Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy is officially out and Elliot Page got real about how his character's transition was handled and the care given to the script.
On June 25, The Hollywood Reporter shared an interview with the Canadian actor as well as with the Netflix hit's showrunner Steve Blackman and writer Thomas Page McBee, who consulted on the script.
"I felt so supported by everyone," Page said about filming season 3 in Toronto and introducing his character Viktor Hargreaves. "We were shooting right after I disclosed that I’m trans, in total isolation."
"That was definitely an overwhelming period, but I feel so lucky that I was going to work and getting to be with so many supportive people," they continued. "And in any moment that I did express fear and anxiety, I felt listened to and cared for,"
The interview noted that there was a "kind curiosity" from Viktor's siblings about his transition in the show.
Early on in the season, Viktor's brothers Diego, Klaus and Five all react positively to his news and then yell at him for sneaking out to meet with the enemy. Later, Viktor's other brother, Luther, had a little uncertainty in his reaction.
"I spent a lot of time working on that Luther scene, who’s the last to find out about Viktor," Blackman said.
In the scene, Luther asks Diego if they should throw Viktor a party to make sure he feels loved. Diego then asks Viktor if he feels loved, which makes Luther uncomfortable, so he makes a joke and says, “Your face is nicely framed by your haircut.”
"I think that was, for me, a scene that was important to show that not everyone understands what it is," shared Blackman of Luther's "innocent" unsureness. "So I wanted at least one of the family to ask a few of those questions. 'What are we supposed to do? What’s the next step?'"
Page noted that those moments reflected incidents in their own life.
"The scene when Luther and Diego are coming down the stairs and Luther’s awkwardness and all these things, these were — simultaneously I’m experiencing all that, because I’ve stepped into this moment where I’m a trans person and perceived that way, and having all these new experiences I didn’t have before," he explained.
"Then these scenes were resonating with that, which was really incredible," he said. "We don’t see that when we’re not in control of our stories a lot of the time. So it felt really special."
The Umbrella Academy is streaming now on Netflix.
