This week, transgender actor Elliot Page—whose memoir Pageboy was released earlier this year—appeared on the Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast and revealed that his mental health has vastly improved since transitioning in 2020.
“For significant periods of my life, I struggled to function on a pretty basic level, it was hard for me to literally sit down, it was hard for me to be productive, for me to be present at all,” The Umbrella Academy star explained, as reported by The PinkNews. “I couldn’t see the future because I didn’t know how much longer I would last feeling that way.”
Since transitioning, the 35-year-old said he’s begun to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. “People go, ‘What was your last experience of gender euphoria?’ I’m like, ‘This morning when I was drinking coffee in silence and just being able to sit and have my coffee,’” Page said.
This new-found ease also allowed him to socialize in a way that seemed out of reach before because he was always thinking about “wanting to flee.”
“Doing things in the past that I did enjoy but a part of me wasn’t there. It could just be going to meet some friends in the park and I’m really able to just be in the park with them,” Page revealed.
“It’s not like I’m Johnny social all of a sudden, but going from having a very difficult time being social, now getting to feel immersed in life, versus struggling to know how to live it,” he said.
The Inception star admitted to being a “serial monogamist” prior to transitioning because he would cling to romantic relationships to keep his chaotic thoughts under control. Now the actor is able to have more meaningful relationships with people and himself. “I’m very much enjoying connecting with people, maybe having some fun, but sort of just being on my own right now. And that is very new for me.”
Page talked about their privileged position in life giving them access to resources other trans people don’t have, but was also candid about how toxic celebrity can be—especially when you’re transitioning in front of millions of people.
“You’re going through this transition in front of a lot of people and having people speculate or make assumptions about your life that can be incredibly hurtful or demeaning,” he said. “At the same time, everything is relative and my position obviously comes with such an enormous amount of privilege like my life does not reflect the lives of most trans people who deal with a disproportionate amount of unemployment, poverty, incarceration, violence, etc.—particularly black trans people.”
Page said that while transitioning in the public eye was challenging, he wanted to acknowledge “the degree in which my privilege and resources help and protect me.”
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
