After playing Emily Fields on Pretty Little Liars, there are many that question Shay Mitchell's sexuality. She admits that many have asked her whether she's gay in real life or just plays a LGBT-identifying character on TV. Mitchell gets asked this so much that she's come up with the perfect answer to the query — and what do you know, it mirrors her PLL character's attitude.
In an interview with Maxim, Mitchell said that "People always ask me, 'You play a gay character? Are you gay? Are you straight? Are you this? Are you that?'" And for her, the answer is simple: "Look, Emily doesn't label herself, and I don't label myself either. I fall in love with the spirit of somebody. Love is love, and that's something that I'll keep saying."
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It's true that Emily's sexuality on the show was never really up for debate. In the end, Emily gets engaged to Alison because she was in love with her. It didn't matter whether she was a lesbian or bisexual, which is why she never had to announce that she was anything other than herself.
Mitchell's message tries to stress the point that we don't need labels and that the question of sexuality isn't always so cut and dry. What Mitchell makes it clear that it doesn't matter who she falls in love with, she'll always be Shay and that's a message we can all get behind, right?
Beyond getting asked about her sexuality, which honestly, guys, let's stop doing, Mitchell says that she was often asked about what it was like to kiss a girl for the show. "And I was like, 'Not much different than a guy,'" Mitchell told Maxim.
Luckily, people stopped asking her this question at the end of season 7. And we have to think it had something to do with her answers, which clearly weren't looking to make a girl kissing a girl seem taboo or something scandalous. "It wasn't that exciting of a question to people anymore, which I think is so great," Mitchell said. "It was actually really refreshing."
We couldn't agree more.
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