Time Magazine on Tuesday unveiled its new cover featuring Elliot Page and published a wide-ranging interview with the actor — his first since coming out as transgender in December.
In the interview, Page described himself as feeling “fully who I am in this body” and described the challenges he faced before coming out.
Page told Time that he had “felt like a boy” since he was 9 years old. That same year, he got his first break, portraying the daughter in a Canadian mining family on the show “Pit Pony.” It was at that time he joined an industry that he says "places crushing standards” on queer actors.
Even in his twenties, when he launched to stardom in movies like Juno, X-Men and Inception, he says he was “suffering from depression, anxiety and panic attacks.”
“Just putting on a T-shirt cut for a woman would make me so unwell,” Page told Time.
Page came out as gay in 2014, an announcement he said helped his mental health but still left him searching.
“The difference in how I felt before coming out as gay to after was massive,” Page told Time. “But did the discomfort in my body ever go away? No, no, no, no.”
He said it was time left in isolation during the pandemic that led him to consider telling the world about his true self.
“I had a lot of time on my own to really focus on things that I think, in so many ways, unconsciously, I was avoiding,” he said.
He also said he was inspired by other trans actors like Laverne Cox and Janet Mock.
Page also addressed his decision to get top surgery, a process he says isn’t necessary for all trans people, but something he says “completely transformed my life.”
Page also spoke out about a series of state bills being considered by Republican-run governments across the country that would force trans girls to play sports with boys, a requirement that he called “horrific.”
Read more of Page’s interview with Time Magazine here.
