“There’s not a place for me in the acting categories,” says the nonbinary performer who uses they/them pronouns and portrays young Van Palmer on the hit Showtime series “Yellowjackets.”
Liv Hewson would probably love to be up for an Emmy nomination for their portrayal of the young Van Palmer on Showtime’s creepy smash hit “Yellowjackets,” but has chosen not to submit themselves for consideration.
The performer, who identifies as non-binary and goes by they/them pronouns, says they came to this decision because they couldn’t see where they belonged. “There’s no place for me in the acting categories,” Hewson told Variety, referring to the gendered Outstanding Actor and Actress categories.
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“It would be inaccurate for me to submit myself as an actress. It neither makes sense for me to be lumped in with the boys,” explained Hewson. “It’s quite straightforward and not that loaded. I can’t submit myself for this because there’s no space for me.”
Originally Hewson was among those Showtime was intending to submit for the acting categories. Both Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci, who portray adult versions of two of the plane crash survivors at the heart of the story, were nominated this past season.
Hewson, however, decided that they would prefer not to be submitted. It’s not a new stance for a non-binary performer. There have been calls for years for the various award shows to do away with gendered categories, though some awards have explored this.
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As noted by Variety, the Grammys have not had gendered categories for a decade now, while both the Independent Spirit Awards and the Gotham Awards have done away with them these past couple of years.
Meanwhile, some non-binary performers have opted to select a gendered category to be submitted. “House of the Dragon” star Emma D’Arcy submitted for Actress, while Carl Clemons-Hopkins of “Hacks” and J. Harrison Ghee of “Accused” submitted as Actor.
Hewson noted that categories like Director and Cinematographer are already non-gendered, though there is a regular outcry over the dearth of female nominees in many of those categories — it’s a clarion cry every year at the Oscars that no or very few women directors are getting recognized by their peers.
Hewson is right, though, in that gendering those types of categories “implicitly would be insulting.”
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They also seemed pretty chill about the current reality, summing up their feelings by saying, “You can keep things as they are right now — I just won’t be participating.”
At the same time, they hope that these continued moments with various non-binary performers will spur ongoing conversations about this topic. “It’s worth talking about,” said Hewson. “And I very gently and respectfully ask that people get their gears turning a little.”
Some advocates for diversity and inclusion have expressed fears that non-gendered categories might find cisgender white men dominating the field. The Brit Awards are currently reviewing their decision to go genderless in their categories last year, according to The New York Times, after no women were nominated for Best Artist.
Hewson doesn’t want to think about it that way, though, saying that it implies that “we’ve all agreed that equality is impossible. And that’s sad.”
