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Emma Corrin believes Prince Diana was “so queer” in “many ways”.
The 26-year-old star – who came out as queer last year and later revealed they are non-binary and use gender neutral pronouns -is best known for portraying the late royal in season four of ‘The Crown', a part also taken on by bisexual actress Kristen Stewart in ‘Spencer'.
Emma declared: “In many ways Diana was so queer.”
Emma believes Diana – who had sons Princes William and Harry with ex-husband King Charles – was the definite “other” within the royal family and always embraced “outsiders”.
Meanwhile, the ‘My Policeman' star reflected on how they felt like they were “being born” when embarking on their first queer relationship.
They told the Sunday Times Style magazine: “[It felt] like being born a bit. Opening my eyes to this whole other way of life that felt so right. And so beautiful. And in quite a terrifying way it called into question everything I'd been assuming about myself and about the way I loved people before and how I felt.”
Emma thinks people are “normally quite good” about referring to them using the right pronouns, but admitted it matters less with people they know well because it is about “feeling seen”.
Asked if people are respectful or if they have to do a lot of correcting, they said: “It's half and half. People are normally quite good at it. But pronouns are a strange thing in themselves. It's a weird little bit of language that comes to mean so much, and really struggles to reflect anyone's true feeling of self.”
The ‘Lady Chatterley's Lover' star admitted there are “always those voices” that advised them not to talk about their gender identity so openly but they would rather be “boldly” themself.
They said: “There are always those voices.
“Luckily none of them I work with closely, but you are aware of them. I notice there's always that voice in your head that's, like, if I come out of this, if I define myself as this thing, will it mean that people won't trust me with certain parts? But you can dig yourself into such a hole of hypotheticals …
“I would much rather be boldly myself and comfortable than not.”
Emma thinks being non-binary has helped them stay sane in their career.
They explained: “It really gives some distance in between the two things, you're right. And it makes me feel separate in a way that keeps me sane, I think. It's a really interesting one and one that I'm just kind of figuring out, because it has all been so recent and it's still this journey that I'm on.
“I feel so different in my life every day and in my body every day to the roles that I depict normally, especially these two recent ones, because yes, they're very, very straight, very feminine.
“I think I'm drawn to the feminine characters I'm drawn to because it's an exploration of what, especially in Connie's case, makes them female and it's almost a critique of that.
“The majority of my experience my whole life has been with femininity and I consider my gender and sexuality not a rejection of that, but an embrace of fluidity and more parts of me, the masculine parts as well and everything in between.”
