Zoe Lister-Jones opened up about her sexuality while debuting her romance with filmmaker Sammi Cohen.
The Band Aid actress, 41, shared the update while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the Sunday, February 25, Film Independent Spirit Awards, which she attended with Cohen.
“I’m here, I’m queer, I have some fear but I’m working through it,” Lister-Jones said when asked about her plus-one.
She went on to praise the Spirit Awards’ gender-neutral acting categories.
“I’m so grateful to Film Independent for really being pioneers in that area. All award shows should follow in their footsteps and make categories genderless,” the Life in Pieces alum said. “I’m dating a nonbinary person. I’m friends with so many nonbinary people. And I think that without really shifting the paradigm in a larger way, it’s closing a lot of doors for really important voices.”
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Lister-Jones also took a moment to gush about Cohen, who directed the 2023 film You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.
“They’re an amazing filmmaker in their own right,” she said.
Lister-Jones was previously married to acting, writing and production partner Daryl Wein from 2013 to 2022. The pair’s film collaborations include 2009’s Breaking Upwards and 2012’s Lola Versus.
Lister-Jones filed for divorce in September 2022, citing “irreconcilable differences.” She previously opened up about being “in and out of an open relationship” with Wein, 40, during a September 2021 appearance on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast.
“It’s why I have so much indigestion,” she joked, noting that she had a “constantly engaged” jealous muscle when Wein would be intimate with other people.
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During a joint New York Times interview in 2012, Lister-Jones called non-monogamy “frightening territory,” while Wein said, “I take the glass half full approach in that there might be some potential to the concept.”
Lister-Jones shot back, “Of course you think that. You’re a man.”
While the twosome’s marriage didn’t last, Lister-Jones told THR that she is “still very close” with Wein.
“We made a lot of films together,” she added.
Prior to confirming her romance with Cohen, Lister-Jones dropped a hint about her sexuality in June 2023.
“Queer ultimatum #happypride,” she wrote via Instagram at the time alongside a photo of her looking into a fridge while wearing a cheeky bikini.
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Cohen, meanwhile, opened up about their coming out journey during a September 2023 appearance on the “Yenta!” podcast.
“It took me a long time to come out, and then it took me a little bit longer to come out again as nonbinary,” the director explained. “It’s been a long, very, very slow, chill process. … I only through standup, like a year and a half ago, came out as nonbinary out loud to people. The first time I said it out loud I was doing standup.”
Cohen noted that the “levity” of performing comedy made the topic seem easier to talk about.
“I said it so nonchalantly,” they said.
