Joel Edgerton, the director of the
“ex-gay” drama Boy Erased, has offered advice to parents
struggling to accept their LGBT kids.
Based on Garrard Conley's 2016 book Boy
Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family, Boy
Erased stars Lucas 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.
(Related: Garrard
Conley: You don't have to be in conversion therapy to be in
conversion therapy.)
When asked, “As a result of making
the film, what would your advice be to a parent struggling with their
child's sexuality?” Edgerton answered: “That love is the path to
least resistance.”
“That acceptance keeps a family
together. Follow your heart, rather than belief or scripture or
other people's opinion,” he added.
Edgerton, who starred in the 2018 film
Red Sparrow, also commented on The Miseducation of Cameron
Post, last year's critically-acclaimed “ex-gay” drama
starring Chloe Grace Moretz.
“Boy Erased and The
Miseducation of Cameron Post, they’re on the same shelf,”
Edgerton
said. “I call it a one, two punch. Anybody that says those two
films existing in the same year dilutes something – I point them in
the direction of the 50 superhero movies and rom coms that are made
every year.”