Bella Thorne: Coming out as bisexual has cost me roles
Bella Thorne. (Phillip Faraone/Getty)
Bella Thorne says she has lost out on acting roles since coming out as bisexual.
The 21-year-old US actress and singer told Gay Times that after she revealed her sexuality on Snapchat in 2016, she received immediate backlash from Hollywood producers.
“There were a few places on the acting side that were very negative about it,” said the Assassination Nation star.
“There was someone who, right after I came out, cancelled my audition.
Bella Thorne has opened up about the challenges she faces for being bisexual (Gay Times)
“It’s not like anybody comes up to you and says, ‘Well, you’re gay so I’m not going to hire you.’ I haven’t had that,” she continued.
“But you can just tell by the way that people act differently around you, the way they treat you differently, the way that they look at you or the way that they tiptoe around certain subjects because they’re walking on eggshells.
“In this business, that behaviour makes it all very obvious.”
Bella Thorne hits out at bi-erasure
Thorne said that bisexual people like her suffer from misconceptions and erasure.
“If you f***ed a guy once, you must be gay. Like, what? No. That’s just being fluid”
— Bella Thorne
“It seems like no-one understands bisexuality at all,” she said. “In this world it’s like you’re either gay or you’re straight; there’s no in between.
“If you f***ed a guy once, you must be gay. Like, what? No. That’s just being fluid,” Thorne explained.
“It’s not a gay or straight box, it’s this middle in-between world that nobody can put in a box, which makes them so mad.
“People are so mad that they can’t put it in a box, can’t explain it and can’t see how it works that they hate on it.”
The star, who is dating rapper Mod Sun and YouTuber Tana Mongeau, said that she also faced ignorance over her love life.
She said: “I don’t think anybody will really understand the bonds that I share with Mod or Tana.
“Yeah, we joke around about poly, but we aren’t in the sense that we don’t put a word, a box or label too many things. It is what it is.”
Bella Thorne opened up about her sexual abuse
Last year, Thorne wrote about being sexually abused when she was a child, in support of the Time’s Up campaign.
The Scream star wrote on Instagram: “I was sexually abused and physically growing up from the day I can remember till I was 14.”
She added that “when I finally had the courage to lock my door at night and sit by it. All damn night. Waiting for someone to take advantage of my life again.
“Over and over I waited for it to stop and finally it did.”
The next Gay Times issue will be on news stands on January 31.
