Orange is the New Black star Ruby Rose is making waves both on the small screen and off it.
The 29-year-old Australian actress, best known for role as Stella Carlin on the Netflix prison dramedy, recently sat down with Access Hollywood to discuss why she chose not to undergo transgender transition surgery, despite identifying as “gender-fluid.”
Rose told the outlet she had thought about transitioning from a very young age, but ultimately did not go through with it.
“When I was younger, for sure [I thought about it],” Rose told Access Hollywood. “I had this jar that I would pledge dollars… toward this surgery that I didn’t really know a lot about. I think I’d seen a daytime documentary or something on Oprah and I was like, ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’ And so I started saving from probably the age of five.”“When I got to 15, I kind of decided to get more into my body,” she added. “I shaved my head and my mom was just like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on right now, but if you’re happy, then do it.’ And I started to change the way that I dressed and talked and realized that I didn’t want to transition, I just wanted to feel more comfortable in my own skin.”
The actress reportedly came out as gay at the age of 12.
Last year, Rose produced and starred in a short film called “Break Free,” about “what it is like to have an identity that deviates from the status quo.”
“Gender fluidity is not really feeling like you’re at one end of the spectrum or the other,” the actress told Elle last month. “For the most part, I definitely don’t identify as any gender. I’m not a guy; I don’t really feel like a woman, but obviously I was born one. So, I’m somewhere in the middle, which – in my perfect imagination – is like having the best of both sexes.”
Check out the interview in full above.