Elliot Page smiles as he sits down to discuss his memories.
Getting to this point has been – to say the least – a journey. Page, a child star in Canada, first touched the American conscience. Juno It received an Oscar nomination in 2007. Subsequent movies – incl. beginning (2010) and with the whip (2009)—and his TV career (soon to be cast in Netflix’s final season). This Umbrella Academy) made him a Hollywood favorite. But meanwhile, Page – as he wrote in his new memoirs page boy – would have a hard time figuring out his identity and his place in Hollywood. Page went public as gay in 2014 and trans in December 2020.
Page, now 36, can’t help but smile. “I’m definitely feeling today in a way I never thought I would feel,” she tells the She people exclusive. “I think it mostly comes down to how present I feel. A kind of ease and ability to exist. There were times in my life when I felt that I wasn’t really like that. We talk about trance joy and euphoria, and all that stuff and most of it in silence. I feel very lucky.”
Here are five statements from Page’s new memoir, due out June 6th.
Two months after dating, she was verbally assaulted by a top-notch actor at a party.
In an episode titled “The Celebrity A-hole Is At The Party,” Page describes being at a birthday party in Los Angeles in 2014. An actor whom Page described as “familiar” told Page, “You’re not gay. No. You’re just afraid of men.” He later told Page: “I’m going to fuck you to make you realize you’re not gay.” A few days later, the player met at the gym and said, “I swear I’m okay with gays.”
“I think you can,” Page said.
“I’ve had a version of this many times in my life. Many queer and trans people deal with this constantly. Most of the time these moments that we don’t like to talk about, or that we should get rid of, are actually pretty awful. I put this story in the book because it’s about emphasizing reality, what we’re dealing with, and what’s constantly being sent to us, especially in environments that are predominantly cis and heterosexual. How do we navigate that world of more extreme, overt moments like this? Or you make finer jokes. [In Hollywood] These are very strong people. They choose the stories to be told and create content for people around the world to see.”
“I don’t knowingly share his name,” Page says, noting that many people at the party saw and heard what happened. “But he’ll hear it and realize it’s him.”
He was in a relationship with Kate Mara.
“The first person I fell in love with after my heart was broken was Kate Mara,” Page writes. “She had a boyfriend back then, the cute and talented Max Minghella.”
Page continues to talk about their love while Page was filming the 2014s. X-Men: Days of Future Past. (“Kate read the book,” Page says. Mara is attending a book event in Los Angeles with Page in June.) Page writes that Minghella supported Mara’s exploration of her feelings for Page. “I never thought I could fall in love with two people, and now I know I can,” Mara said.
“This was right after I revealed I was gay, and it was a time of discovery and heartbreak at the same time,” Page says. “I think my relationship with Kate, or whatever you call it, epitomizes a certain dynamic I find myself constantly in, which is – I think most of us do – falling in love with people who aren’t quite present. And there’s a high and low and a serotonin spike in that. kind of security and then it disappears.”
“And I think that’s definitely a model in my life,” he adds. Page says he and Mara are still close. “I think the love and attention we have for each other is something very special. Apart from intimacy. I write about it.”
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His inspiring friendships with Catherine Keener, Kristin Wiig, and Alia Shawkat helped save him.
“We all love Catherine Keener, of course. I’ve known Catherine since I was 19 and she’s been one of the most important people in my life. Not just when we were working together on a movie we shot when I was 19, An American Crime. But later, when I got back to Los Angeles, all this Juno The time of awards season – which was overwhelming to say the least – allowed me to live with it. He became someone I could trust and go to without question. He is one of the closest people in my life since I met him. And he’s one of those people you really don’t know who you’d be without.”
Page writes that he was having trouble shooting. with the whip and costars Wiig and Shawkat were there for him. “Actually, the first time I met Kristen SNL but it’s clear with the whip Honestly, he’s also someone who shows up at very difficult, challenging times in my life. Although not surprising as he is an amazing person. Alia has been a person in my life like Kristen who has always encouraged me to be my true self. She encouraged me to stand up to the forces that told me not to be. So just real, down-to-earth, sincere people, extremely devoted, kind and loving friends.”
He expresses his admiration for Michael Cera, whom he once watched while sleeping on a plane.
“How can he be so comfortable?” Page writes in his memoirs that he watched Cera sleep on a plane (they flew to Los Angeles to audition together). Juno). “I used to look at people and wonder how they were so comfortable. Do not misunderstand me. And it’s not even about being happy or not, I’d just watch people somehow exist. I remember my ex, ‘What do you do when you wake up in the morning?’ I would say. I didn’t really understand or understand how people just got in their cars and went shopping. I actually didn’t understand. I always thought I would feel like this and be an annoying person. I’m sure people around me were like, ‘What’s his deal? He can’t recover.’ And now I am here. And unfortunately it bothers people so much. It’s very unfortunate that people want to take it from trans people for whatever reason. I just don’t understand.
He had a painful two-year relationship with a secret female co-star he will not name.
Page admits that the person he calls “Ryan” worked with on a movie, and explains that they secretly held hands on set, but pretended to be friends elsewhere in public. He says they were followed by paparazzi, leaving hotels through different doors, and not looking at each other in public. Or at parties. “Some of my friends didn’t even know I was in a relationship,” Page says.
“After all, I think you love me. We loved each other and in our bubble it was very real. It was great. You know, it was really beautiful. I admired him and how he inspired me in so many ways. But it was very painful to feel hidden. This was impossible and not a sustainable relationship at all. And it taught me that I would never do that again.”
When Page realized that a secret affair between two LGBTQ+ co-stars might sound a bit like the 1950s, many were like, “Oh, does this thing still go on today?”
“Yes, it is,” he says.
“Some of my closest friends didn’t even know I was in a relationship. And I’ve been in a relationship where we’ve been in a relationship for a reasonable amount of time. I mean, this is next level.”