The movie, about a teenager who gets pregnant, was released back in 2007
According to Elliott Page, making the film Juno “literally almost killed him.”
The movie, which was first released in 2007, followed the pregnancy journey of a teenage girl named Juno.
Page played the pregnant teenager who chooses to continue her education and give birth to the child for an adoptive couple.
The actor came out as a transgender guy in 2020, 13 years after the fact.
Page in Juno.Searchlight Pictures
Their memoir, Pageboy, became an instant Sunday Times bestseller last year.Â
When the movie was released, it was a big hit and received four Oscar nominations, including one for Best Actress, which went to Page.
But even though the film was performing so well, Page was having trouble and “didn’t know how to talk about [it] at the time.”
“During awards-season time, I was closeted, dressed in heels and the whole look – I wasn’t okay, and I didn’t know how to talk about that with anyone,” he wrote in Esquire.
“I can’t pinpoint a ‘worst’ day. But when Juno was blowing up – this sounds strange to people, and I get that people don’t understand. Oh, f*** you, you’re famous, and you have money, and you had to wear a dress, boo-hoo. I don’t not understand that reaction.”
“But that’s mixed with: I wish people would understand that that sh*t literally did almost kill me. … I was living the life and my dreams were coming true, and all that was happening.
“And yet, for example, when I was shooting Inception, I could pretty much not leave whatever hotel I’d be staying in.”
In his memoir Pageboy last year, Page shared details of their lives after transitioning and coming to live as himself in public.
Page acknowledged he is “loving acting again” once it was released.
“Thank goodness,” he said.
Page opened up about filming JunoPhillip Faraone/FilmMagic
“I did struggle to see a future and what that was going to look like.”
“In a body that I feel at home in and can feel present in, all of that makes me more inspired creatively and artistically.”
Additionally, Page discussed his romance with co-star Olivia Thirlby in their memoir.
He said: “I was taken aback the moment I saw Olivia Thirlby. She seemed so much older, capable, and centered.”
“Sexually open, far removed from where I was at the time. But the chemistry was palpable, it pulled me in.”
Page went on: “It was on. I had an all-encompassing desire for her, she made me want in a way that was new, hopeful.”
He mentioned that it was one of the first times someone had made him orgasm.
Page also recounted the places where he and Olivia supposedly shared personal moments and said they had sex “all the time” while filming Juno.
“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 Olivia 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,” he penned.