Noah Schnapp reveals he was asked 'are you gay?' by journalist when he was just 13

"When I was younger, I was obviously very scared of talking about it,"

"They would pry and ask me, 'Is he gay? Are you gay?' I was 12, 13. I didn't know what to say."

"Once I did fully embrace that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed towards accepting it for myself. 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."

"Now it's 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike. But before, it was a slow arc. I think it is done so beautifully, because it's so easy to make a character just like all of a sudden be gay."

Noah Schnapp recalled journalists prying about his sexuality when he was a young teenager. He was cast as Will Byers in Stranger Things, and that character came out as gay in 2022. Rumours about Schnapp's own sexuality increased after the character's storyline. Schnapp publicly came out as gay in January 2023 at age 18. He said intrusive questions from reporters at ages 12–13 left him scared and unsure how to respond. He credited portraying Will with accelerating his self-acceptance, asserting that embracing the character sped his own acceptance and likely prevented him from remaining closeted.

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