Elliot Page reveals in his new book, Pageboy: A Memoir, that he felt out of place while filming Inception and even thought he might be recast. Page starred in Christopher Nolan’s 2010 sci-fi blockbuster as Ariadne, a graduate student with a keen sense of architecture who is recruited by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb to design various dreamscapes. Inception was considered as one of multiple roles that put Page, still presenting as female at the time, further on the map.
A couple of years after publicly coming out as a transgender man, Page has released a new memoir, Pageboy, candidly exploring the actor’s struggles during his rise to fame. In the book (via Insider), the actor recalls feeling out of place while making Inception, and his fears of being recast while filming the movie. See Page’s recollection below:
Shingles popped out of my spine while filming Inception when I was 22. Despite everyone being delightful to work with, I felt out of place. In a cast full of cis men, I did not understand the role I found myself in. or the first two weeks of the film I joked I would be recast with Keira Knightley, and rightfully so.
Elliot Page’s Hollywood Career And Acceptance Of His True Self
Page’s experiences on the set of Inception are just one anecdote from his searing and emotional memoir. Page has been on the Hollywood scene since 1997, but properly gained critical acclaim for his turns in Hard Candy and Academy Award-nominated role in Juno in 2007. Following his breakthrough, he found continued success with his roles in Inception, the X-Men movie franchise, and the hit Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy. I would be many years before his supporters learned that he was ready to quit acting after his breakthrough in Juno.
While Juno saw all of his dreams of acting coming true, it also came with an entirely new level of pressure and expectations. Hollywood expected him to conform to the gender binary and dictated how he dressed and acted, all the way down to forcing him to wear a dress on the Juno red carpet while his co-stars wore slacks and sneakers without any fuss. While trying to conform to Hollywood pressures, he couldn’t ignore the sense that something was wrong.
When coming out as gay in 2014, he faced harassment from homophobic individuals, but despite the challenges, Page eventually found his way to his true self and came out as transgender in 2020. It is an announcement that has garnered support worldwide from his colleagues and other celebrities, with The Umbrella Academy even writing his transition into the show. As such, while reflecting on his internal issues with Inception may be disheartening, the resilience shown in Pageboy is sure to be a heartwarming tale of self-growth for fans of the actor.
