Joseph Baena Says Bully High Made Him Reflect on Being Bullied as a Child for Being Overweight

Joseph Baena is tackling sensitive subject matter in his first major film role.

The up-and-coming actor and recent Dancing with the Stars contestant, 25, spoke with PEOPLE about his new movie Bully High, which follows Pakistani high school exchange student Maryam (Aneesha Madhok), who is subjected to bullying and harassment from peers and teachers alike for proudly wearing her hijab at a new school.

Baena, who plays class president and baseball player Eddie in the new movie from actor-writer-director Bill McAdams Jr., tells PEOPLE that bullying is a topic he has some personal experience with.

"I was bullied when I was a kid, elementary, middle school, and not really in high school, but I just felt like an outsider in high school at the beginning," Baena says, explaining that he was "really overweight from the end of elementary school into the beginning of high school."

"And so, from my closest friends, it wasn't like outside people or people that I didn't know, or popular kids or whatever," Baena says about being bullied as a child. "It was my closest friends that were the ones that bullied me the most and made fun of me for being overweight and all these kind of things."

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"So, that was really a big struggle for me in finding myself and figuring out and creating that ambition to change my weight and my physique and all these kind of things," the bodybuilder son of Arnold Schwarzenegger adds.

Courtesy of Bully High

Baena also notes that he wound up as his high school's president by his senior year of high school just like his character in the movie, who he described as "the studly guy on the baseball team" and best friend to star athlete Zack (Cedric Begley), whose government teacher and baseball coach father Bob Walker (McAdams Jr.) bullies main character Maryam throughout the film.

"It wasn't too hard to get into the character," Baena says of drawing on real-life experience for the role. "And doing that and being the president, I feel like I curated a good community within the school where everyone was very inclusive, all the clubs were running really smoothly, all the dances ran really smoothly."

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"So, for the bullying for this film, I just thought about the bullying that I received for being overweight, which is very different [to what happens in Bully High], but that was the most similar thing that I could personally compare it to," he adds.

Courtesy of Bully High

Bully High makes for a "coming-of-age drama that is both a love letter and a scathing commentary" on religious prejudice, sexual orientation and bullying as class bully Scarlett (Taylor Jabara) and faculty member Walker hold personal resentments against Maryam due to their own "traumatic pasts," according to a press release.

Baena's character Eddie, best friend Zack and more students at their school get caught up in the fallout of targeted harassment and bullying against Maryam.

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"I think the main thing is that everyone goes into this movie with an open mindset and well, they should think, 'What can I get out of this? What can I get out of this film?' " Baena tells PEOPLE when asked what message audiences should take away from his new movie.

"Because it has a really strong message of bullying, obviously, and racism and all these different things that people don't necessarily recognize, but it's always around," he adds. "It's constantly there. So, I think inclusivity, protection, and to take away just the good message that the film brings everyone.

Bully High is streaming on Tubi now.