Elliot Page says he experienced “a degree of discomfort that was very erosive and damaging” while going through puberty.
The 36-year-old actor, who came out as transgender in 2020, said the process was “just the beginning of really sort of disconnecting from myself”.
Page made the remarks during a preview clip for a new Pride Month television special for ABC News.
Titled, The Freedom to Exist with Elliot Page: A Soul of a Nation Presentation, the special is due to air June 6, coinciding with the publication of the actor’s memoir – Pageboy.
“When my body started to change, clothes sat on me differently, and all of that was just the beginning of really sort of disconnecting from myself and feeling a degree of discomfort that was very erosive and damaging,” he said, in a preview clip.
“I don’t think I even at that point had probably even heard the word transgender. If it didn’t come up, it would be, you know, briefly in health class with the sound of laughter.
“The experiences I had in regards to bullying, it certainly only encourages the shame that literally makes you sick. The hiding, the self disgust.
“‘There’s something wrong with me’ – that narrative.”
He continued: “I think with gender dysphoria, it’s being assigned a gender at birth based on your genitalia and that not being the reality of who you are, (a) sort of incongruence and disconnect with that just continues to chip away at you…
“I think it especially became complicated as an actor because people would just go, ‘You’re an actor, just put the f****** clothes on.
“But needless to say it was so much more than that.”
Page is best-known for his Oscar-nominated role in 2007 coming-of-age drama Juno, and more recently for starring in Netflix superhero series The Umbrella Academy.
He has also starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan’s 2011 thriller Inception and the X-Men series.
Page came out as gay in 2014 and was married to choreographer Emma Portner before announcing their divorce in January 2021.
Announcing the title and release date of his memoir in December 2022, the actor said he hopes it will help others feel less alone and “seen, no matter who they are or what path they are on”.
