Director/actor Joel Edgerton has spoken out about the release of his film Boy Erased last year, and his disappointment with its reception.
The movie played film festivals and opened in cinemas last fall to positive reviews, but it didn’t recoup its $11 million budget in US ticket sales. Egerton now says the film should have gone straight to streaming services instead.
While out doing press for the new film The King, Egerton expressed his remorse.
“We had a really interesting debate about which way to go,” he said. “Focus [Features, the production company] had this incredible track record with putting out these LGBTQ films like Brokeback and Milk, so I felt we were in the right hands.”
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He continued, “We wanted to create a face-to-face scenario where we’d have face time with audiences and have Q&As and generate discussions. To me, it felt like that was the right way to go. ”
When it comes to the reception of Boy Erased specifically, Egerton feels streaming would have made more sense.
“The moment you put something on a streaming platform, everybody in every household in all these countries can see it at the exact same time,” he realized. “You don’t get that chatter – and this was sad for me – of, ‘When is this film coming to my country?’ or, ‘I have to drive five hours to see it,’ or, ‘I just can’t afford the time and money.'”
“I realized, ‘OK, that’s a good enough reason to put a movie as soon as you can on Netflix, especially with Boy Erased.’ The pride that everybody felt with that film about the ability to help start conversations within families, change points of views, make them feel differently in their lives, made me wish we could’ve just dropped it everywhere rather than holding onto it.”
Based on Garrard Conley’s memoir of the same name, Boy Erased deals with the son of a minister sent to a conversion therapy program where he endures physical and psychological torture meant to “correct” his sexual orientation. The film stars Egerton, Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, and Russel Crowe.
Egerton’s comments come at a sensitive time where Hollywood is divided over the virtues of streaming services versus the cinema. With studios relying more and more on tentpole blockbusters and ticket prices ever-rising, smaller films like Boy Erased often go overlooked at the multiplex.
Related: What to Watch: Disney villains sing, drag queens wrestle, and ‘Boy Erased’ returns
gavo92
Never seen Boy Erased, is it good?
Doctor Benway
Nope. It’s boring and it fails to be strong, I didn’t felt anything watching this movie, except some kind of boredom. Nothing really happen in this movie. It’s just something about a bunch of catholics who aren’t really happy about homosexuality but they aren’t really that harmful.
It’s my disappointment of the year.
brooklynbobby
It is good, it’s not great but it’s worth a watch. And to correct someone who probably thought he was going to see an action thriller it was NOT in the least bit boring and had absolutely nothing to do with Catholics or Catholicism. If you didn’t like the movie or evidently watch or pay attention to it you shouldn’t give misleading “reviews”. It just makes you look incredibly stupid.
Doug
I enjoyed it. It gave a lot of detail as to how conversion camps work, which I hadn’t been aware of.
Thad
The book is better. Read it. Your local library should have it.
BUT…I’m glad the film was released in theaters. I saw it. I don’t “do” streaming services…have no idea how they work…but I know my local theater.
Grandolphrz
I watched it and I had to recall the ending. I couldn’t remember how it ended. I thought it was just okay. It wasn’t great. The scene where the roommate comes on to the guy and then forcefully fcuks him, I thought was lame. Is that how it really happened? I’m not sure if the guy got it all the way in. They were both interested, why did that one guy have to turn violent? Whenever there’s a gay sex scene, they usually have the guys undo their pants and go straight to anal. In my experience, that has never happened. There’s usually a lot of kissing and foreplay first. Being naked is the first thing. These filmmakers make it look so unappealing.
OzJosh
Edgerton is kidding himself. It was a bland examination of conversion therapy, crucially compromised by a weak lead performance. I’ve not read the book on which it was based, but anyone with real experience of conversion therapy knows the reality is far worse than anything depicted in Boy Erased, and those involved are generally more transparently hypocritical than the characters the film depicted. If you’re going to attempt an expose, at least do enough research to make it the strongest expose possible.
Josh447
Placing Boy Erased in the same sentence with Brokeback and Milk doesn’t compute. BE was clearly lifeless in comparison. It’s a C movie but bc of the cast, worth watching.
I do believe it would have been better going streaming, but they were probably counting on Kidman and Crowe for a large draw in Cinema mode. Even great stars do mediocre movies with little take at the box office.
dhmonarch89
and Kidman and Crowe maybe getting Oscar nominations to propel towards more box office.
Josh447
Could be, though from what I can tell I believe Pheonix in Joker and Zellweger in JUDY will take the prize.
Nonetheless, you’re right they could get nominated.
Davidsindy
Just saw the movie and felt lucky to catch it on HBO channel. I don’t recall it being at many of the theaters here in Indianapolis. Because of the subject, I’m guessing that not many theaters here in Indiana wanted to take the chance that this movie might not make them enough money…sounds like they had a distribution problem with FOCUS.
Being a fan of both Kidman and Crowe, I expected nothing but superlative performances. However, I was disappointed that they seemed so underacted. However, I was moved by the last scene between Jared Eamons and his dad. Like Josh447, the movie seemed a bit lifeless with not enough dialogue and not terribly engaging despite the powerful and dramatic content of the subject matter. This movie could have been, might have been much better. I suspect the book is interesting and will check it out. B- from me.
MySobriquet
A bland and boring film. It lacked emotional resonance.