In a new interview, the 17-year-old actor also talks about his character's relationship with Mike Wheeler, who is portrayed by Finn Wolfhard, on the hit Netflix sci-fi series.
- Jul 15, 2022
AceShowbiz - Noah Schnapp has given fans the answer to one of the biggest questions about his character Will Byers on "Stranger Things". Following the release of Volume 2 of "Stranger Things" season 4, Noah discussed his character's sexuality in a new interview.
"Obviously, it was hinted at in season 1: It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends?" Noah told Variety. "Now that he's gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing."
The 17-year-old actor went on to talk about his character's relationship with Mike Wheeler, who is portrayed by Finn Wolfhard. "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," he noted.
"Years ago in season 1, I didn't know where the Duffers wanted to go with this character," Noah admitted. "So I was kind of figuring it out along with the audience. But now that I've spoken to them and seen the show, I know what they want to do with it. They obviously don't tell me anything, either. I'm always spoiling stuff, so they will never share anything with me. So it's a lot of figuring it out on my own. And kind of realizing later on like, 'Oh this makes sense and this was intentional.' "
Noah went on to reveal that Will hasn't come out to his friends or family just yet and he has complex reasons for it. "This isn't just a single layer thing of he's struggling with coming out. It's this multifaceted trauma that goes years back, because he was taken by the Demogorgon and then his friends, they never acknowledged him, and now he's scared to come out and doesn't know if they'll accept him," Noah explained.
He also noted that Will doesn't want to hurt Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). "And then Eleven is like his sister, but he doesn't want to hurt her because if he says he likes Mike, that's gonna hurt her feelings. There's all these things running in his mind. So I kind of just have to make sure that I'm conveying the depth of all his traumas," he said.
During the interview, Noah additionally shared that many people found his character on the Netflix sci-fi series relatable. "People have come up to me - I was just in Paris and this, like, 40-year-old man came up to me and he was like, 'Wow, this Will character made me feel so good. And I related to it so much. That is exactly who I was when I was a kid,' " he recalled. "That just made me so happy to hear. They are writing this real character and this real journey and real struggle and they're doing it so well."
Noah had faced questions about Will's sexuality a number of times over the years. Back in 2020, the "It" star revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that it was "kind of up to the audience" how they perceived Will's sexuality. "Some people perceive it as Will could be gay, asexual, or whatever. Or, like how I see it, he was stuck in the Upside Down, and he was away for so long that all of his friends started growing up while he was in this other world," he said at the time.
He echoed the sentiment in an interview with Variety in May. "I feel like they never really address it or blatantly how Will is," he divulged. "I think that's the beauty of it, that it's just up to the audience's interpretation, if it's Will kind of just refusing to grow up and growing up slower than his friends, or if he is really gay."
