Exclusive Interview
‘Forbidden Fruits’: Alexandra Shipp Reveals the Sapphic Romance That Should’ve Happened
What To Know
- Although Forbidden Fruits lacks explicit sapphic romance, viewers have shipped coven members like Fig and Pumpkin.
- Forbidden Fruits revolves around a coven of witches that meet in a mall basement, led by the man-hating Apple.
- Alexandra Shipp, who plays Fig, shares her take on who Fig should’ve ended up with.
Forbidden Fruits doesn’t have any overt sapphic romance, but that hasn’t stopped viewers from wishing that certain coven members got together — including Fig (Alexandra Shipp) and Pumpkin (Lola Tung). Shipp, however, thinks that Fig was a better match with someone else. (Warning: Spoilers ahead for Forbidden Fruits!)
Despite not including a full lesbian romance, the campy dark comedy has plenty of queer-coded moments. Apple (Lili Reinhart) adopts Pumpkin into her witchy, mall basement-based coven, which meets after their shifts at Free Eden wrap up. Her devotees include Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) and Fig, who (seemingly) adhere to Apple’s rule that boyfriends are forbidden. Fig, who has a secret relationship with a man, forms a kinship with Pumpkin, who challenges the group’s “performative sisterhood.” Meanwhile, Apple has a unique, controlling dynamic with Cherry, which culminates in an unreciprocated kiss that isn’t explored further.
Swooon asked Shipp if she had ever hoped for a Fig-Pumpkin romance before both characters met their ends. “I kind of feel like if there was a relationship to be had, it would be between Cherry and Fig,” the actress explained on the AMC Upfront carpet on Wednesday, April 29. “There’s something so yin and yang about them.”
Sabrina Lantos / IFC Films / Everett Collection
The actress also pointed out that Fig and Cherry’s final moments could’ve been interpreted as romantic. “I feel like that moment at the end, when Fig’s like, ‘You’re a lip gloss shell of yourself’… I mean, ‘You’re not the woman I fell in love with,’ right? And there’s something kind of with that. I feel like it would be more Fig and Cherry,” she noted.
Shipp added that the close bond she formed with Pedretti on set contributed to her take. “I felt like there was a natural closeness between Victoria and I,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I would follow this woman into the abyss.'”
When asked if she’d ever want to see Fig, Cherry, and Pumpkin return as ghosts haunting Apple in a potential sequel, Shipp said she’d rather see a prequel. “I think that would be really cool to see how it started, to see how the women got to where we find them in Forbidden Fruits,” she explained. “It’s like, The Forbidden Seed.”
Reporting by Kelli Boyle
