The trailer for Boy Erased is here to make you misty-eyed before the full film is released and invites us all to a major sob session. Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe star in this adaptation of the 2016 memoir by Garrard Conley, recounting his childhood in a fundamentalist Arkansas family who enrolled him in gay conversion therapy. These are some powerhouse performances, even just in the trailer snippets.
Boy Erased tells the story of Jared (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who is outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe) at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith. The film (and the book on which it is based) is the true story of one young man’s struggle to find himself while being forced to question every aspect of his identity.
The film was adapted for the screen and directed by Joel Edgerton, who also appears in the film as the conversion camp’s head therapist. Also co-starring are prolific queer writer-director Xavier Dolan (who is having a big moment as an actor along with his recent casting in It: Chapter Two) and out stage and screen star Cherry Jones, who brings welcome gravitas to every endeavor.
Check out the trailer below. The movies comes to theaters in November.
