Rebel Wilson on How Sexually Fluid Dating App Offers “Rejection of Categorization”
Rebel Wilson says her new dating app Fluid is more than just a piece of tech.
“It’s not just a dating app, it’s a kind of movement. It’s a rejection of categorization and that notion that you have to be one thing. What if there wasn’t a closet? What if everyone is just a person and we are all equal,” she told The Hollywood Reporter recently during the app’s launch party at Evan Funke’s new 90210 hotspot Funke. “Our app is for everyone. It’s truly the most inclusive — you can be anywhere on the sexuality spectrum.”
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Netflix Inks 5-Year Deal With Japanese Screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto
John Boyega Says 'They Cloned Tyrone' Co-Star Jamie Foxx "Assured Me That He's All Good"
Caption This: Why Subtitling Is Big Business Amid the Content Boom
Founded by Wilson with Carly Steel, Khalid Karim and Jacob Andreou, Fluid aims to disrupt the dating landscape by “celebrating individuality and breaking away from limitations imposed by categorization and traditional definitions of sexual orientation,” per the app. It removes the requirement for users to label their sexuality or identify a specific type of partner.
Wilson and Steel talked up the app while standing on the rooftop of Funke at an event fueled by Casamigos and the tequila brand’s newest offering, Cristalino. Steel revealed that Wilson has “definitely” served as the muse for the app as the actress, comedian and upcoming first-time filmmaker has recently found love with a woman, Ramona Agruma. “Having a front row seat watching her journey of love as she dated good, eligible dudes before settling down with Ramona. She didn’t feel that any category really fit for her and we started seeing all of these studies that show many people feel the same way, that they fit somewhere on the spectrum of sexuality.”
Wilson explained that she did an experiment in 2019 dubbed “the year of love” that found her saying yes to any suitor who asked for a date. “Only Carly and a couple of my close friends knew about it but I got a lot of really great experience at dating and I learned a lot,” she explained. “I was on an app at the time, Raya, but I wish that an app like Fluid existed at that time because I felt like I was someone who was not 100 percent straight though I wouldn’t have known how to categorize it at the time.”
She encouraged anyone who, like her, was late to the dating game or is intimidated by all the boxes one has to check to sign up for an app, to try Fluid with an open mind. “If you push yourself and take some risks — in a safe way, of course, by meeting in a public place — and get out there by gaining more dating experience, it will pay off. During my year of love, I realized what I wanted and what I didn’t want. If you walk into a cheesecake shop, you may not know what flavor of cheesecake you want until you get there. That’s what our app gives you.”
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
