Aussie actor Joel Edgerton has seen plenty of success in the likes of Black Mass and Warrior, but The Rover and Jane Got A Gun show he’s a writer to look out for, and he’s also not bad behind the camera, as he proved in The Gift. Now he’s set his sights on the insidious world of gay conversion therapy, as he’s planning to act, write and direct an adaptation of Garrard Conley’s 2016 memoir, Boy Erased.
Lucas Hedges (Manchester By The Sea) is set to take the lead role in the film, according the Deadline, which will recount Garrard’s ‘harrowing time attending Love in Action, an entity that attempts to deprogram LGBT people. The son of a Baptist pastor in a conservative small Arkansas town, Conley was outed to his parents at age 19. Conley was faced with attending a church-supported conversion therapy program that purports to “cure” homosexuality. The alternative was to risk losing his family, friends and his religion.
‘He entered the program, but instead of emerging from the brutal Twelve-Step Program as heterosexual, he left with the strength to embrace his true identity. The drama covers the difficulty of coming of age as a gay person in a conservative community, and the struggles that can occur when one tries to suppress that sexual identity.’
The effects the organisation had on those sent to be ‘converted’ were previously seen in the excellent documentary, ‘This Is What Love in Action Looks Like‘.
Edgerton is set to play the man in charge of the therapy programme, and he’s also talking to Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman to play the role of Garrard’s parents. However, at the moment it doesn’t look like they’re close to signing on.
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