The drama in Michael Burke's The Mudge Boy features the sexual attraction between two teenage boys. However, actor Emile Hirsch, who plays title character Duncan Mudge, says it is no simple coming-out story. It is not surprising that the role of Duncan is having trouble coping. Fourteen years old and stuck in the middle of the countryside, he is grieving over the death of his mother and distanced from his equally upset father. Tending his mother's chicken coop, he is the laughingstock of other children in the area, including Perry played by Tom Guiry. But when Duncan develops a crush on Perry, the two are in for a sexual awakening. Hirsch starred in The Mudge Boy when he was 17, in between The Emperor's Club with Kevin Kline and The Girl Next Door, the recently released comedy in which he played a teenager who falls for the pornographic star in his neighborhood. Part of the challenge for both Burke and Hirsch was shooting the intense scenes of physical intimacy between Duncan and Perry, including a kiss and an assault. Hirsch recently completed Imaginary Heroes, with Sigourney Weaver and Jeff Daniels, in which Hirsch plays a boy hiding a mystery about the death of his brother.