Noah Schnapp is the gay actor who plays Will Byers, a closeted gay teenager on Netflix’s ” Stranger Things”.
The 18-year old actor posted a video to his TikTok profile on Thursday. He wrote: “When I finally disclosed that I was gay after being afraid in the closet for 18 year and all they said was “we know”” — while Schnapp lip-sync to an audio clip from another TikTok of somebody and saying, “You don’t know what it was?” It was very serious. It wasn’t that serious. It will not be, quite frankly.
Schnapp wrote in the caption of his TikTok video that he was “more similar to Will than I thought.”
After the premiere of the final two episodes in the fourth season, “Stranger Things”, Schnapp confirmed to Variation that Will Byers was gay and in love.
Schnapp stated, “It was always kinda there, but it wasn’t really known, is it just him growing older slower than his friends?” “Now that he is older, it has become a very clear, obvious fact. It is now 100% certain that he is gay, and that he loves Mike.
Will’s sexuality was a question that had been open since the beginning of “Stranger Things.” But Schnapp never said what Matt or Ross Duffer intended for Will. He did however say that once he knew, he didn’t want to reveal the character’s journey in Season 4.
Schnapp stated that he thinks it is beautiful because it is so easy to make someone suddenly gay. People have approached me — I was in Paris when a 40-year old man came up to my and said, “Wow, the Will character made it so good. It was so relatable to me. This is exactly me as a child.” That made me so happy. They’re creating a real character, a real journey and real struggle. And they do it so well.
Variety asked Schnapp how he managed to navigate the attention on Will’s sexuality, while still trying to figure himself out. The actor responded by pointing to all the trials the character has had to overcome over the course the series.
He said, “I believe it’s just part of the challenge to acting.” He said that this is not a simple issue of him trying to come out. He has a multifaceted trauma. His friends and the Demogorgon took him. They never recognized him. Now he is afraid to come out and doesn’t know if they will accept him.
Netflix and the Duffers announced that Season 5 will be the final season of “Stranger Things”, but it is not clear when or when production will start.
