Marisa Tomei Says She Wanted To Make Spider-Man’s Aunt May A Lesbian

Marisa Tomei Says She Wanted To Make Spider-Man’s Aunt May A Lesbian Columbia Pictures

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Marisa Tomei has revealed that she originally wanted her Spider-Man: No Way Home character May to be a lesbian. The actress, who plays Peter Parker’s aunt in the movie, said in an interview with Geeks of Color that she proposed the idea to producers but ultimately, it was the film execs that shut the idea down.

  1. To Tomei, the move made sense. After the death of May’s husband, Ben Parker, who gets murdered by a burglar, Tomei felt it sort of made sense for the character to couple up with a woman. “There was a moment, where I felt that May — maybe she should just be with a woman because Ben is gone,” she explained.
  2. She even had an idea of who should play her girlfriend. Tomei pointed out that while May having a girlfriend should be a “subtle thing,” that girlfriend should have been played by Sony exec Amy Pascal. “And we were kind of talking about it,” she said, laughing. “And so I actually really wanted Amy Pascal from Sony to be my girlfriend! I was like, ‘No one even has to know, Amy. I’ll just be in a scene and you’ll be over there. And I’ll just be like, “Hey!” It’ll just be a subtle thing.'”
  3. Of course, many Spider-Man fans weren’t happy about the mere suggestion. One critic tweeted: “Let’s forget completely about Uncle Ben and go straight to Aunt May being lesbian. Yeah, the fans will be super happy — Said no one. Ever.” Conservative rapper Eric July added: “Hollywood brainlet, Marisa Tomei wanted MCU Aunt May to be lesbian, because ‘Ben was gone anyways.’ These people have no idea who these characters are,” he added. “Stop giving Marvel the benefit of the doubt just because they nostalgia-baited you.” Lighten up, dude.
  4. There were plenty of supporters of the idea too. One fan said they thought a gay Aunt May would be “awesome,” tweeting: “Not gonna lie, this would’ve been awesome. We were deprived of cool lesbian aunt May and that is the biggest mistake of the entire franchise right there.”

Jennifer Still is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience. The managing editor of Bolde, she has bylines in Vanity Fair, Business Insider, The New York Times, Glamour, Bon Appetit, and many more. You can follow her on Twitter @jenniferlstill
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