Elliot Page Allegedly Threatened By Major Hollywood Star
Elliot Page, in the upcoming memoir Pageboy, shares a story about how he's been treated in Hollywood.
One disturbing fact has become increasingly clear: there are effectively two Hollywoods out there, with one being made of the glittering movies and shows that we love and another made of scandals and secrets. The Umbrella Academy star Elliot Page will be shining a light on each of these Hollywoods in his upcoming memoir Pageboy, and it looks like the pages are going to contain a few very extreme stories. For example, Variety reports that the book contains a chapter in which Page alleges that an unnamed major actor told him, “You aren’t gay,” that homosexuality “doesn’t exist,” and that “I’m going to f— you to make you realize you aren’t gay.”
To better understand that explosive allegation, it’s important to understand the context surrounding it. At the time, Elliot Page had not yet transitioned and presented to the world as a woman, which became very relevant during a speech at a 2014 Human Rights Campaign conference. Page was and still is romantically interested in men and used that speech to come out, telling the crowd (and effectively telling the world), “I’m here today because I am gay.” Keep in mind that this was one year before gay marriage was legalized throughout America, so a major Hollywood actor coming out as gay was a very big deal.
But it wasn’t long after coming out that Elliot Page discovered that just as there are two Hollywoods, there are also two kinds of Hollywood actors. In his memoir chapter titled “Famous A–hole at Party,” Page recounts the tale of being allegedly threatened with nothing less than rape by a prominent actor he refuses to name in the book. That actor also allegedly claimed that Page was “just afraid of men,” though it’s never explained how the threat of sexual assault was ever going to make Page less afraid of men rather than more afraid of men.
In the memoir, Elliot Page recounts that the famous asshole himself seemed allegedly mortified by what he said when they crossed paths again. Los Angeles is a pretty small place, so Page ran into the actor only a few days later at a local gym. There, the actor allegedly told Page, “I don’t have a problem with gay people, I swear,” to which Page offered a response that was short and to the point: “I think you might.”
At this point, fans angered by the alleged exchanges may want Elliot Page to name and shame the star in question, but calling out a single person is not the goal. As Page explains, “I’ve had some version of that happen many times throughout my life,” which is something that “A lot of queer and trans people deal with it incessantly.” And Page claims these are the “moments that we often, like, don’t talk about or we’re supposed to just brush off, when actually it’s very awful,” so recounting his own alleged run-in with homophobia is in the memoir primarily ”because it’s about highlighting the reality” he and others have experienced.
While Elliot Page has pledged to not name the person in question, he is confident that the actor allegedly behind the threat “will hear about this and know it’s him.” And if you’re interested in hearing more about the other Hollywood that we never get to see, you should pick up Pageboy when it comes out on June 6. In the meantime, there is no time like Pride Month to express support for LGBTQIA+ friends and family members who may be going through struggles they have been shamed by and are afraid to share with the world.
