For a hyper-masculine teenage boy from an area offering few opportunities, there is nothing worse than the knowledge that you are gay. So believes Harris Dickinson, star of the new film Beach Rats.
Talking about his closeted character, 21-year-old Harris adds: “It comes from expectations created around him. Frankie’s assimilated this idea of masculinity from all his friends, and strikes up a heterosexual relationship because that’s the ‘right thing to do’ in society.”
Beach Rats is set to make the rising British star bankable in Hollywood, and while the film’s storyline may seem familiar to gay audiences — muscled Brooklyn teenager Frankie secretly surfs gay websites for sex with older men — Dickinson’s performance is remarkable: a nuanced portrait of a young man lost in modernity.
Bereft of his buzzcut and laconic Brooklyn…
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Attitude (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2017