Annalise Keating may have her fair share of problems on “How to Get Away with Murder” but her sexuality isn’t one of them.
Show creator Pete Nowalk revealed during the TCA summer press tour that Annalise is pansexual. The headstrong lawyer was married to Sam Keating (Tom Verica) and has had a relationship with detective Nate Lahey (Billy Brown). Annalise had a serious relationship with fellow lawyer Eve Rothlo (Famke Janssen). She has also had an on-off flirtation with her colleague, Bonnie Winterbottom (Liza Weil).
“I got really lucky in not having to make my characters perfect,” Nowalk says. “Because they’re all bad people. You don’t necessarily have to make them do things that aren’t real. Viola’s character—we’ve never said, but I think she’s pansexual. She gets to just be bad in all the best ways. In that way it’s very liberating to write any LGBTQ character on the show.”
Davis told E! she’s happy Annalise’s sexuality is known and is just a part of who she is.
“I love the idea that she’s just searching for love and intimacy and whoever will give it to her. I love that it’s not coming from a place of damage and being screwed up because I don’t think it’s screwed up. I think it’s an interesting, liberating thought to just seek the person who is seeking you. It’s kind of an interesting 21st Century element to place in this character,” Davis says.
Davis continued that she loves how the character’s sexuality is simply about looking for love.
“I’m at a place where I just want to do anything that is different. And anything that I feel is going to touch people in a way. I think a lot of homosexuals and the LGBT community, they’re kind of feeling like they’re on the outside now and I think it’s wonderful to have a character like that to relate to and is not once again coming from a place of damage but coming from a place of seeking, of really wanting to be loved and love,” Davis says.
“How to Get Away with Murder” premieres Sept. 28 at 10 p.m. on ABC.
