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Zoe’s name has been a little bit of everywhere this week. If it’s not for appearing undressed on the cover of Allure, having her 115-pound weight exposed to the world, it’s for claiming she might settle down with a woman later in life. Has she really said anything about Star Trek 2 Into Darkness yet?

Anywho, while being interviewed by BET.com, the actress discussed why she’s so uncomfortable with people always asking about her ethnicity, why she doesn’t appreciate people trying to categorize her, and why she can understand the Nina Simone backlash, but why it also hurt her. Here are the tidbits that had us talking:

Why she’s sick and tired of talking about her ethnicity and race:

“I find it uncomfortable to have to speak about my identity all of the time, when in reality it’s not something that drives me or wakes me up out of bed every day. I didn’t grow up in a household where I was categorized by my mother. I was just Zoe and I could have and be anything that I ever wanted to do…and every human being is the same as you. So to all of a sudden leave your household and have people always ask you, “What are you? What are you?” is the most uncomfortable question sometimes and it’s literally the most repetitive question. Because I can’t wait to be in a world where people are sized by their soul and how much they can contribute as individuals and not what they look like.

…I feel like as a race, that’s a minute problem against the problems we face just as women versus men, in a world that’s more geared and designed to cater towards the male species.”

On the rumors that she is bisexual after her statements in Allure:

“It’s again, I’m telling you, the saddest situation. I encourage every human being to spend one hour a day without categorizing and stereotyping anything, or using any titles. It is almost impossible for us to get through one cache without having to go, ‘Is she Mexican? Is she gay? What kind of car does she drive?’ Our lives are going to slip and we are never going to grow and realize that it’s so much more beauty in this earth and so many more things that are important besides stereotyping ourselves and limiting ourselves just by putting ourselves in little boxes.

That said, I’m an artist and if I was to limit myself as an artist and go, ‘As a an artist, I can only like feminine art because I’m a woman,’ I’d be the stupidest person on earth and I wouldn’t be an artist at all. If I look at beauty, I’m going to love and admire beauty no matter if it comes in the form of a masculine essence or a feminine essence. Beauty is beauty. So, up until now, I’ve known my life to be with men, I’ve been attracted to the male species, but if one day I wake up and I want to be with a woman, I’m going to do that. And I know I am going to be supported by the creatures that have raised me and love me and know me.”

And of course, her thoughts on people being very vocal about their disdain for the lengths she was going to in order to play Nina Simone:

“All I can say is, though it did sting for a bit, that a community that you feel most identified with, would have such a negative backlash and you are at the epicenter of it all, it was very disappointing. But at the same time too, it is understandable. All I can say is the people that came together to do Nina, came together out of love for Nina and that will never be wrong, and I will always stand behind that.”

Good points. Check out the full interview and series of videos from her sit-down where she looked visibly uncomfortable over at BET.com.

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