Gay conversion therapy has become a poignant cultural touchpoint in the era of Mike Pence. (The practice is, alarmingly, still legal in 41 states.) Following the release of Desiree Akhvan’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post early next month, Focus Features is readying Joel Edgerton’s gripping conversion drama Boy Erased, based on Garrard Conley’s Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family. The film stars Lucas Hedges as the teenage son of a Baptist pastor in small town Arkansas, who is sent off to a conversion therapy camp by his straight-laced parents, played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. Crowe and Kidman aren’t the only two big-name Aussies to appear alongside Hedges — Boy Erased also features popstar du jour Troye Sivan as a silvery-haired fellow queer at Lucas’s camp. “Play the part,” Sivan instructs Hedges in the first official trailer, flexing a very passable Arkansas accent.
Conley, who is working with Edgerton on Boy Erased, wrote in a blog post last year that he’d be “working hard to populate the world of Love in Action [the conversion camp] with predominantly queer actors.” While Hedges isn’t gay, Boy Erased won’t be his major gay moment on screen. He also appeared in Lady Bird as the titular character’s all-American first boyfriend Danny, providing one of the most beautiful coming out moments in recent cinema.
Boy Erased hits cinemas on November 2, 2018.