Liv Hewson stars as Vanessa 'Van' Palmer on the hit Showtime drama.
Liv Hewson is getting candid about coming out as non-binary and undergoing top surgery. In an interview with Teen Vogue, the 27-year-old Yellowjackets star revealed they "feel more alive than ever" after having the procedure.
Top surgery is a procedure that removes or augments breast tissue and reshapes the chest to create a more masculine or feminine appearance for transgender and non-binary people.
Hewson -- who plays the role of Vanessa "Van" Palmer on Yellowjackets -- says they underwent top surgery last year. “I cannot tell you the complete, fundamental shift that I have felt in the year since having surgery,” they said.
The actor explained that the decision to have the procedure was something they had desired for much of their life. “I knew that I wanted top surgery for a decade; it's the longest I've ever thought about doing anything. The place that I went, I had that clinic's website open on my laptop for five years. It was this impossible mountain: I want that, but I'm never gonna get it. No one's gonna let me, blah, blah, blah,” Hewson recalled.
“To have that be in the past now… I stand differently, I walk differently, I carry myself differently,” they noted. “It feels different in my body than it ever has. I just have never been happier. I've never been more centered, I've never felt more stable and present and alive. It's the best thing I've ever done for myself. It’s taught me a lot. The recovery process taught me about rest, accepting help, and caring for my body as something connected to me rather than separate from me, that I’m in opposition to: This is mine, and I want to take care of it, and I feel good in it and good about it.”
Hewson is shutting down anyone who feels the need to negatively comment on their surgery, saying, “When people talk about gender-affirming surgery using words like ‘mutilation,’ that's not very nice. Is that how you think about people who've had surgery for other things? I am not going to entertain anybody's disgust over my body. It's my body, it’s healthy and strong and beautiful, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Point blank.”
The Yellowjackets star touched on the public's fear surrounding top surgery, explaining that the concern is misplaced. “Part of cis people's fear around gender-affirming surgery is the fear of surgery at all — ‘Oh, my God, but that's painful and scary!’ My reaction to that is, ‘No, no, you misunderstood. It was painful before. Your worry has kicked in at the wrong time. The right time to be concerned was about the pain I was in before this. I'm great now.’ Everybody else's concern for me has been on a delay,” Hewson said. “There's no need to be concerned anymore. That's so freeing.”
On Yellowjackets, Hewson's character, Vanessa, is a member of girls high school soccer team whose plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness in 1996. The hit Showtime drama follows the survivors as they navigate life in the wilderness and flashing forward to their lives in present day.
In addition to Hewson, Yellowjackets stars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Lauren Ambrose, Simone Kessell, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty and Courtney Eaton.
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