Troye Sivan stars in first Hollywood lead role in movie Three Months

Singer and actor Troye Sivan’s return to the big screen is about so much more than acting — but he had to get approval from his mate Taylor Swift before taking the role first.

Troye Sivan sought Taylor Swift’s approval before taking on his latest acting gig.
Four years since he starred alongside Nicole Kidman and Joel Edgerton in Boy Erased, the star Aussie muso is back on the screen in his first Hollywood lead role in coming-of-age drama, Three Months.

Not giving any spoilers away, there is a fabulous scene towards the end of the film where Sivan’s character disses the US pop juggernaut.

“I actually texted her because I didn’t want to piss her off or anything like that,” Sivan tells Insider.

“So I texted her when I first read the script and I was like, ‘by the way, I am doing this movie and there’s this’ and she, like, loved it and laughed and so it was all good.”

First-time film director Jared Frieder, who also penned the script for Three Months, is a massive Swift fan, or one of her many Swifties as they call themselves.

Sivan, for his part, famously joined his buddy on stage during her Reputation tour to duet his hit, My My My.

Troye Sivan stars in a new film Three Months. Picture: Gadir Rajab

“Jared is literally Taylor Swift’s No.1 fan,” Sivan smiles.

“He has written letters to her; he queued up and won a competition to meet her and stuff like that. He is, to be honest, he’s insane about it … truly insane about it and I think she should be afraid of him.”

Sivan is speaking to Insider via Zoom from Los Angeles, sharing the interview with co-star Brianne Tju while another co-star, Viveik Kalra, beams in from elsewhere.

“This is outfit No.2,” Sivan says when complimented on his red jacket.

“I put on something but decided against it so I am actually wearing the same clothes as I did yesterday but what can you do?”

Three Months has the potential to become a cult hit for queer youth, telling the story of gay teenager Caleb who is awaiting test results after being exposed to HIV on the eve of his high school graduation. While he waits he strikes up a friendship with co-worker Dara (Tju) and finds himself drawn to Estha (Viveik Kalra), who he meets at a support group. The movie also stars Hollywood stalwarts Ellen Burstyn and Louis Gossett Jr.

At 26, Sivan was not born when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was first identified in the early 1980s. He does however feel the pain of those years.

“I think that feeling of trauma is still so present to this day,” he says.

“I think as a community we went through probably one of the worst things that I can imagine.

“I was too young to be personally affected by HIV at its most violent but I feel it every day. I feel it in the community, it is like a generational thing, even young queer people have sort of inherited that past.

“We are all used to seeing movies and books about these really, really tragic HIV stories that 100 per cent have a place in the world and I think they are so important as something to look back on but it is important to realise that is exactly what we are doing now, which is looking back on something that looks very, very, very different today.”

Troye Sivan in a scene from his new movie.

Reading the script for Three Months, Sivan was drawn to the feelings of “queer joy” and “liberation” that young people have today.

“It is such a luxury and I wanted to celebrate that,” he says.

“And pick up this conversation and try and progress it. We all know what HIV was but what does it look like today and what does it mean today?

“The message of the movie ultimately is that with access to health care, HIV is not a death sentence. And people, undetectable means untransmissable and you can get down to one pill a day these days.

“And if you don’t have HIV, there is pretty good access to PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), which is something that I want to scream from the rooftops about. We are in a much better place and so to have this movie that really hopefully by the end of it communicates that whether Caleb has HIV or not, I want the audience to truly feel in their heart of hearts that he’s going to be OK, you know?”

While the film does deal with some very heavy issues, it melds dark moments with lighter scenes such as the one where Caleb and Dara dance in a convenience store.

“This movie has the potential to connect with people of all ages,” Tju says.

“I think there’s a wide stance there. For someone who is dealing still with the trauma and the PTSD of AIDS at such a dark time, I think for the older generation, this movie can be really healing.

“It can be a celebration and it can show the growth of where this epidemic once was and where it is now.

“(For a younger generation), this is a great way to open that discussion and enlighten them. We have an opportunity here to stop the traumatic way we tell the story about AIDS and show something celebratory and hopefully rid it of the shame and stigma that it still has.”

Singer Troye Sivan performing in 2019. Picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty

Adds Kalra: “I think Jared did something really clever in using young people in the film, not us as actors but young people as a vehicle to show this story is very interesting because there’s something about youth that there’s not as many barriers.”

Sivan recorded two new tracks for the film, both written from his character Caleb’s perspective. He collaborated with Gordi and Stylaz Fuego on Wait while the song Trouble saw him write with DIY bedroom pop artist Jay Som.

Sivan, who scored his first acting gig at 13 in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, came out in a YouTube video nine years ago and uses his profile to champion the queer community on the mainstream stage.

“I can go weeks without seeing a straight person and so I exist pretty much in an exclusively queer world,” he explains.

“Among my friends, we are all really aware of (HIV). We are all on PrEP and we are all doing our best to practise safe sex and we talk about it but there is definitely a sense of complacency and I am so curious about the very young generation, people who are 14 and coming out now, do they know what HIV is and do they know what AIDS is?

“I’m not really sure. The cool thing about this movie is it being as light and accessible as it is, I think that is going to be the kind of people that we will be reaching.”

Three Months will stream on Paramount+ from March 1

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Originally published as Troye Sivan stars in first Hollywood lead role in movie Three Months