Elliot Page says in a new tell-all Oprah interview that having transition surgery has been a “life-saving” experience.
Confined to the reality of living as the wrong gender marked Page’s childhood with questions about how others saw him; as a girl. It wasn’t until his first haircut at 9 years of age that he started being able to perceive himself in the way he had always felt.
Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Page recalls his youth to TIME, stating that,
“I felt like a boy,” Page says. “I wanted to be a boy. I would ask my mom if I could be someday.”
Page landed his first acting role only a few months after his first haircut. He was cast in the Canadian TV movie Pit Pony. Having become an actor at the age of 10 years old, Page describes to the Times that a passion for acting came with a difficult compromise,
“Of course I had to look a certain way.”
Source: TIME
In December of 2020, Academy award nominated actor, Elliot Page wrote a letter to the world.
“I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life…I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self.”
— Elliot Page (@TheElliotPage) December 1, 2020
Page had announced that they are transgender and prefers the pronouns he/they.
Page is known best for their breakout, Oscar-nominated Role in Juno. He also landed subsequent roles in blockbuster films including the X-men series and Inception.
Now 34 years old, they appear most recently in Netflix global sensation ‘The Umbrella Academy’. According to Variety, there are no changes planned to the gender of Vanya.
“Trans actors can and do play both trans and cisgender characters,” Nick Adams, director of transgender media at GLAAD, told Variety last year. “I’m sure Elliot will continue to be brilliant in Umbrella Academy and many different types of roles in the future.”
Source: Variety
Oprah
With Oprah located in Hawaii and Page located in Toronto, they shared a ‘room’ (via high-tech green screen) for a recent tell-all interview regarding Page’s transition.
Ellit starts the interview off by stating that,
“All trans people are different and I’m only speaking from my own experience and it feels important to say when there is such a lack of representation and misinformation and I just think that it’s important to communicate that. I’m only speaking from my own experience”.
Page was praised by Oprah for their courage in coming out as transgender via a TIME magazine cover. He told Winfrey it was “crucial and important” to announce his transition at a time when the trans community is facing a “horrible backlash”. Page describes that having top surgery had allowed him to “feel comfortable in my body for probably the first time”. Top surgery involves the removal of the breast tissue to create a masculine chest. Page described the surgery as having given him a new energy, “because it is such a freeing, freeing experience”.
“Not only has it been life-changing for me, I do believe it’s been life-saving and it’s the case for so many people. And because there is such an attack on trans healthcare right now, when already there’s such lack of access.”
This is in response to a swathe of laws in states across the US which outlaws transgender citizens from accessing certain treatments.
Watch a snippet of the interview below:
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