WATCH: Trailer for gay conversion therapy film ‘Boy Erased’ released
The movie follows a youth sent to a conversion therapy camp by his religious parents
Focus Features has released the first trailer for Boy Erased, which explores a youth sent to a Christian conversion camp by his parents.
With Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, Boy Erased follows the 2017 memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley, who described the program he attended as a teenager as a “full-on cult” to BBC News.
Directed by Joel Edgerton, the movie will tell the story of Jared (Lucas Hedges) who is outed as gay to his Baptist’s parents (Crowe and Kidman). They force him to attend a conversion therapy program, threatening to cut contact if he doesn’t comply.
Openly gay singer Troye Sivan, who performed at Capital Pride this summer, will also star as one of Jared’s fellow attendees of the camp. Sivan said in an interview with 97.1 AMP Radio in Los Angeles that the experience of filming the movie was “dark” and “uncomfortably real.”
“We were given the real source materials that they used to give kids when they would arrive at the camp,” Sivan said. “I would just kind of sit there flicking through all this stuff imagining, you know, what it must have been like, and you know, it’s really heavy.”
HRC reports that only 13 states and the District of Columbia have laws that protect youth from conversion therapy, while nearly 20 states have similar potential laws that could be voted on.
Boy Erased will be released on November 2. Watch the trailer below:
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
