Elliot Page recounts ‘erosive’ and ‘damaging’ gender dysphoria during puberty
"It especially became complicated as an actor."
The actor, Elliot Page, has spoken out about the gender dysphoria he felt while going through puberty.
The Umbrella Academy star, 36, said he was trans in 2020 and that “my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot.”
Speaking to ABC News in America for a special titled The Freedom to Exist with Elliot Page: A Soul of a Nation Presentation, the X-Men: The Last Stand and Juno star explained how he felt growing up.
“When my body started to change, and clothes sat on me differently, and all of that was the beginning of really sort of disconnecting from myself and feeling a degree of discomfort that was very erosive and damaging,” Page said.
He also told ABC News that he had heard the word ‘transgender’ in health class but that it had been accompanied by “the sound of laughter.”
Page also said that bullying encouraged shame and a narrative that “I’m wrong, there’s something wrong with me.”
On gender dysphoria, The Umbrella Academy actor said it came from “being assigned a gender at birth based on your genitalia. And that not being the reality of who you are.”
The resulting “disconnect” is something that “continues to chip away at you,” Page continued.
“It especially became complicated as an actor because people would just go, ‘You’re an actor just put on the f****** clothes’.
“But needless to say it was so much more than that.”
In May, Page shared how he is “grateful to be here and alive” while discussing his upcoming book Pageboy.
The Freedom to Exist with Elliot Page: A Soul of a Nation Presentation is due to air on 6 June, the same day Pageboy, will be released.