Lucas Hedges, the star of the upcoming
“ex-gay” drama Boy Erased, has opened up about his
sexuality.
Speaking with Vulture, Hedges,
21, said that he could relate to his character in Boy Erased.
“It's a story about shame, which felt
to me like the governing factor of my life and my childhood,”
Hedges said.
Based on Garrard Conley's 2016 book Boy
Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family, Boy
Erased stars Hedges as Jared, a college student who is sent to an
“ex-gay” camp after he is outed to his conservative parents,
played in the film by Nicole Kidman and Russell Crow. The film opens
on November 2.
(Related: Garrard
Conley: You don't have to be in conversion therapy to be in
conversion therapy.)
Hedges recalled telling his mother
about a crush he had on a boy in the third grade while attending day
camp.
“I felt terrible about it,” he
said. “I remember her being very comforting, and she understood
that something was distressing me, and she said, 'You don't have to
go back to camp today.'”
Hedges described his sexuality as
fluid.
“In the early stages of my life, some
of the people I was most infatuated with were my closest male
friends,” he said. “That was the case through high school, and I
think I was always aware that while for the most part I was attracted
to women, I existed on a spectrum.”
“I felt ashamed that I wasn't 100
percent, because it was clear that one side of sexuality presents
issues, and the other doesn't as much. I recognize myself as
existing on that spectrum: Not totally straight, but also not gay and
not necessarily bisexual,” Hedges
said.