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Chyler Leigh On The Social Media Love And Hate For ‘Supergirl’ Lesbian Story

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 15:46 PST, Feb 5, 2017

Chyler Leigh says the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting made her more committed to telling the lesbian storyline on Supergirl“the right way,” according to Yahoo News. The 34-year-old actress, who’s married to actor Nathan West, has been very invested in telling Alex and Maggie‘s journey on the CW series.

In her recent interview with TV Insider, Chyler Leigh revealed that she has been eager to depict the lesbian story between Supergirl‘s Alex and Maggie “the right way” because she wants to “do justice” after the June 12 nightclub shooting that killed 49 people.

Chyler Leigh revealed that she had found out about her character Alex’s plans to come out on June 11, the night before the Orlando nightclub shooting took place.

“I woke up to that news and just started sobbing. [And] I thought, ‘My God, we have to do justice to a story that, in real life, affects so many people.'”

The incident had such a huge impact on her that Chyler Leigh even decided to get involved in the casting process to find the right actress for her onscreen love interest, Maggie. The 34-year-old actress revealed that she adamantly became part of the casting process, because she “had to know we got the right” actress for the role.

Chyler Leigh said that Floriana Lima, the actress who ended up being cast as Maggie, was the second woman to come in. Leigh confessed that she knew it was her the moment she walked in.

“I could see her heart and there was something special about our connection.”

Chyler Leigh also got candid about how many haters on social media write negative comments about the lesbian storyline on Supergirl. The actress said that although those negative comments from haters pop up “here and there,” she admitted that there has been “an overwhelming amount of positive responses.”

Chyler Leigh explained that those who write negative comments about her lesbian character probably “don’t have that acceptance of what our world is today.” But the actress was more impressed by “thousands of messages and pictures” from LGBTQ people sharing their stories with her.

“If this isn’t an amazing opportunity to speak to the heart of humanity as a whole and also touch people individually, I don’t know what is.”

According to Mashable citing GLAAD data, last year’s TV had the highest ever percentage of regular LGBTQ TV characters on broadcast TV, and Supergirl with the passionate lesbian story between Chyler Leigh’s Alex and Lima’s Maggie certainly attributed to that success. According to GLAAD, 43 regulars (4.8 per cent) were identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

Chyler Leigh is not the only one who gets tons of positive messages about her character on social media. Last month, Lima took to Twitter to share how grateful she was for all the positive comments from her followers, and added that it made her “SO proud” and “SMILE.”

In his recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Supergirl‘s executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed that there will “definitely [be] some bumps” in the relationship between Chyler Leigh’s Alex and Lima’s Maggie in future episodes of the CW series, which aired its first episode on October 25, 2015.

“Just because they are together now doesn’t mean it’s going to go smoothly.”

Kreisberg also teased that future episodes will be “funny, serious, romantic” and even “heartbreaking.” Supergirl airs on CW on Mondays, 8 P.M. EST. The series recently cast Teri Hatcher, the former star of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Desperate Housewives, as a villain.

[Featured Image by Richard Shotwell/AP Images]

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