In the first trailer for actor-director Joel Edgerton’s fact-based “Boy Erased,” Lucas Hedges plays a teenager from a strict religious upbringing who is sent away for gay conversion therapy.
The memoir adaptation, billed as “coming-of-age and coming-out drama,” was written and directed by Edgerton, who also stars alongside Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and “Manchester by the Sea” breakout Hedges. Troye Sivan, who wrote and performs the song “Revelation” in the trailer, also stars.
The source material, Garrard Conley’s “Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family,” is the emotional tale of a young man outed as gay during his freshman year of college in Arkansas.
Hedges plays the title character, renamed Jared, who must decide between attending a gay conversion therapy program or losing his family, led by his hyper-religious and antigay parents (Crowe and Kidman).
“God will not love you the way you are,” a minister played by Edgerton tells Hedges’ Jared in the trailer. “What you are going through is just a moment.”
Edgerton and Anonymous Content’s Kerry Kohansky-Roberts and Steve Golin are producers on the Focus Features release. Rebecca Yeldham, Ann Ruark and Anonymous Content’s Kim Hodgert and Tony Lipp are executive producers. Focus’ Preside of Production Josh McLaughlin is overseeing for the studio.
“Boy Erased” will hit theaters this November.
Watch the video above.