Emily Hampshire, who played David Rose’s friend Stevie Budd on Schitt’s Creek, has recently explained how she realized she is pansexual, according to Health.
On Wednesday, the 40-year-old Canadian actress talked about being pansexual when she appeared as a guest on an episode of Demi Lovato’s podcast, 4D with Demi Lovato.
Hampshire told Lovato, “So we did this scene in Schitt’s Creek – I think it’s kind of well-known now – it’s the wine scene where David, Dan Levy’s character, explains to Stevie his sexuality through wine. And he says, ultimately, he likes the wine, not the label, and that he’s pansexual.”
At the time, the term “pansexual” was relatively new to Hampshire. She explained, “I know everyone else got the wine metaphor, but when I was doing the scene, I had a bit of trouble because, well, there’s the third wine.”
About five years after doing the scene, Hampshire came across messages from fans asking if her character Stevie was lesbian and whether she identified as a lesbian in real life.
At the time, she explained that she turned to Schitt’s Creek co-star Dan Levy for advice, telling him, “This is so weird. What am I?”
She said, “Because I truly just fell in love with a person, and where they fell on the gender spectrum did not matter to me. And since then, it really doesn’t matter to me. I have to like the person; I’m really attracted to a person’s vibe. So he was like, ‘You’re pansexual, don’t you watch our show?’”
Representing pansexuality in media is important because it is not talked about as much as other sexualities, according to Hampshire. “So it did make me really start to—I think like Schitt’s Creek did for a lot of people—made you start to really kind of look deeper into yourself,” she explained.
In the interview, Hampshire also revealed her eating disorder. She said, “I really thought I was so disgusting and it was such a gross secret. I couldn’t think anymore, I couldn’t remember anything, I was crying all the time and then I got really depressed because my brain wasn’t being fed at all.”
However, learning about Lovato’s own experience with an eating disorder helped Hampshire feel “less ashamed” about her own. She went on to seek treatment for her eating disorder.
She said, “When I came out of treatment, my whole life changed. I can’t say it cured my eating disorder, but it made me find a self or even know that I had a self in me.” The story was published in Health.
