‘Stranger Things’ Star Noah Schnapp Says Playing Will Byers Helped Him Come Out As Gay
For Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp, life imitating art came as a surprise. The 18-year-old actor publicly came out earlier this year, following the reveal that his character on the Netflix sci-fi series, Will Byers, was also gay.
For Schnapp, his on-screen journey was essential in figuring out and accepting himself. “Once I did fully embrace that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed towards accepting it for myself,” he tells Variety in their latest Power of Young Hollywood Issue, in an interview conducted prior to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. “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.” Schnapp first came out to his twin sister, Chloe, then his parents, and later, friend and co-star Millie Bobby Brown, all of whom were loving and accepting — as well as somewhat aware already. “I kept trying to do it in person with her, and it was too hard,” he says of telling Brown. “So then I just FaceTimed her one day in the middle of a Party City and I was like, ‘Millie, I’m gay.’ And she was like, ‘Oh, Schnapper!
You told me finally!'” The reaction from Stranger Things fans — following a season 4 storyline which saw Will struggle with a one-sided crush on his best friend, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) — also helped pave the way for Schnapp to feel comfortable sharing his personal news with the public. “It kind of blew up in the press, and everyone was like, ‘Oh, Will’s gay!
