Noah Schnapp recalls how embracing his Stranger Things character helped him come out as gay

Actor Noah Schnapp has revealed that he would “still be closeted” if it wasn’t for his Stranger Things character being gay.

Schnapp, 18, plays student Will Byers in Netflix’s juggernaut sci-fi drama. Ever since episode one, where his mother Joyce (played by Winona Ryder) says that other kids call him “queer”, the fandom has been obsessed with Will’s sexuality.

Up until the latest season, Will was too preoccupied with working out his connection to the parallel realm, the Upside Down, and its monstrous villain Vecna, to think much about his sexuality.

But in season four, which aired in the spring, Will’s sexuality became clearer. During one scene, as best friend Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) opens up about being worried that his girlfriend El (Millie Bobby Brown) will no longer need him one day, a teary Will responds: “When you’re different, sometimes you feel like a mistake.”

In a much-memed moment, Will then turns his head, looking away from Mike, and weeps, with fans certain that the scene meant that he is gay and has feelings for his pal.

Noah Schnapp plays gay student Will Byers. (Netflix)

Schnapp later confirmed, in an interview with Variety that the character is indeed gay, and is in love with Mike.

“I think for season four, it was just me playing this character who loves his best friend but struggles with knowing if he’ll be accepted or not, and feeling like a mistake and like he doesn’t belong,” Schnapp said at the time. “Will has always felt like that.”

Now, in a new interview, the Queerty and People’s Choice Awards winner explained that it was his journey of playing an LGBTQ+ character that enabled him to feel comfortable enough to come out as gay himself.

In January, Schnapp posted a TikTok in which he lip-synced to an audio recording that said: “It was never that serious, it will never be that serious.” In text written above his head, he wrote: “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay, after being scared in the closet for 18 years, all they said was, ‘We know’.”

[CITE: https://www.tiktok.com/@noahschnapp/video/7185289110133820715]

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