#carl clemons-hopkins

‘Hacks’ Star Carl Clemons-Hopkins on Making Emmy History

How long have you been an out nonbinary actor? And what has that experience been like?

It was less of an “out” situation and more an understanding within myself telling the person I love, and my mother who bore me. My mom didn’t really understand what it meant. And then I gave a textbook definition. She goes, Oh yeah, great, great, great. This was before people started putting pronouns everywhere on monikers or handles or résumés. There was no language around that. And once the language around it started coming out, then I’m like, Okay, I’ll just attach this.

I’ve had the privilege of viewing pronouns in a way that other people in our queer family have not. If you per se identified as she/her you may not have had the freedom to do that in previous years. And so you identifying in that and me respecting that is part of what keeps you safe, it’s part of what makes you freer. So I was like, well, let me, for myself, but also for my queer family, make sure that I am as clear as I can be about my pronouns. And so I was. I’m less demanding about it than other people are just because that’s my experience. It’s been about just going on three years of walking in a truth and acknowledging the truth when it’s asked.

But it’s weird being in this space now because I’m being asked often to somewhat explain myself.

Sure.

So it’s been a few years of taking it step-by-step, conversation by conversation, invite by invite, really. I’m not here to prove myself to anyone. It’s not for someone else’s understanding. It’s for my own enlightenment. You have to respect me, but you don’t need to understand me. I’m not here to do the very real research and work that I’ve had to do for someone else.

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Behind the scenes for Out Magazine’s Hacks Cover Shoot

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Karen Ballard for HBO Max