Emma Corrin is opening up about how the public grapples with their identity.
In the time since The Crown star first came out publicly as queer in 2021, and then changed their pronouns on Instagram to they/them the following summer, the public response has not always been positive.
“The vitriol is worse than I anticipated,” Emma admitted to Harper’s Bazaar in an interview published May 22. “Even though we like to think we’re in a progressive society, a lot of what we’re seeing is increasingly a step back.”
What they’ve discovered is fans enjoy playing make-believe. “People follow me because they’ve watched something I’m in,” Emma continued. “They think I’m one kind of person, and then they’ll see who I actually am and how I present and—I will never understand why. Who are you hurting by being yourself? Why am I controversial?”
But the actor—who has worked on projects such as Lady Chatterly’s Lover and My Policeman in addition to her portrayal of Princess Diana—hypothesized, “I think it’s fear. Absolute fear.”
And yet, among the difficulties, are also extremely gratifying moments, such as a fan’s response to Emma’s portrayal of Orlando in Virginia Woolf‘s gender-bending novel of the same name.