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Without Stranger Things, Noah Schnapp Might've 'Still Been Closeted'
The actor revealed that playing Will helped him realize his own sexual orientation.
The fourth season of Stranger Things featured Will Byers’ journey coming to terms with the fact that he’s gay… but little did we know that actor Noah Schnapp was going through a very similar experience in his own personal life.
In a new Variety interview, Schnapp talked about how playing Will on Stranger Things helped him understand his own sexual orientation. The actor recalled:
“Once I did fully embrace that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed towards accepting it for myself. I would be in a completely different place if I didn’t have Will to portray, and to embrace and help me accept myself. I think if I never played that character, I probably would still be closeted.”
Schnapp also revealed that he started to question his sexuality upon starting college at the University of Pennsylvania. “All these new girls were starting to hit on me,” he explained. “And I was like, ‘I don’t like this. I don’t want this.’ I was like, ‘Holy sh*t. I know now.’”
Schnapp came out as gay in a TikTok video in January 2023. He wrote in the post, “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was, ‘We know.’”
In the interview, Schnapp also got candid about the people he wanted to come out to before making any public statements. One of those people was his Stranger Things costar Millie Bobby Brown. “I kept trying to do it in person with her, and it was too hard,” he noted. “So then I just FaceTimed her one day in the middle of a Party City and I was like, ‘Millie, I’m gay.’ And she was like, ‘Oh, Schnapper! You told me finally!’”
Moving forward, Schnapp thinks that his performance in season five will be positively affected by him already being out of the closet. “It might be a little different. I will be fully aware of who I am. Knowing all of that about myself and being able to invest that in my character, I’m honestly just excited.”
We can’t wait to see it!
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out, as well as a writer and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
Bernardo Sim is the deputy editor of Out, as well as a writer and content creator. Born in Brazil, he currently lives in South Florida. You can follow him on Instagram at @bernardosim.
