Noah Schnapp, who publicly came out as gay in January 2023, recently sparked curiosity after posting on Instagram about a “one-month anniversary” with an unknown man.
Only after teasing his fans did he make the big reveal that it was actually an April Fool’s joke.
He had first shared a photo of the two with their arms around each other, with the caption “a month of us.” The next day, he cleared things up with a simple “April Fool’s Day” on his Instagram story.
Joke aside, Noah has been open about how playing Will Byers, who is also a gay character, helped him understand himself better. He said he felt comfortable with himself when he saw how audiences embraced that character, not just sexually, but as a person.
The 21-year-old admitted that he often felt like the “weird kid on the side” growing up, but that experience and playing Will helped him accept and embrace himself and learn that it’s okay to be different.
He told Variety rather, that when he finally came out to friends and family after 18 years in the closet, their response was simple and hilarious: “We know.”
When he came out publicly on TikTok, he was overwhelmed with support when he received “a thousand text messages with hearts, congratulations and rainbow flags.”
“I cried. I thought, ‘I made it. I’m done. I don’t have to worry,'” the Stranger Things star revealed at the time.
