‘Stranger Things’ ‘ Noah Schnapp Comes Out as Gay After ‘Being Scared in the Closet for 18 Years’
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Noah Schnapp is sharing his truth.
The 18-year-old Stranger Things star came out as gay in a TikTok video on Thursday. In the clip, the actor lip-synced to an audio clip which said, “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, will never be that serious.”
Over the video, Schnapp wrote, “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'”
“I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought,” he captioned the clip, referring to his character Will Byers on the hit Netflix series.
RELATED: Stranger Things Star Noah Schnapp Confirms Will Byers Is Gay: ‘He Has Feelings for Mike’
Over the show’s four seasons, fans have repeatedly questioned whether Will was gay, with some even criticizing the series for not explicitly stating the seemingly obvious sooner.
In July, Schnapp addressed Will’s sexual orientation, confirming that the teenager has romantic feelings towards best friend Mike (Finn Wolfhard).
“Obviously, it was hinted at in Season 1: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, ‘Is it just him growing up slower than his friends?'” Schnapp told Variety. “Now that he’s gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now it’s 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike.”
That certainly seemed clear enough to viewers in the season 4 finale, especially during one scene in which Will talked to Mike about the difficulties of feeling “different.” He later had a heart-to-heart with his brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) where Jonathan appeared to offer his support of Will, without ever saying the words, “I know you’re gay and I’m here.”
“Jonathan is talking to him in code,” Schnapp said. “It’s just the perfect way to tell someone like Will that he cares about him and he accepts him no matter what. I think it was really wholesome.”
RELATED: Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp Says Will’s Season 4 Journey ‘Is More About His Struggles with Identity’
Schnapp added that this huge part of Will’s character took time to unpack because in real life, it is a complicated space, specifically for kids who don’t want to be labeled.
“But before, it was a slow arc,” the actor said. “I think it is done so beautifully, because it’s so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay.”
Schnapp also spoke about playing a gay character at such a young age while in real life, also handling his own personal growth and self-identity.
“I think it’s all just part of the challenge of acting,” he said. “Like, yes, it has been a challenge, but I think it’s just been fun to be able to step into his shoes. Because I really have to take into account, like, this isn’t just a single layer thing of he’s struggling with coming out.”
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“It’s this multifaceted trauma that goes years back, because he was taken by the Demogorgon and then his friends, they never acknowledged him, and now he’s scared to come out and doesn’t know if they’ll accept him,” Schnapp told Variety. “And then Eleven [Millie Bobby Brown] is like his sister, but he doesn’t want to hurt her because if he says he likes Mike, that’s gonna hurt her feelings. There’s all these things running in his mind. So I kind of just have to make sure that I’m conveying the depth of all his traumas.”
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Back in May, Schnapp opened up to PEOPLE about how viewers of the series would see his beloved character of Will “in a different light” this season.
“I feel like people are used to seeing him fighting a monster or struggling with the supernatural side of Stranger Things,” he said. “But this season, it’s just more about his personal struggles and struggles with his identity, and I think it’s interesting for the audience to see that.”
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