A familiar face for al of us – thanks to memorable turns in 1999 cult lesbian comedy But I’m A Cheerleader, that same year’s Oscar-nominated Girl, Interrupted, Lifetime’s 2014 movie Lizzie Borden Took an Ax and 2015 follow-up series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, and, in 2016, HBO’s Veep (as the secret-service agent girlfriend of First Daughter Catherine) – openly gay actress Clea DuVall has been talking with Out Magazine about, well, being out:
I’ve always sort of lived my life and never made a huge statement about it. It’s just, like, leading by example.”
On paparazzi photos of her kissing her girlfriend:
But I was also like, ‘Who cares?’ It’s not like I’m Reese Witherspoon. I’m just a character actor. As a kid I would have really appreciated seeing that. That would have meant a lot to me. So the people it matters to, it matters for a positive reason.”
The Los Angeles–based DuVall made her onscreen debut in 1996’s Little Witches. She went on to appear in genre films likeThe Astronaut’s Wife and Ghosts From Mars, intense dramas 21 Grams, Zodiac, The Laramie Project, and Argo, and TV series Heroes, American Horror Story: Asylum, and Better Call Saul. While DuVall has taken on many queer roles over her career, she only opened up about her own lesbian identity (and having a girlfriend) while doing press for The Intervention’s release.
DuVall has now stepped behind the camera as writer/director of Sundance crowd-pleaser The Intervention, a The Big Chill-inspired dramedy. In the film, DuVall and Cheerleader co-star Natasha Lyonne reunite as girlfriends who, along with a fellow group of paired-off friends, stage an intervention for a dysfunctional couple that goes deliciously awry.