Elliot Page says he regrets his character making a homophobic joke in the 2007 film Juno.
Page, 37, is an award-winning actor who has starred in movies such as Inception. He’s also well known for his role as Viktor Hargreeves in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy.
The Hard Candy star is an outspoken activist outside his acting work, particularly concerning LGBTQ rights.
And now, Page has opened up about a joke his character made in Juno – which he now regrets.
In 2014, Page – who presented as female at the time – came out as gay. Then, in 2020, he came out as a trans man, specifying his pronouns and revealing his new name.
His announcement read: “Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life.
“I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive.
“To all trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better.”
Page opens up further about his life and identity in the 2023 memoir ‘Pageboy’.
“Shame had been drilled into my bones since I was my tiniest self, and I struggled to rid my body of that old toxic and erosive marrow,” he writes.
Elsewhere in the memoir, Page says he was romantically involved with the famous actress Kate Mara.
He claims: “I think my relationship, or whatever you want to call it with Kate, very much encapsulates a certain dynamic that I consistently found myself in, which was falling for people that – I think a lot of us do this – who aren’t fully available.
“I think the love and care that we have for each other is its very own special thing.
“Separate from the intimacy that I write about.”
Page also touches upon another romance in his memoir.
The X-Men: The Last Stand star also claims he and a Juno co-star slept together ‘all the time’ while filming.
“It was on. I had an all-encompassing desire for her, she made me want in a way that was new, hopeful,” he recalls. “It was one of the first times someone would make me c**, the first time I would open up.
“Her hotel room, in our trailers at work, once in a tiny, private room in a restaurant… We thought we were being subtle.
“Being intimate with her helped my shame dissipate. I didn’t see a glint of it in her eyes and I wanted that – done feeling wretched about who I am.”
But this isn’t his only comment about his time filming Juno.
In an interview with Bustle, Page speaks out against one of the jokes his character made in the hit movie.
When discussing names for Juno’s unborn baby, Mark (played by Jason Bateman) says his wife ‘likes Madison’.
Juno responds: “Madison? Wait, hold on…Isn’t that like a little, gay?”
Page says at the time his character made the joke, the comment wasn’t ‘totally registered’ to him, adding: “So many movies I loved as a kid are just rampant with homophobia and transphobia and biphobia, and I’m not excusing it by any means.
“It really hurts the industry and it really hurts film. We need more stories. We need more representation. We need more points of view.”
