Noah Schnapp said ‘Stranger Things’ character Will Byers being gay has helped him come to terms with his own sexuality.
In an interview with Variety, Schnapp opened up about his decision to share his sexuality with the world earlier this year and shared that once he fully “embraced that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed” towards accepting his own queerness.
“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,” he told Variety.
Schnapp said he would not have come out any other way than the TikTok post he shared in January. The actor lip-synced a viral TikTok sound: “You know what it never was? That serious. It was never that serious. Quite frankly, it will never be that serious” with a message onscreen that read when he told his friends and family he was gay after being in the closet for 18 years, all they said was “We know.”
Matt Duffer, one of ‘Stranger Things‘ creators said that Schnapp’s character always had a storyline about his sexuality, and when Schnapp read for the role, he “didn’t think twice” about it. Schnapp said that he “barely even knew what that word meant. And I don’t even think I knew myself that I was gay.”
