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- The book kinda just
stayed, it stuck to me.

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It was inside my head everyday,

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I was thinking about it so much.

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- Is this a manly shape I'm makin'?

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- They're gonna do things for you.

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- I don't know that college

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is really the best thing for you.

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A year with us may be a much
better use of your time.

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(dramatic music)

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- Boy Erased is based on a
memoir by Garrard Conley.

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He was viciously outed
as gay to his parents.

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He was living in Arkansas.

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His dad was a Baptist minister.

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And they, in the wake of that news,

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believing that his sexuality was sinful

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and that it was choice

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sent him to a conversion therapy facility.

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I thought it was a very important story.

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I felt very muchly moved by it.

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But I'd come out of the book
with so many feeling of shock

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and I was inflamed by the injustice

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of what he'd been through

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but I felt this empathy for
this family who had kind of

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caused all this drama over
something that really,

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in my opinion, didn't need to be created.

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So, I guess I became obsessed
with this story enough

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that I wanted to do something about it.

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And I didn't think I was the
right person to tell the story

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from the simple fact that I
didn't identify as someone of

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the LGBTQ community.

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I thought I could be behind
the scenes in some way

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but maybe it's not me that
should make this story.

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The book had been on the
shelves for a whole year.

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Nobody was knocking his door down

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to try to turn it into a film.

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And this daily obsession of mine

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caused me to just kinda
keep doing things about it.

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And one of those things was eventually

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I started writing scenes from
the book into a screenplay.

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It just kept going.

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The obsession kept dragging me along.

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And after awhile I thought, okay,

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I think I am qualified to make this,

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simply because I care
about the story so much.

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It really was that when I looked
at the family photo album,

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it was one of the first
things I asked of Garrard.

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Can I see photos of that time?

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And it was like Nicole and
Russell were staring at me.

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Lucas was the guy who had an energy

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less so than a resemblance
to the real Garrard.

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But an energy that reminded
me of the right things.

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And there's also this
beautiful sensitivity to him

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and an ability, as an
actor, to hold the screen

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without words.

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I needed somebody who could
hold the screen with silence.

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Acting and directing is a
tricky thing at the same time

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because as much as I love both

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I have to make the head and the gut thing

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work together somehow.

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Cause directing is really much more

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of being an adult person.

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It's like you're running a household,

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and being an actor is
like just being a kid

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in that household.

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One of thing I love as an
actor is that once you're

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prepared enough, you also
should allow yourself to

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just sort of free fall
and then see what happens.

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That moment as a director-actor
happens when you've

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set everything up and then you're like,

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why aren't we shooting?

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And then someone goes,

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"But you haven't got your costume on yet."

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You go, oh quick.

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Put it on and then just
walk into the frame

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and see what happens.

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And that feels like
something of a free fall.

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It doesn't always work, but
that's the way to embrace it.

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And the beauty of having
done research, preparation,

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and everything that goes
into planning a movie,

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it's like one of the most
wonderful and comprehensive

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researches you can do for a character.

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The question as to how you
get people to watch a movie,

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who should watch the movie is
a bit of a conundrum actually.

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If you're of a set mind, you
watch a certain news station

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because you watch what you identify with.

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It's hard to get somebody who watches CNN

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and say to them, from now on
you should watch Fox News or

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vice versa.

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And that's kind of the
trick with movies as well

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is yes it's an identifier for young people

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and I think that's important.

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It's really important for
parents to watch the film

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if they're of the mind to make
decisions for their children

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which could cause this kind of damage.

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Or if it's just in fact
how you do conduct yourself

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in the wake of a child
coming out in your family,

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put that positive something
into the world that could

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effect change, could create conversation,

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could even save a life.

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Suicide is very much a
topic to be talked about

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when you talk about conversion therapy.

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Planting ideas into a child's
head that grow and harvest

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into very dark places.

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So, yeah.

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I'm rambling a little bit, but yeah.

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It's cause I care.