By
Jonathan Shia
Photography by
Chris Shonting
Styling by
Carolina Orrico

Grooming by Nate Rosenkranz at Honey Artists. Photographer’s assistant: Gunner Hughes. Stylist’s assistant: Farnaz Dadashi. Digital technician: Mike Sikora. Production by Amanda Merlo. Shot at Slate Studios, New York.

Josh Wiggins Is Not Afraid of Ambiguity


It is by now no surprise to learn that a musician was first discovered on social media. Just ask Justin Bieber, who turned his busking videos on YouTube into one of the most successful careers on the planet, or Shawn Mendes, whose popularity on Vine has translated into two number-one albums and counting. Less common, however, is the serious actor who gets his start on these platforms, which is what makes Josh Wiggins’s origin story all the more intriguing. “I did YouTube videos with friends and I wasn’t trying to pitch it to casting directors or anything like that, but they just came across it and asked if I wanted to audition for a movie called Hellion,” he recalls. “I think there were five or six of them and the whole time we were never really thinking that it was going to happen because it just seemed so outlandish.” He ended up winning the part of Jacob, a teenage troublemaker, and making his acting début opposite Aaron Paul, then fresh off his run on Breaking Bad, who played his neglectful father. The film premiered at Sundance in 2014 and the twenty-year-old Wiggins has been steadily building an impressive career ever since.

Wiggins earned rave reviews for his gritty performance, but he readily admits to early nerves about the prospect of acting with a three-time Emmy winner in his first role at just fourteen years old. “I was a wreck,” he laughs. “Internally, I was a wreck, but I think I was good at hiding it. That first day on set I remember we were shooting in a child detention center and we pulled up and I had no idea where to go or what to do. It’s like you’re in another country, it’s very foreign.”

All clothing by Calvin Klein Jeans.

The Houston native credits Paul and his director Kat Candler with creating an environment where he was able to feel comfortable and learn while also inspiring him to succeed. “Kat pushed me a lot in the audition process,” he recalls. “She wanted to know that I could get to that place. I didn’t know if I could get to that place and when I first read, she kept me and she told me, ‘Look, I need to know that you can get there, so we’re just going to do this until you do it.’ I was incredibly terrified. I think after maybe the third take I got there and it was really surprising at that point. You know you can do it but it’s still different doing it in the room versus on set, but it worked out.”

Wiggins has found consistent work on independent films in the years since, taking on rewardingly difficult roles that have skewed away from typically saccharine teen fare. In 2016, he starred as a young cattle rancher opposite Sophie Nélisse and Bill Paxton in the crime thriller Mean Dreams, which premiered at Cannes, and he returned to Sundance the following year with Walking Out, a dark survival drama in which he played a son on a hunting trip in rural Montana with his father, portrayed by Matt Bomer. Last year, he headlined the coming-of-age drama Giant Little Ones, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September and received its theatrical release last month, as Franky, a teenager who has a confusing drunken sexual encounter with his best friend Ballas after his birthday party.

All clothing by Calvin Klein Jeans.

Written and directed by Keith Behrman, Giant Little Ones offers a refreshingly complex and contemporary take on teenage sexuality. The story refuses to settle for easy answers or pat definitions. Both Franky and Ballas, played by the former professional hockey player Darren Mann, begin the film with steady girlfriends (Ballas, in an act of classic machismo, talks constantly of how many times they’ve had sex, egging Franky on to do the same) and their relationship and identities are in continuous flux throughout. Ballas, who initiated their fateful encounter, pulls away from Franky and accuses him of making the first move, which leads to him being bullied at school. In the end, he becomes close with Ballas’s sister Natasha, who experienced her own ostracization after being slut-shamed.

Wiggins imbues Franky with insight and plenty of charm, a fallen golden boy and star swimmer who nonetheless remains comfortable with his own identity throughout. The film is less one about coming out than it is one of gentle, nuanced self-discovery. Franky’s sexuality is never firmly settled and that ambiguity is part of makes the story feel so brave. “I thought it covered a lot of different themes,” Wiggins explains, “with sexual identity being a big one, but also things that anybody can go through: strife between family, strife between friends, not really understanding your place, or trying to find your place, which I think everyone growing up has to go through. I thought it had a really great message to send, but also it covered so many different topics I think anybody can relate to.”

Shorts by Acne Studios.

The wider cast of Giant Little Ones also offers a bracingly complex portrayal of sexuality. Franky’s father Ray (Kyle MacLachlan) has left his mother for another man, creating tension between him and his son, while Franky’s friend Mouse is possibly transgender, a detail the film treats plainly and without surprise. Franky himself is still on the path to defining himself—and might never have to. “That’s the point, really,” Wiggins says. “The message of the movie is if you’re not sure what to call it, how you feel, there’s no need to put a label on it. I think people have been shaped by society to feel like they have to belong to a certain group, whether it be one or the other, but I think if we just live how we live and want what we want and believe what we believe, that’s who you are.”

In a society where so many questions seem to be predefined as either-or, it’s clear that Wiggins is not someone who is afraid of uncertainty. His latest film, Light from Light, which premiered at Sundance in January, takes a similarly nuanced view on spirituality in a story about a paranormal investigator and the widower she tries to help, played by Marin Ireland and Jim Gaffigan, respectively. More intimate drama than supernatural thriller, the film is subtle and sincere, focused on emotional honesty rather than spooky scares. “It’s not really a ghost story,” Wiggins elaborates. “It walks this fine line between being somewhere between spirituality and reality, our world. It leaves you to make your own decisions in a way.”

Jacket and trousers by Stella McCartney. Top and belt by Calvin Klein Jeans. Sneakers by Gucci. Necklace, talent's own.

If things work out as Wiggins would like, he’ll have the opportunity to explore some gray areas of his own devising soon. His early start on YouTube, after all, came thanks to a burst of young creativity and inspiration and he has hopes to write and direct in the future. “I loved movies and I wanted to create and I knew that I wanted to be in the industry,” he recalls of his online beginnings. “I always imagined more behind the camera, but I definitely always wanted to create and think up different characters—not necessarily to play, just to create and be in that world.”

Giant Little Ones is out now.

Jacket and trousers by Stella McCartney. Top and belt by Calvin Klein Jeans. Sneakers by Gucci. Necklace, talent's own.




By
Jonathan Shia
Photography by
Chris Shonting
Styling by
Carolina Orrico

Grooming by Nate Rosenkranz at Honey Artists. Photographer’s assistant: Gunner Hughes. Stylist’s assistant: Farnaz Dadashi. Digital technician: Mike Sikora. Production by Amanda Merlo. Shot at Slate Studios, New York.

  • Share

Related