Ruby Cruz Feels ‘It’s Super Important’ to Play Queer Characters (Exclusive)

Ruby Cruz is opening up about the importance behind getting to match her queer identity in her onscreen roles.

Cruz, 25, and her The Threesome costar Zoey Deutch recently sat down with PEOPLE to discuss their new romantic dramedy, which follows the aftermath of an impulsive and titular threesome that leaves both Olivia (Deutch, 30) and Jenny (Cruz, 25) pregnant by the same man, Connor (Jonah Hauer-King).

“It was fascinating finding that underlying narrative for Jenny in this movie because it isn’t something that’s focused on,” Cruz tells PEOPLE. The actress, who identifies as queer, made a name for herself as Disney’s first lesbian princess character when she starred in the Disney+ series Willow and has played LGBTQ+ characters on shows, like The Sex Lives of College Girls, and in the 2023 high school comedy Bottoms, which marked her feature film debut. 

While Cruz notes that her character’s queer identity in The Threesome is not necessarily the focal point of the movie, “it is something that she’s going through where she’s had her first experience with another girl, and then it’s kind of that awakening is swept under the rug by all of this other life stuff that’s happening and she doesn’t have really time to process it.”

“So I think that comes after the span of the movie is when she might start exploring that more,” she tells PEOPLE. “It’s super important for me — I’m so proud, I’m happy to be fortunate enough to play so many gay characters. It was really fascinating for Jenny specifically because she was someone who was so different from me and we don’t really explore that side of her.”

“It was kind of fun for me as an actor to just do that on my own time,” she adds.

An official synopsis for The Threesome states that “an impulsive night leads to a wild threesome between Olivia, Connor, and Jenny, leaving both women facing unexpected consequences and thrusting all three into the raw and beautifully messy chaos of adulthood.”

Despite the film’s title, the movie actually does not show much of its titular sequence, which Cruz tells PEOPLE she felt was an admirable choice by director Chad Hartigan and screenwriter Ethan Ogilby.

“The intimacy between these three people, I think that is in their relationships out outside of that intimate moment,” Cruz says. “The buildup and the what comes after, I think were sort of the key. The actual act itself, I liked that they kind of kept that for the characters to endure and, and for everyone to envision on their own. I think I liked that.”

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The Threesome, which also stars Jaboukie Young-White and Josh Segarra, is in theaters Sept. 5.