Nico Tortorella explains why he no longer uses they/them pronouns after becoming a parent
Nico Tortorella has explained why he no longer uses they/them pronouns. (Getty)
Scream star Nico Tortorella has explained that he no longer uses they/ them pronouns after feeling like a man ‘more than ever’.
Best known for starring in slasher franchise Scream, as well as zombie mainstay The Walking Dead, Nico Tortorella came out as non-binary in 2018 via a lengthy Instagram post that has since been deleted.
At the time, he wrote, “It’s no secret that my sexuality has been ever evolving, and quite recently my own gender identity and expression has been taking new flight. I have started playing with using they/ them pronouns for myself and for anyone I can when it’s appropriate.”
And true to the promise that he is “ever evolving,” Tortorella has now explained that he’s back to using he/ him pronouns while speaking on the Full of Shift podcast with partner Bethany Meyers.
“There’s something that happened specifically in the pronoun conversation too [after the birth of his children, who were born in 2023 and four.] I use he/him pronouns at this point, you use she/her pronouns.
“Not to say that we’re opposed to they/them pronouns. I just really don’t care about it in the same ways that I did back in the day. Call me whatever you want, just make sure you call me a type of thing. I don’t mind it [they/them pronouns]. I truly don’t care.”
Continuing, Tortorella said, “I feel like a man more than I ever have in my entire life right now you know and I f***ing stand by that. It’s such a great feeling. It’s not to say that I won’t feel more fluid in the future, right? I can still f***ing sass out from time to time, but I’m in my truth right now and it’s real.”
The Walking Dead star then revealed that it was the process of trying to conceive their first child, Kilmer Dove in 2023, that made him “move on” from gender-neutral pronouns.
“There’s something that happened in our infertility where we were just experiencing roadblock after roadblock after roadblock and the pronoun conversation was this unnecessary roadblock that we were continuing to just face head on and I just had to let it go. I just had to move on.
“There was too much coming at us at once and that was part of just the release. There’s so much release that needs to happen to create life.”
Tortorella has been continuously open about sexuality and gender; in 2020 he let everyone know that he was versatile, and that there was “nothing more masculine than bottoming“, when opening up about his polyamorous relationship the same year.
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