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The actor who plays Maddy in I Saw the TV Glow has changed their name. The non-binary star, who was formerly known as Brigette Lundy-Paine, announced Tuesday that they will be going by Jack Haven from now on.
"I am changing my name, going by Jack Haven now," they wrote. The name change for the actor, who's long been open about their non-binary identity, is a reference to a great-great uncle, Haven Gillespie, who wrote "Santa Clause Is Coming to Town."
"[The] first name Jack has stuck," Haven wrote on Instagram. "Two years ago in a workshop led by @saman_arastoo I began using this name."
"I said I was using it in safe spaces. Saman said use it in dangerous spaces. So I use it in the men's bathroom," they added.
The "dangerous space" Haven might also be referring to is the United States today. As he took the oath of office on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to "recognize two sexes, male and female."
Trump later signed an executive order that prohibits federal recognition of transgender Americans. The order will bar government-issued identification such as passports from listing anything other than a person's birth sex, remove transgender individuals from protection of laws barring sex discrimination, and end funding for transition surgeries for federal prisoners.
Haven first announced that they were non-binary back in 2019, saying they had been "using they/them" pronouns and that it felt right. I've "always felt a lil bit boy, lil bit girl, lil bit neither," they wrote on Instagram at the time, per Out. They came out as queer the year prior.
Haven started to receive recognition for their acting after starring as Casey Gardner in the Netflix series Atypical, where they play the older sibling of a boy living with autism. On the show, Casey explores their sexuality. Most recently, Haven received wide acclaim for their role as Maddy in I Saw the TV Glow, which Haven described as an allegory for being trans.
"I think it's always been a trans story," they told CBR, adding, "I think it's cool because the root of it is what it means to be trans and what it means to blow up your life and choose to transition or choose to not, and to be slowly dying, as what happens to Owen's character, Justice's character, but it's also like there's a real, true fantasy story in it as well."
"In order to act in the film or to believe in the film, you have to live through the reality of the fantasy for them," they added. "So a lot of it, for me, was figuring out how to understand that this is really happening to Maddie, like really going back into the TV show and burying yourself alive."