‘Boy Erased’ Trailer Previews Film About So-Called Gay Conversion Therapy

By Sandra Gonzalez

Lucas Hedges better get his tux dry cleaned and pressed because he might be having a very active award season.

Hedges, no stranger to award-season accolades, having appeared in acclaimed films like Lady Bird and Manchester by the Sea, is featured in another movie poised to be among next year’s contenders — Boy Erased, based on a memoir of the same name.

In the film, the son (Hedges) of a small-town Baptist pastor comes out to his parents (Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe) and is told he will go to a so-called conversion therapy program or be shunned by those he loves most.

Gay conversion “therapies” are based on the premise that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is a mental illness that can be “cured.” But there is no evidence that they work, and the techniques are largely discredited.

The World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as a mental condition in 1992.

Boy Erased will be released in November. The trailer for the film, which features a new song by Troye Sivan & Jónsi, was released Tuesday, July 17.

Joel Edgerton, best known for many for on-screen roles in movies like Loving and Red Sparrow, wrote, produced and directed the film. He also appears in the film.