Wicked star Marissa Bode opens up about coming out and how she met her partner
Lauren Brooks and Marissa Bode have been dating since 2023. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Lauren Brooks and Marissa Bode have been dating since 2023. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Wicked star Marissa Bode has opened up about when she came out as queer and how she met her partner.
Queer actress Bode portrays Nessarose, the Wicked Witch of the East who is the younger sister to Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, in the film adaptation of the musical.
In an interview for Them, the 25-year-old opened up about her personal life, sharing how she came out and met her partner.
Bode, who is the first disabled actress to play Nessarose since the musical debuted on Broadway in 2003, said she had made it her “New Year’s resolution almost three years in a row” to come out.
“I identify as bi, but I like to say ‘queer'”
“And the last year leading up to it… This was post high school. I was still in college at the time. I was definitely ready at that point. I wanted to just talk about it freely and not feel like I was hiding anything. And I would just drop little hints, like blasting very queer music and singing very loudly to it in the car whenever I had the aux… I definitely felt ready when I came out during Pride Month. What better time?”
She added that she felt ready because she wanted to “explore dating women”.
“I identify as bi, but I like to say ‘queer,’ in general, because I don’t necessarily want to label it,” she shared, adding: “But I knew that I wanted to explore that side of me. But before doing that, I wanted to be honest with my family about it. I baked these little hand pies that were very dry and not good, and I made this little sign and set it by a plate of said hand pies, and it said, ‘Roses are red. Have a hand pie. Happy Pride Month. Surprise, I’m bi.’ Just a little poetry.”
The poet shared that she met her partner, Laura Brooks, on a dating app. The pair have been dating since 2023.
She said of meeting her: “Shout-out to my girl, Hinge… not an ad, but it can be, if Hinge would like me to. You don’t always see success stories on the apps, but this was one. We met in 2023. During the actors’ and writers’ strike, not too long after I came back from filming Wicked.”
Bode previously slammed “gross” jokes made about her character Nessarose’s disability, reminding viewers that their comments affect actual disabled people.
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