The infamous practice known as ‘gay conversion therapy’ has come up again in headlines this month over a case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Many U.S. states have a ban on conversion therapy practices, but the new case – which boils down to an issue of professional conduct vs. free speech – could strike down the law and thus undermine similar bans in other states.
Some countries like Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, Germany and New Zealand have outright banned conversion therapy, others like Australia and India are more State-based, while many countries like the UK have deemed the practice abhorrent, unethical, harmful and lacking any scientific basis.
The topic of conversion therapy was tackled in Joel Edgerton’s 2018 film “Boy Erased” a few years ago, and this week Edgerton revealed that he’s mulling the idea of a new version of the work – adding in a bunch of material that was excised.
Asked by THR about what’s happening in the Supreme Court regarding this issue, he says it “actually makes me want to do a new cut of Boy Erased” and that there has been some talks about it:
“We’re thinking about it a lot and I’ve had a couple of conversations about it. We have so much footage that didn’t make it in the film, of the therapies and various characters.
If we wanted to release the material in a different kind of way — not necessarily recut a film. Like we could do a six-part half-hour series. There’s so much more stuff that we shot.”
Such an idea isn’t unprecedented. Edgerton’s fellow Aussie Baz Luhrmann did a recut of the 2008 film “Australia” into a six-episode mini-series titled “Faraway Downs” in 2023 though reviews for it were even more mixed than for the film.
“Boy Erased,” which starred Edgerton, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Lucas Hedges, Joe Alwyn, Troye Sivan, Xavier Dolan, Cherry Jones and Flea, scored solid reviews upon its release though was often criticised for playing it ‘too safe’ with the material.
