Elliot Page says he faced 'intense pressure' from Hollywood to stay in the closet
During an interview with The Guardian in the UK, Elliot Page, the star of Juno and author of the memoir Pageboy, discussed the pressure to stay closeted in Hollywood before he publicly came out as gay and later as trans.
“I can obviously only speak to my experience, but yes, my
experience is that there was intense pressure to be not only closeted but to
act and appear and perform like someone I wasn’t and someone I’m not.”
“Cis,
trans, whatever – it doesn’t matter: the actor being told not to be your
authentic self was a constant, and quite frankly it made me extremely
unwell. I think back to the degree of how closeted I was and I’m just like:
wow. It’s like watching a movie in my head. It was so extreme, and so were
the feelings. I believed at certain points: ‘This is what my entire life is
going to be.’”
During the interview, The Umbrella Academy actor mentioned that
he believed his choice to come out as gay in 2014 might still influence
casting decisions for him.
“I’m not in the rooms where those
people are having those conversations, but I would imagine so.”
He
was then asked if it’s the same case for his decision to announce his
transition, he replied: “Again, it’s so tricky because I’m not in the rooms
where people are chatting.”
