In his first interview with Time Revised since becoming a transgender last December, actor Elliot Page has opened up about his childhood, his gender identity and the political climate surrounding LGBTQ rights.
Page, who stars on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy and the most famous received an Oscar nomination for Juno, came out as a trans in a demonstration he shared on his social media platforms last year. “I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he / they and my name is Elliot,” wrote Page in his statement. “I feel lucky to be writing this. Be here. For having reached this point in my life. “
In an interview with Timeby Katy Steinmetz, who marks the first time that an openly transgender man appears on the cover of the publication, Page spoke about his gender identity and his childhood growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and how, at the age of nine, he would beg his mother to cut your long hair. “I felt like a boy,” said Page to the magazine. “I wanted to be a boy. I would ask my mom if I could ever. ”After his mother finally gave in, he was dismayed when he was cast on a TV show at the age of 10, which required him to grow his hair.
Page also talked about how he struggled to look more feminine in films like Beginning and Whip, and how being gay in 2014 did not alleviate his distress. “The difference in how I felt before I assumed I was gay afterwards was huge,” he said. “But did the discomfort in my body ever go away? No no no no.”
The pandemic is partly what led him to decide to come out as a transgender last year. “I was finally able to accept being transgender and become totally who I am,” he said. Page also talked about having cutting-edge surgery, saying that he “completely transformed [his] life.”
Your decision to speak to Time about his gender identity was also inspired by anti-transgender rhetoric in the political climate and in the news cycle, such as rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene holding a sign that said, “There are two genders: male and female” in front of her office. “Extremely influential people are spreading these myths and damaging rhetoric,” he said Time. “Every day you see our existence being debated. Trans people are very real. “