Chloe Grace Moretz’s character in “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is sent to a conversion therapy camp, and the actress says she’s never been more “engrained” in a character because she actually lived at the summer camp while filming the movie.
“We were filming in this summer camp that we were actually all living in and we shot the movie chronologically,” she told TheWrap. “So there was a lot of art in what we were filming melding with our personal lives: The relationships that were being built on stage between Sasha Lane and I and Forrest Goodluck — those were actually our budding friendships and how we progressed as friends because it was shot chronologically in 23 days. I’ve never had that amount of being engrained with a character. I’ve always been able to walk away and go to a different home, but to literally finish a scene and then walk down a corridor and go to your room — that’s a different world to live in. It was method without choosing to go method.”
Moretz stars as Cameron Post, a teenager who gets caught with another girl in the backseat of a car on prom night. Her parents then send her to a conversion therapy camp, where Cameron is forced to analyze her sexuality. To prepare for the role, Moretz spoke to survivors of these programs to hear their story.
“It is legal to be practiced in every state in America, but in 14 states, it’s illegal for minors to be put through it, so that is a harrowing number,” she explained. “700,000 people in America have gone through conversion therapy, and 57,000 teenagers in the next five years will be subjected to it. So those are statistics that are not from 1993 when the movie is set. This is 2018, and we’re under an administration that is actively attacking the LGBT community, and with a vice president who is an avid supporter of conversion therapy.”
Moretz said the Desiree Akhavan film started production in the Obama era but that halfway through making the film, Donald Trump was elected president.
“This movie went from being very important to us and our community to being the highest form of activism that we can do and pushing this message out and being able to give this to young people and especially young gay people, to be represented in this way, in this current state of America, this movie in a lot of ways is a beacon of light and a beacon of hope,” said the 21-year-old actress.
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and also stars John Gallagher Jr., Quinn Shephard and Kerry Butler.
Watch TheWrap’s interview with Moretz in the video above.