Bella Ramsey speaks out in support of gendered acting award categories
Ramsey told Louis Theroux: "I think it's so important that recognition for women in the industry is preserved"
By Gary Grimes
Bella Ramsey has spoken out in support of maintaining gendered acting categories at award shows, saying they are “really important.”
In a recent appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast, The Last of Us actor, who is nonbinary, was asked about their thoughts on which acting category they ought to be in.
“They don’t have a nonbinary category. So which category would you be in?” Theroux asked, before adding: “If you have a single category for everyone, then basically a lot of women wouldn’t get nominated.”
“I think it’s so important that that’s preserved, as well,” Ramsey agreed. “The recognition for women in the industry is preserved.”
“I don’t have the answer and I wish that there was something that was an easy way around it, but I think that it is really important that we have a female category and a male category,” they went on.
“I have a guttural, ‘That’s not quite right,’ instinct to [being called an actress]” – Bella Ramsey
The actor, who has recently admitted they somewhat regret coming out publicly as nonbinary at the age of 19, also spoke about how they feel about being placed in female acting categories.
“I have a guttural, ‘That’s not quite right,’ instinct to [being called an actress],” said the star, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for their performance in the HBO epic video game series in 2023. “But I just don’t take it too seriously… it doesn’t feel like an attack on my identity.”
Ramsey explained to Theroux that they “grew up more as a little boy than I did a little girl. It’s been very obvious since I was young. I always called myself a tomboy, but it wasn’t that I was a boyish girl, I was always like a bit of an in-between. Leaning to most of the boys side.
“I always felt more masculine or more on that side of the spectrum,” they continued. “I guess at the moment I don’t feel like I have access to femininity.”
Last month, in an interview with The Guardian, Ramsey lamented their public coming out, saying: “Part of me looks back and I wish that I didn’t, because I didn’t want it to become a headline and a big thing,” they admitted. “And obviously it was going to, and I didn’t really understand that at the time. And I wasn’t really prepared for that.
“But on the other hand, people have said to me that it’s been very helpful for them seeing some representation.”