Marshawn Lynch, a former running back for the Seattle Seahawks, has caught a bit of the acting bug as of late. He has made appearances on Westworld and Brooklyn 99, to name a couple, but he cites his role in Bottoms as his most personally significant yet.
Lynch’s younger sister, Marreesha, came out to him in high school. The athlete/actor confessed in a recent interview that, at the time, he did not provide her the support he should have. Lynch views his role in Bottoms, a comedy centered on two teenage lesbians, as a way to make up for his past behavior.
“I did not handle it right, as a 16-year-old boy. I didn’t handle it the way that I feel I probably should have, he said. “So I told her it was giving me an opportunity to correct my wrongs, and to rewrite one of my mistakes.”
Lynch says he was initially unsure about accepting the role, but his sister urged him to do it.
The Bottoms casting team decided to send Lynch the script after seeing his appearance on the improv comedy show Murderville but was unsure if he would accept the part. Remembering his reaction to his sister’s coming out was what pushed Lynch to take on the role. In the queer teen fight club sex comedy, he plays Mr. G, an oblivious high school teacher who supports and advises the film’s queer main characters. The film tackles complex subjects such as toxic masculinity and queer sexuality—subject matter that few might expect a professional athlete to help tackle.
As the film’s director and co-writer Emma Seligman told People (per Outsports), “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.”
Lynch and his sister have grown close since their high school years. He is now one of her biggest supporters, and even walked her down the aisle at her wedding in 2021. The budding actor’s part in Bottoms is a significant addition to his credentials, and creates an opportunity for more open conversations on heterosexual support of queerness in film.
(featured image: MGM)
