasheer Zamata will be playing in Agatha All Along, her character’s name is Jennifer Kale, a sorcerer from the Everglades whose comic adventures had her crossing paths with big names like Doctor Strange. Given Strange’s prominent MCU connection to Wanda Maximoff, it’s possible that the upcoming spinoff will faithfully recreate some of Kale’s Marvel comics origins to make these characters’ stories intersect.

Of course, this cinematic universe has often made some big changes when adapting characters from page to screen, so don’t be too surprised if the show brings us some magical surprises regarding the new witch on the block.

At the end of the day, Sasheer Zamata’s journey of discovery led her to learn something fundamental about herself, something that she felt like sharing with the entire world.

Her coming out came as a surprise, though after her history of playing gay or gay-coded characters, maybe we shouldn’t have been so shocked. And if Agatha All Along ends up being as queer as Zamta has implied, then she certainly has the experience needed to bring some authenticity to this ambitious new show.

Source: Entertainment Weekly