Gerard Conley's powerful memoir Boy Erased is coming to the big screen with an all-star cast and tons of heart.
The film follows Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges) after he's outed by his roommate during his freshman year of college. When his devout Baptist parents find out, they send him to Love in Action, an ex-gay conversion program where Jared struggles to balance his identity with his faith, love, and family.
In the novel, Conley is very close to his father, who was about to be ordained as a Baptist minister when he found out that his son was gay. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Joel Edgerton says he made sure to dive into Jared's perspective just as much as his family's.
"My approach and treatment of this story was that there were no villains, that everyone thought they were doing the right thing," he told EW.
Nicole Kidman, who plays Jared's mother, worked that sentiment into her role.
"The way in which she and her husband feel about putting [Jared] into conversion therapy, I wanted that to come from a place of a mother thinking it’s the right thing to do," she said. "Nothing that she did was vindictive, which is probably why they have such a strong relationship now."
Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe, Troye Sivan, Xavier Dolan, and Joel Edgerton star in Boy Erased, coming to theaters this fall.
