Elliot Page on ‘healing experience’ of playing trans man in new film Close To You
Elliot Page has spoken about the profound personal impact of his latest role, describing a sense of catharsis in playing a recently transitioned man visiting his family for the first time as his true self.
The Umbrella Academy star, now 37, came out as a trans man in 2020. Page said he doesn’t think he’d have been able to play Sam – the lead in Dominic Savage’s largely improvised drama Close to You – prior to his transition, saying: "There is no way...
that I would have been able to feel comfortable and present and grounded enough to actually exist and create that openly." The actor also conveyed the joy of going to set, saying, "For me, waking up every day so excited to go to set that, to me, was (a) big, big healing experience." Close to You traces the journey of Sam, who left behind his life in a small Canadian town for Toronto.
The narrative follows him as he returns home to celebrate his father's birthday, apprehensive about his family's reception but eventually facing his past, igniting an old romance, mending familial ties, and discovering a renewed sense of self-pride and confidence.
