Eliot Page
He realized early on that he was born in the wrong body
© Evan Agostini / Picture Alliance
In his biography, Elliot Page shares his personal story with the world. In one passage, the actor explains that he became aware of his true gender identity at a very young age.
Elliot Page, 36, came out as a trans man in 2020 and then began his transition. In his recently released biography, Pageboy, the Umbrella Academy star describes his journey to finding his true self. He also explains that he knew as a child that his perceived gender identity did not match the gender that is on his birth certificate.
Elliot Page: ‘I knew it when I was four years old’
He noticed it during his early childhood, which he spent in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. “I knew it when I was four years old. I went to YMCA preschool in downtown Halifax, on South Park Street across from the Public Gardens. First and foremost, I understood that I wasn’t a girl. Not at one conscious sense, but in a pure, unadulterated sense. That feeling is one of my earliest and clearest memories,” the book says.
Two years later, Page spoke to his mother, Martha Phillpotts, about it. Today’s actor asked her if he could be a boy. “No, darling, you can’t, you’re a girl. But you can do anything a boy can do,” she reportedly replied. When he was in school he always had crushes on girls. In his early 20s, he finally received a kiss that would change his life.
That kiss was a key moment
Shortly before the premiere of his hit film “Juno” in 2008, he went to a queer bar for the first time – and met a woman named Paula. “I danced, sweat dripping down my back and chest. I watched Paula’s hair twirl and bobble as she moved effortlessly, chaotic yet controlled, sensual and strong,” writes the 36-year-old in his memoir .
Elliot asked her if he could kiss her. “And then I did it,” recalls the “Inception” star. “In a queer bar. In front of everyone around us. I started to understand what all the poetry was about, what all the fuss was about.” Elliot Page had a pivotal moment. “Before, everything was cold, motionless, emotionless. Every woman I’d loved hadn’t loved me back, and the one who might have loved me in the wrong way. But here I was, on a dance floor with a Woman who wanted to kiss me and the hostile, cruel voice that flooded my head whenever I felt desire was still.”
Source used: “Pageboy” by Elliot Page