It’s been a year and a half since Oscar-nominated actor Elliot Page came out as transgender, and during a recent visit to “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” Page revealed things have “improved drastically” for him since then.
And that improved path all started with being embraced by the people he knows best.
“I feel really grateful for that,” the 35-year-old told Meyers of the supportive reactions he received. “Most people weren’t surprised. It’s something that I’d been talking about with a lot of people in my life.”
As for any voices of negativity he’s encountered, he’s tried to pay them little attention.
“What I want to focus on right now, and has been so extraordinary, is the degree of joy that I feel, the degree of presence that I feel," Page explained. "I feel a way that I really never thought possible for a long, long time. So that’s really what I’m focusing on and embracing the most. But of course, moments can be overwhelming.”
In those overwhelming moments, when he’s been unable to shift his focus past any negativity he’s met, Page faces it all with sense of hope.
"I feel like it’s one of those things that it’s so unfortunate, because it’s like, we’re all on the same team here, you know?" he said. "Whether you’re trans, gender-nonconforming, cis, we all have these expectations and these limits and constraints, because of people’s obsession with the binary and how we’re all supposed to live our lives. To me, it would be so special for us to all be able to connect and talk about how similar we are in all of our journeys."
“It’s improved my life drastically,” Page added. “And I hope people who do have an issue with me can maybe try and hear that or embrace that on some level.”
Page’s own journey reflects that of his character on the Netflix series “The Umbrella Academy,” who, in the newly released third season of the science-fantasy drama, has also transitioned.
“Steve Blackman, the showrunner of ‘Umbrella,’ who’s just incredible and such a wonderful person, when we first talked about it, he seemed really excited about incorporating it into the show,” the star recalled.
Thomas Page McBee, a transgender journalist, author and boxer, then came on board and helped craft the storyline.
“I feel proud of it and excited for people to see it,” Page said.
