Director of conversion therapy feature film ‘Boy Erased’ Joel Edgerton has spoken about his regret of not putting the movie directly onto streaming platform ‘Netflix’ rather than launching on the movie festival circuit first.
The film which was an adaptation from Garrard Conley’s memoir about his experiences as a young man subjected to gay conversion therapy and starred Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe launched to solid reviews and award season buzz but only managed to rake in $11.8 million at the box office and missed on any major awards.
Speaking at the launch of new ‘Netflix’ series “The King” spoke about his quandary between gooing with the movie launch or the streaming situation.
“We had a really interesting debate about which way to go,” Edgerton explained to IndieWire.
“Focus had this incredible track record with putting out these LGBTQ films like ‘Brokeback’ and ‘Milk,’ so I felt we were in the right hands.
“We wanted to create a face-to-face scenario where we’d have face time with audiences and have Q&As and generate discussions. To me, it felt like that was the right way to go.”
But Edgerton’s experience now with Netflix has made him rethink his decision and the change it may have made to ‘Boy Erased’.
“The moment you put something on a streaming platform, everybody in every household in all these countries can see it at the exact same time,” he said.
“You don’t get that chatter — and this was sad for me — of, ‘When is this film coming to my country?’ or, ‘I have to drive five hours to see it,’ or, ‘I just can’t afford the time and money.
“I realized, ‘OK, that’s a good enough reason to put a movie as soon as you can on Netflix, especially with ‘Boy Erased.’
“The pride that everybody felt with that film about the ability to help start conversations within families, change points of views, make them feel differently in their lives, made me wish we could’ve just dropped it everywhere rather than holding onto it.”
In David Michod’s loose Shakespeare adaptation “The King,” Joel Edgerton plays Falstaff opposite Timothée Chalamet’s Hal.
Last Updated on Oct 4, 2019
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