“You can be all boy, play sport and be gay.”
Handsome Devil was a major hit in Ireland and touched on a subject that for a long time was kept on the down-low and was even swept under the rug, something which Director, John Butler told JOE all about when the movie was released.
The movie followed the life of Ned, a music lover who is given a hard time among rugby-mad schoolmates and his life looks set to take a terrible turn when he is forced to share a room with the school’s new rugby star, Conor.
However, the pair form the most unlikely friendship through music and even form a strong relationship which breaks tradition with that of their rugby orientated school.
The film portrays the hardness that comes with living your life as a lie and as one of the teachers points out in the film “if you spend your whole life pretending to be someone else, who’s going to be you?”
Well, to some people, it was more than just a movie and a parent of one of the thousands of movie goers messaged John Butler to thank him for Handsome Devil as it helped his son reveal who he really is.
https://twitter.com/mrjohnbutler/status/875398625618165762
Not only did the film help their boy to come out as being gay, it also saved him from depression, suicide and a lifetime of keeping a secret that was weighing him down.
This comes after Handsome Devil won Best Narrative at the 19th annual LGBT film festival in San Diego called FilmOut.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
