Noah Schnapp joined his “Stranger Things” co-stars on the cover of Time magazine and recalled journalists prying for information about his sexuality during press junkets when he was just a young teenager. Schnapp publicly came out as gay in January 2023 at 18 years old. Public scrutiny around his sexuality had persisted for years, especially as “Stranger Things” worked towards his character, Will Byers, coming out as gay on the show.
“When I was younger, I was obviously very scared of talking about it,” Schapp told the publication. “They would pry and ask me, ‘Is he gay? Are you gay?’ I was 12, 13. I didn’t know what to say.”
Schnapp confirmed in a July 2022 interview with Variety that Will Byers was gay. “Stranger Things 4” was dominating the Netflix charts at the time, and the series had put Will’s sexuality front and center. When the actor publicly came out in a social media post months later, he wrote: “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”
“Once I did fully embrace that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed towards accepting it for myself,” Schnapp later told Variety in a cover story. “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 remembered how his original comments about Will being gay “blew up in the press,” and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive — much to his surprise. He added: “Everyone was like, ‘Oh, Will’s gay! Hooray!’ I saw all these comments on Instagram and TikTok. There was not one bad thing about him being gay. I was like, if he has all this support, then why should I worry about anything?”
“Stranger Things 5,” which launches in November on Netflix, is the first season of the show to launch with Schnapp as an openly gay actor. Ahead of filming the final episodes, the actor admitted that “I think the way I act in Season 5, honestly, might be a little different. I will be fully aware of who I am. Knowing all of that about myself and being able to invest that in my character, I’m honestly just excited.”
“Stranger Things 5” kicks off with Vol. 1 on Nov. 26.
