Elliot Page Felt Infantilized After 'Juno' & He Shared Advice For Dealing With Bullies (VIDEO)
"Oh, what I'd say to that." 👀
Elliot Page smiling.
Elliot Page shared some wise words with youngsters recently and it's advice we can all use.
On August 12, the Canadian actor chatted about his recently released memoir Pageboy during the 2023 National Book Festival at the Library of Congress.
During the Q&A portion of the talk, a young person came forward and asked Page how they deal with tricky situations.
“What would you say to like a 10-year-old who is just starting to come out as trans and whose [..friends] have been like, 'I’m not calling you that. No.' What would you say to somebody like that?”
"Oh, what I'd say to that," Page said, which made the crowd laugh. "Who is it? Give me their number," they continued before giving some practical advice.
“I tell them that they’re being incredibly insensitive and unkind and would they ever want someone to react about something like that towards them," he shared.
"And that maybe they should take some time to think a little bit more and potentially learn more about trans people and that they aren’t being a very good friend."
Elsewhere in the chat, the host of Page's portion of the event commented on the fact that Page wrote about being infantilized during Juno as well as after it, which an audience member also asked about.
"Like people do infantilize you and like don't take you seriously," the person asked. "So how do you like, kind of reconcile these contradictions and assert yourself while still being able to connect with your inner child?"
"Great question," Page responded. "How do I do that?"
They said that they need to get better at speaking up for themselves in certain situations and setting up boundaries on how they're being spoken to.
"But at the same time, it's like now I'm 36," he said. "And I still often feel like I'm not being treated or spoken to like, in the way that I should and the 10-year-old in me gets angry. So maybe that's where it all comes together."
Page has spoken out about the attention he received after Juno and how jarring it was, noting that filming itself was "wonderful" and that he loved playing the character.
"The period that came after it, the sort of Hollywood campaign season machine, so to speak, [at that] time I was not happy," they shared in an interview with ET Canada. "That was not a celebratory period for me, and it’s really unfortunate."
“Yes, I think there’s certain elements of myself and my queerness that made Juno cool, that made Juno special, that made her connect with audiences and then that all got squashed,” Page told the outlet. “And the promotion of it, which I think back to. And I just think that’s so... gross.”
Thankfully, it seems Page is in a better place now and has recently shared a few shirtless pictures of himself along with the hashtag #transjoy.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.