While Stott was in Los Angeles in November 2013, he received a brief for a "Gay love story, [set in] Melbourne, 1976" – a role within a film the actor believed "seldom comes along...in Australia’s deeply machismo-oriented society". The film would end up being a film adaption of the 1995 memoir Holding the Man by Australian Writer, actor, and Activist Timothy Conigrave on his life, and centrally of his relationship with his lover of fifteen years, John Caleo. Following auditions and chemistry tests in London, Stott and fellow Australian actor Ryan Corr were selected as the co-leads of Holding the Man, John Caleo and Timothy Conigrave, respectively. Actors Anthony LaPaglia, Guy Pearce and Geoffrey Rush were chosen for supporting roles within the film.