Marvel’s latest superhero movie is very gay, according to one of its stars, Natalie Portman, and its director Taika Waititi.
At a recent preview screening of “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Portman joined Waititi and fellow cast members for a Q&A session with the audience.
In a scene that was captured on cellphone video and then shared on social media, an audience member asked the 41-year-old actress how gay the movie was.
After a brief pause, Portman, who returns to the franchise as the astrophysicist Jane Foster, responded: “So gay.”
Waititi agreed, adding: “super gay.”
That wasn’t the first time the Oscar-winning actress was asked about LGBTQ representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Late last month she was asked if it was safe to say that the latest “Thor” installment was the gayest Marvel movie ever made.
“I love that reading of it, yes!” she responded.
The movie, which is set to open in U.S. theaters on Friday, is rumored to appeal to LGBTQ audiences.
Waititi was also asked about LGBTQ inclusion in movies in a recent interview with Australia’s Daily Telegraph, which, he said, is something that should have happened “a thousand years ago.”
“It’s 2022 and we’re still having these conversations, it’s just insane. To think people will go to a movie and go, ‘Did you see those two women kissing?’” he said, likely referring to a much-talked-about scene in the Disney-Pixar computer-animated adventure film “Lightyear,” which featured a brief same-sex kiss.
“It’s insane that people still want to talk about that. Why is it not normalized? Why is it weird or different?” the New Zealand filmmaker said.
“The good thing about doing it in these films, it’s mainstream movies where we get to see this and it’s normalized, and I think that’s what’s cool. Way more people are going to see that and begin to understand that it’s fine,” he added.
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