Non-binary actor Liv Hewson urges Australians to relax about pronouns

The star of hit movie Bombshell and US TV series Santa Clarita Diet has urged Australians to relax.

Non-binary actor Liv Hewson has urged Australians to relax about pronouns.

The star of hit movie Bombshell and US TV series Santa Clarita Diet came out as non-binary at the age of 16 growing up in Canberra.

“Saying the wrong thing is fine so long as you are not trying to hurt anybody because that is how people learn and that is how people connect to each other,” Hewson, 25, told Confidential, going by the pronouns they/them.

Actor Liv Hewson attends the premiere Netflix's "Santa Clarita Diet" at ArcLight Cinemas Cinerama Dome in 2017 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

“My biggest advice to people who see pronoun usage as a hurdle, is just honestly relax. The advice is there, people will tell you what the right thing to call them is.”

Hewson’s latest film, Under My Skin, premieres at the Mardi Gras Film Festival at the Randwick Ritz on Friday night.

It is a modern love story starring four separate non-binary-identifying actors.

“I have been acting for a living for a number of years but prior to this I had never played a non-binary person before,” Hewson said. “That was really the first in-point for me, I wanted to try to do that and see what that was like. I just never expected that opportunity to come my way I guess. It hadn’t occurred to me as a possibility.”

Hewson is usually based in Los Angeles but has been home in Australia since this time last year due to the pandemic.

Liv Hewson at Amazon's Emmy Celebration at Sunset Tower Hotel. Picture: Tibrina Hobson/Getty

Australian actor Liv Hewson.

Australian actor Liv Hewson.

As an actor, they are driven towards “funny dramas and sad comedies”.

“In between stuff, that is what I am about,” they said. “I like it when stories aren’t afraid to play around in funny and sad at the same time because I think that is kind of what life is like and learning to balance those things is what I am attracted to as a person.”

They continued: “I just get such a kick out of storytelling. It is such a specifically human impulse and I like understanding other people. I think acting helps me do that in interesting ways. Human beings are the only species that tell stories and I just can’t get enough of that, it fascinates me.”