Marshawn Lynch in “Bottoms”.Photo:MGM/Youtube
MGM/Youtube
It might seem strange, especially for those who only knowMarshawn Lynchfor hisfootball career, to see the Super Bowl champ in a comedy about queer high school girls launching a fight club.
But the real reason for this unlikely casting is altogether more personal: Marshawn Lynch’s queer sister, Marreesha Sapp-Lynch, says he asked her whether to addBottomsto a growing acting résumé that includesWestworldandMurderville.
“From the beginning when he read the script, he said that I came to mind,” recalls Sapp-Lynch, 34. “I was like, ‘Most definitely you should do it.’ I just told him, ‘It’ll get you to understand, get more knowledge about the lesbian community.”
Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri in “Bottoms”.United Artists Releasing / Courtesy Everett Collection
United Artists Releasing / Courtesy Everett Collection
Like the characters of PJ and Josie, Sapp-Lynch has identified as a lesbian since high school. It felt easy coming out to her mother Delisa, she remembers — “She’ll tell me to this day, ‘I always knew you liked girls!'” — but brothers David, Marshawn and Davonte had a less straightforward reaction.
“They were understanding, but they didn’t understand,” Sapp-Lynch tells PEOPLE. “Marshawn had a lot of questions and was thinking it was his fault: ‘What did I do?’ Because growing up he would always say I couldn’t have a boyfriend, ‘You can’t talk to boys.’ We’d go to a party and he’d be asking everybody, ‘Did you dance with my sister?’ But I wasn’t attracted to boys, so I didn’t dance with them!”
Her brother has accepted and celebrated her sexual orientation since those teenage years, Sapp-Lynch says. Case in point: Marshawn helped plan her 2021 wedding and walked her down the aisle.
“I asked him to walk me down the aisle because our dad passed away,” says Sapp-Lynch with a smile. “He cried the whole time,” she adds.
“He doesn’t cry — or I don’t see him cry. The fact that he did cry and shed some tears, it meant a lot to me.” (Marshawn was so invested in his sister’s wedding, in fact, he urged the pair to reschedule it from 2023 to 2021. “He was very much involved in the whole planning… He called us at 5:00 a.m. talking about the cake designs and party favors.”)
Marshawn Lynch.Frazer Harrison/Getty
Frazer Harrison/Getty
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“In his words, he said he wasn’t amazing about it when Marreesha came out in high school and that he felt like this was the universe giving him a chance to right his wrongs,” she adds. “He made it seem like that was really what was interesting him the most about it.”
Throughout the film’s shoot in New Orleans, Seligman says, “he kept on bringing up Marreesha.” Especially when Sapp-Lynch and her wife visited the set, she recalls, “He kept on being like, ‘That’s my sister.’ In a way where it was like a proud parent [of queer kids] — a proud brother.”
And when Orion Pictures president Alana MayosuggestedMarshawn for Mr. G, Seligman says, she realized it might expand the moviegoing audience ofBottoms. “Him believing in these girls and getting to know them and getting to understand them means a lot in the grand scheme of things within the crazy conservative town that they’re in.”
Plus, the story’s homophobic characters are obsessed with the high school football team, Seligman points out. “To have a legendary football player like him playing this character that’s getting to know this subsection of this town, and see them as real people with valid desires and hormones and feelings — that’s pretty cool that Marshawn is representing that kind of straight, male character.”
Sapp-Lynch agrees, and says seeing a movie full of gay characters likeBottomswhile coming out in high school “would’ve helped me make me feel easier, make me feel better about me being who I am.”
“I didn’t understand my sexuality in high school, so I actually think it might’ve freaked me out,” admits Seligman. “It would’ve excited me. Maybe it would’ve jumpstarted some things!”
Of co-writing the film with Sennott, she says, “I really just wanted to see my high school self in a stupid comedy.” She recalls a quote from Edebiri: “Being stupid is a political act.”
“Just having queer characters in something so silly and that’s not serious feels subversive,” Seligman continues. “I don’t think we’re trying to prove anything political or have some sort of deeper message or meaning out of the movie. Other than ‘Gay people can be funny, sexy and horny, and that’s normal.’ Sometimes just normalizing something is enough.”
Bottomsis in theaters now.
source: people.com
