‘The White Lotus’ Star Lukas Gage Opens up About Sexual Health as He Gets ‘Vulnerable’ in His New Memoir (Exclusive)

Lukas Gage is ready to show a new, more “vulnerable” side of himself in his new memoir.

The White Lotus and Euphoria star, 30, opened up to PopCulture.com about the “freeing” process of penning his new memoir, I Wrote This for Attention, ahead of the Oct. 14 release, as he got real about tackling taboo topics like mental and sexual health.

“I think that being open and being a little bit polarizing or an oversharer has been something that I’ve always been,” Gage told PopCulture. “But I think what people are going to be surprised about is some of those really vulnerable moments … where you’re very lonely and sad and dealing with some real stuff. It’ll be nice to not present this curated version of myself to people and show some of the softer, vulnerable parts of me that exist.”

Diving into a “broken family, struggles with addiction, sex, and borderline personality disorder” in the memoir, as per its synopsis, Gage said he hoped to infuse true vulnerability into his “default” approach of using humor to get through tough times.

In that approach, the actor hopes to act as an example to other men that it’s “freeing” and “feels good” to be open about stigmatized conversations such as those around sexuality and sexual health.

“I just think that as a society, we have stigmatized and have built up so much shame in people about talking and having open conversations about sex for some reason,” Gage told PopCulture. “I don’t think that there’s anything shameful about it. And I think that the more we can have open conversations about it, the more we can help others, inform others [to] not have to live in fear, [and to] not have to live feeling any repression or any shame. We can just be as open and responsible as we can.”

As someone who once felt “a lot of shame” surrounding his sexuality due to a lack of information, Gage wanted to partner with Gilead’s HealthySexual campaign to help others work through similar feelings while taking care of their sexual health and understanding HIV prevention options like PrEP medications.

“Once I became very sexually active, I made it just part of my process — taking PrEP and getting tested every couple months was the same as going to the gym, working out, going to therapy,” Gage said of turning sexual health into a self-care routine. He added, “I just don’t want to live in fear. I don’t want to live in the uncertainty and the unknown, and if I can take ownership of this part of my life, why would I not do that? Why would I not have that knowledge and information and awareness?”

Gage now hopes that his openness will “inspire other people, and hopefully that will also let people [who] are maybe feeling daunted by taking the first steps of their own sexual health journey that they might want to do that.” Get more information about the HealthySexual campaign at lukas.healthysexuals.com.

I Wrote This for Attention debuts on Oct. 14.