Why Troye Sivan Is Calling for More Queer Actors in Queer Roles

If you were a queer teenager in the mid-2010s, it’s likely you grew up watching Troye Sivan. Having started out as an internet personality and YouTuber, he’s since become a global pop superstar and an acclaimed actor; he starred in “Boy Erased,” among other on-camera projects. 

Now, the Australian-born queer talent is back; he’s starring in the the feature “Three Months,” streaming now on Paramount+. Jared Frieder’s film is about what happens while Sivan’s Caleb waits to find out if he’s HIV-positive following an exposure. For the actor, the movie is a call for more modern representation of queer experiences onscreen.

“I love that [‘Three Months’] feels accessible to young people. When I tell people that I’m on PrEP, half the time they look at me and they have no idea what it is,” Sivan told Variety. “Where are the stories that are painting the picture of what HIV is like today?” 

Sivan is advocating not only for more diverse LGBTQ+ stories, but also for more intentional casting of the characters in those stories. While he doesn’t believe that every queer role needs to be portrayed by a queer actor, he wants those in positions of power to really ask themselves why they are casting the person they choose to cast. 

“There’s so much queer talent,” Sivan said. He added that intentional casting is “something that could be life-changing for someone to watch at home. When they see themselves on the screen in a real way, it makes a big difference. It’s much more exciting to me when I feel like it’s coming from a real, authentic place, where the person can pull a whole performance from real-life experiences. When they really connect, we can understand that experience.” 

Citing the lack of LGBTQ+ representation he grew up with as a contributing factor, Sivan recalls having to “monitor” himself so that he wouldn’t come across as effeminate to his peers. He hopes to be the positive representation for queer youth that he never had when he was a kid.

“I almost stopped singing when I was a kid because I had this really high boy-soprano voice, and people started telling me that I sounded like a girl,” he recalled. “And I remember thinking, I can’t do this anymore, because they’re gonna think that I’m gay. Thankfully, I kept going. I think the thing that I hope that people pull from this movie is: You are going to be OK, no matter what.”