“I’d eat by myself and sit next to others so people wouldn’t know I was alone. “For years, I had such a hard time navigating school and finding my place,” he says. And so, Adam decided to take a break from his passions and repress his personality. For a closeted teen growing up in a conservative neighborhood, acting wasn’t always the safest choice for a growing boy. But when he grew into his teenaged years, it all changed. It was there, that he learned that he had raw talent for emoting. Growing up in San Diego, he was in theatre, a place where he was allowed to explore his creativity. While playing the role of Alex, a dental student who falls in love with a man who must take care of two of his siblings, one who’s autistic, is Adam’s biggest role to date, the Los Angeles-based actor has been acting since childhood. Ultimately body hair won out, thanks in part to Josh who encouraged him to keep. “ asked me questions like, ‘do you top or bottom? Are you more verse? What’s the dynamic in the relationship?’ His ease with it is something that you can’t get from a straight, cis director who may not have knowledge to speak to that.” Knowing the experience and language put Adam at ease. “Early on, we had conversations about the queer experience,” he recalls, of Silas, who happens to be trans.
Much of this was thanks to the show’s director, Silas Howard. While it could have become a traumatic experience for any young actor, it turned into an example of empowerment. “For so long, I’ve seen body hair as a device for comedy and I felt I needed to conform to Hollywood’s standards to shave or wax everywhere,” Adam tells Very Good Light. Then, there were very nuanced insecurities like thinking if it was even okay to have chest hair. Especially for a young actor starring in a recurring role.įor one, Adam had never filmed a sex scene before. While the sex isn’t explicit – this isn’t HBO – it was still quite a new experience for anyone to navigate. He’s talking about the intimate scenes in which his character, Alex, shares with Nicholas, played by Australian actor Josh Thomas.
“The sex scenes were so funny,” says Adam Faison, one of the stars of Freeform’s newest series, “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay.”