Elliot Page came out as a trans man in 2020. But before his self-acceptance, he faced crippling anxiety about wanting to fit in and find his truth. His memoir ‘Pageboy’ reveals his struggle with gender identity, and it got worse every time he was asked to accept feminine film roles. The memoir also details how the Canadian actor navigated his sexual identity in an industry that mistreats LGBTQIA+ artists.
The Canadian actor was encouraged to hide his sexuality as it might damage his career. But since he has come out, there’s been an outpouring of support for the actor. Apart from starring in the Netflix series ‘The Umbrella Academy,’ Page will be seen in the indie drama ‘Close To You.’ It is his first film role since the 2017 remake of ‘Flatliners.’
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Elliot Page On Being Forced To Take Inauthentic Female Roles
In his memoir ‘Pageboy,’ Elliot Page discusses the discomfort and humiliation of playing characters wearing dresses. The agony of not being honest made her want to kill himself. The Canadian actor couldn’t see himself playing female characters anymore since the role he “played in [his] personal life was suffocating [him] already.” It also upset him greatly when people were delighted to see him in women’s clothes.
Elliot Page writes, “I pushed myself to dispel the truth for fear of banishment, but I was despondent, trapped in a dismal disguise. An empty, aimless shell. It wasn’t easy to explain to my reps that I couldn’t take on a role because of clothing. A face would scrunch up and tilt sideways, ‘But you’re an actor?’ Wardrobe fittings for films ripped at my insides, talons gashing my organs.”
The Canadian actor added, ” I cringed at the way people lit up when seeing me in feminine clothing, as if I had accomplished a miraculous feat. People would go, ‘Well, you’re an actor. Just put on the f*****g clothes.’ You know? But needless to say, it was so much more than that.”
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Elliot Page’s Shocking Revelations In Memoir ‘Pageboy’
Elliot Page has exposed the dark side of Hollywood in his memoir ‘Pageboy’ while chronicling his journey toward self-acceptance. He talks about affairs with co-stars and being verbally assaulted by a homophobic male actor at a Hollywood party. The book also details Elliot Page‘s unpleasant experience filming Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception.’
Elliot Page has also extensively written the pressure she felt from his Hollywood contemporaries about hiding his sexuality. As a result, he was taking roles that felt inauthentic to her. Her trauma further deepened when a film director groomed her. She also has haunting memories of being assaulted while working on the 2005 film ‘Hard Candy.’
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