Nonbinary actor Liv Hewson told Variety that they will not be submitting themselves for an Emmy this year despite being eligible and spoken about in Emmy prediction talks. They revealed that their decision is on the division of the Emmys into male and female categories.
“There’s not a place for me in the acting categories,” Hewson said. “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. It’s quite straightforward and not that loaded. I can’t submit myself for this because there’s no space for me.”
Hewson plays the teenage version of Van Palmer, the team’s goalie and Tai’s girlfriend, on Yellowjackets. She’s a calming, grounding presence for Tai, but has also drawn her into Lottie’s spiritual cult, making her quite a complicated character.
Hewson brings a quiet strength to the character and balances her love for Tai and fear of her terrifically, and with the second season surpassing the Emmy-nominated first, they, along with several other actors from the show, are definitely in Emmys contention.
While nonbinary and LGBTQ+ activists and actors have argued that acting awards should be gender neutral for years, others say that if there’s only one, gender neutral, Lead Actor and Supporting Actor category, it will likely be dominated by white men. Hewson doesn’t agree.
“There is an implied fatalism there, which suggests that we’ve all agreed that equality is impossible. And that’s sad,” they said.
“We’re not going to start awarding best female and male director, or female or male cinematographer,” they continued. “Because we all understand that implicitly would be insulting. You can keep things as they are right now — I just won’t be participating.”
Hewson also said that their Yellowjackets cast and the people at Showtime have been incredibly supportive, especially when they got top surgery before filming season 2.
“It’s worth talking about,” she said. “And I very gently and respectfully ask that people get their gears turning a little.”