‘Boy Erased’ First Look: Joel Edgerton’s Oscar-Ready Drama Sends Lucas Hedges to Gay Conversion Therapy

Lucas Hedges has been an Oscars good luck charm for the last two awards seasons. The 21-year-old actor received his breakout role in two-time Oscar winner “Manchester by the Sea,” which earned Hedges his first nomination, and two of his 2017 dramas, “Lady Bird” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” landed best picture nominations. Can Hedges score a hat trick with the upcoming “Boy Erased“? Focus Features is betting on it.

“Boy Erased” is the second directorial effort from actor Joel Edgerton following “The Gift.” The drama is based on Garrard Conley’s memoir of the same name and stars Hedges as the son of a Baptist pastor who is outed as gay at 19 years old and sent to a conversation therapy program. Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman play Conley’s parents, while Edgerton takes on the role of gay conversion therapist Victor Sykes. The supporting cast includes Cherry Jones, Troye Sivan, and Xavier Dolan.

“The film satisfies the dramatic and salacious stuff that interested me, but it also had an emotional resonance to it that I felt didn’t just make it a dark and nihilistic story,” Edgerton told Entertainment Weekly about the project. “Garrard’s story is so full of redemption.”

Focus Features will release “Boy Erased” in select theaters September 28. The release date falls in the thick of awards season and suggests the studio is most likely going to premiere the film at one of the major fall festivals. Check out first look photos from “Boy Erased” above and below.