Austin Crute and Theo Germaine, stars of the new queer slasher thriller They/Them, spend about sixty full seconds gassing each other up over Zoom. “You did such a good job,” Theo says, referring to Austin’s performance in the film. “You did such a good job, get out of here,” says Austin about Theo’s take on their character.
The two actors gushing over each other confirms that their genuine — and frankly, adorable — off-screen connection mirrors their on-screen friendship. Though unfortunately, their friendship in They/Them isn’t as lighthearted. Theo and Austin’s characters are forced to become friends under grave circumstances, finding solace and protection in one another as they try to survive the horrors of a queer conversion camp.
They/Them, pronounced “they slash them” and out today on Peacock, follows a group of LGBTQ+ teens arriving at Whistler Camp, a “progressive” week-long conversion camp nestled away in the woods. Camp leader Owen Whistler (played by Kevin Bacon) promises a gentle approach, one that will help the teens find “a new sense of freedom.” Yet, with each passing day, the young campers are psychologically targeted by the camp’s counselors in attempts to manipulate and destroy their sexual and gender identities. As the psychological threats persist, a physical threat manifests: a masked killer begins to claim victims at the camp. The teens must join forces to not only make it through the week, but to make it out of Whistler Camp alive.
In the film, Theo plays Jordan, a trans nonbinary camper who made a deal with their parents to legally emancipate if Whistler doesn’t “work.” Jordan refuses to be confined by the camp’s violently narrow demarcations of identity and makes it their mission to protect their fellow campers. Austin describes his own character Toby, a gay camper who negotiated a trip to New York City out of his parents in exchange for attending the camp, as “the most proud cis femme person” at Whistler.
“The freedom of my character Toby is so, so eccentric and wild,” Austin tells Teen Vogue. “[His personality is shown] through the costumes, which, oh my gosh, are amazing and incredible, through the little makeup tricks that he be doing… In my [own] life, I don't present that way. It was just so freeing and fun to [play] a character that was so proud of himself at such a young age.”
While reminiscing on their experiences filming They/Them, both Austin and Theo repeatedly use the word fun. For Theo, who proclaims they’re a “big horror fan,” joining a queer horror movie was “a dream come true” — especially one produced by Blumhouse, the production company known for films like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and Get Out.
“I was like, this is a yes for me. I need to figure out how to be involved in this somehow,” says Theo. “I've been wanting to work in horror since I was a little kid.”
A young horror fan growing up to play the lead role in a horror film is an almost perfect full circle moment. But what most people don’t talk about is how daunting those full circle moments can be. “It felt challenging because it's really, really serious, scary… the subject matter [of the film] is terrifying,” says Theo. “So I felt intimidated. I was like, ‘I hope that I can do this right.’ I also never really played a lead character before on a film… I was excited and also overwhelmed.”
Though Theo and Austin play characters that align with their own identities — Theo is nonbinary like Jordan, Austin is openly gay like Toby — they don’t necessarily share the same personality traits or express their identities in the ways that their characters do. This type of layered representation excited both actors, as they were eager to showcase the diversity within their communities and allow audience members many opportunities to feel seen. According to Theo, this responsibility of representation was the most intimidating part of their filming experience.
“I'm really, really concerned with doing it right. If another nonbinary person were to see the film, if they felt like they couldn't be themselves before, I wanted them to see this and be like, ‘I can be myself and I can face the odds and it is valid that I use these pronouns,’ because so many people are still like, ‘Ah, that's not real. You're just trying to be special,’” Theo says. “That's part of the gaslighting that Jordan experiences in the film. I wanted people to see an example of somebody fighting through that and being like, ‘Nah, f*ck you. I'm not even going to listen to any of that. I know who I am. I know this is real. I know I've been this way. I know that there are people that have been like me forever, in different cultures, in different periods of history.’”
“Also selfishly, I wanted to do something that I would've needed when I was younger,” continued Theo. “If I could get into a time machine and go back to teen Theo when they were 17, which was bad, bad, bad… that was when I came out… If I could go back and be like, ‘Hey, guess what? When you're an adult, this is going to happen. You're going to get to do this.’ This [film] is the type of thing that would've saved my life, but it didn't exist when I was that age. So I wanted to give myself a gift at the same time.”
Even with the masked killer and gory slasher components of the movie, They/Them needs only to rely on the realities of conversion therapy to classify as horror. As mentioned by Theo, the young campers are broken down through brutal methods: an enforcement of rigid binaries, microaggressions and macroaggressions, gaslighting, body shaming, and even shock therapy. With such heavy subject material and a majority queer cast, the scenes could be triggering to watch, and of course, film.
Some of the movie’s cast members have experienced these oppressive tactics in their real lives. Theo and Austin share that the cast protected their mental health while filming by establishing strong boundaries and turning to each other for emotional support.
“We were triggered at some points. There were some points where the lines were blurred between performance and narrative,” says Austin. “Depending on what scenes we had together, we would all ride home in one van. We all stayed at the [same] hotel and did like extracurricular activities to connect. Honestly, I have never been personally in an environment with so many LGBTQ people, but the diversity… it was so many people to glean from, and it felt like you weren't alone at any turn.”
Due to the film’s sensitive subject matter, the level of vulnerability amongst the cast made for a camaraderie that felt less like friends and more like family. Theo admits that they bonded with more people on the set of They/Them than any other set they had ever worked on.
“Even so much of the crew was LGBTQ, like [our executive producer] Scott Schofield said that a lot of queer people who [were] on the crew actually quit other jobs in the Atlanta area to come [work on our] movie… because everybody really wanted to be a part of the environment," Theo says.
With unprecedented chemistry between the cast and crew, it’s only natural that they produced magical scenes together — scenes like the a capella cabin singalong of Pink’s “F*ckin’ Perfect.” Near the middle of the film as the stakes raise higher and higher for the campers, morale is low. But despite being deeply affected by the camp’s methods, the campers are building friendships by sharing their truths and discussing what their lives are like beyond the cabin walls. Through their charmingly cheesy karaoke-esque performance of “F*ckin’ Perfect,” the campers demonstrate that their differences are what make them powerful. The scene is a bright spot of queer joy, an intimate moment of well-deserved play, a beautiful display of marginalized teenagers just being teenagers.
“I was so nervous… I don't sing on screen a whole bunch,” says Theo. “Then we all did it together, and it was fun and magical on set. I cried when we were done with the scene because I was like, we all did this together.”
“It was really fun… that was actually our last shooting day together,” Austin says. “It was this goodbye in this climactic moment… in the narrative of the movie, it's happening in the middle, but for us, it was happening at [the] end. I remember John [Logan, the director] pulling me to the side before we started shooting anything. He was like, ‘Can you vogue?’ And I was like, ‘Yes.’ But I had never vogued, I'd never done anything like that. So I was on YouTube, I was practicing death drops on my bed in my room. I was ready to go, whatever he needed me to do. And it ended up being free-flowing, exactly what Theo said: free and fun.”
When asked what they’re most proud of about They/Them, Theo and Austin spend another sixty seconds gushing about the talent of the main cast and the dedication that was brought to the film. After a while, they’re no longer two actors answering an interview question — they’re just two friends kiki’ing, sharing a memory.
“I have made so many friends on this [movie] that are lifelong,” says Austin.
“I want to work with everybody again really badly,” agrees Theo.
“Yes,” nods Austin.
“We need to figure out something else so we can do this again. We gotta make up a sequel, even if it's unofficial. We got to do something.”
“We got to do something!”