Elliot Page developed stress-induced shingles on the set of Inception
Elliot Page developed stress-induced shingles on set of Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy after feeling ‘out of place in a cast full of cis men’
Elliot Page has revealed he developed stress-induced shingles on the set of Inception in 2010 after feeling ‘out of place in a cast full of cis men’.
The Oscar-nominated star, 36, opened up about the incident in his new book Pageboy which has lifted the lid on his life in showbiz so far.
Elliot – who was just 22 at the time – told that he developed the illness and feared he would be ‘recast with Keira Knightley’.
He starred in the Christopher Nolan blockbuster alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy.
He wrote: ‘Shingles communicated the stress my body felt. It popped out of my spine while filming Inception when I was twenty-two.
Difficult: Elliot Page has revealed he developed stress-induced shingles on the set of Inception in 2010 after feeling ‘out of place in a cast full of cis men’
Cast: He starred in the Christopher Nolan blockbuster alongside Leonardo DiCaprio (pictured), Joseph Gordon Levitt, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy
‘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.
‘For the first two weeks of the film, I joked I would be recast with Keira Knightley, and rightfully so.’
It comes as Elliot said a male director sought to groom him for sex when he was a teenager.
He claimed he was at dinner in Toronto at the French eatery Swan on Queen West when the incident occurred.
The Canadian actor, who was once known as Ellen Page and came out as transgender in 2020, said the director began stroking his thigh under the table in an effort to seduce him.
The Umbrella Academy said the filmmaker whispered to him, ‘You have to make the move, I can’t’ in their effort to instigate physical intimacy.
The Juno star said that the director’s ‘frequent texts made me feel special, as did the books he gifted me.’
In a chapter in the book titled Leeches, Page said that on a previous movie he was working on, ‘a crew member had done the same’ in making overt sexual advances toward him.
Tough: He wrote: ‘Shingles communicated the stress my body felt. It popped out of my spine while filming Inception when I was twenty-two’
Worry: Elliot – who was just 22 at the time – told that he developed the illness and feared he would be ‘recast with Keira Knightley’ (pictured)
Huge film: Director Christopher Nolan, Elliot, Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard are pictured at the Inception premiere in 2010
‘In between takes he would talk to me about art and films … he invited me to hang out on a Saturday afternoon,’ Page said in the book. ‘After a walk in the rain he grabbed me, asserting we go upstairs.
‘Pulling me in to his body, I could feel his hard c*** against me.’
Page described another instance of sexual harassment during the time he was working on the 2005 motion picture Hard Candy at the age of 17.
He said that a crew member on the dramatic thriller, who has gone on to be a director, made strong advances toward him at a wrap party for the film.
‘He was funny and strange, and he was kind to me,’ Page said in the book. ‘We spoke about books, discussed films and obscure, depressing graphic novels.
‘A glint in his eyes made me feel seen, supported. He had a sweetness even.’
Page said that the crew member invited himself into Page’s apartment and placed his hands on his shoulders.
Page said that he was ‘unsure what to do’ and ‘went stiff with a smile’ amid the advances.
‘He laid me down on the bed,’ Page said, adding that the crew member took his pants off and said he wanted to perform oral sex on him.
‘I froze,’ Page said. ‘After it was over, he tried to stay in the bed with me. I had thawed marginally and told him he couldn’t, to get out. He slept on the couch.’
Page said that on the set of a different movie, a female crew member assaulted him multiple times.
Page said that the circumstances behind his life and career made him ‘a perfect target’ for sex predators in the industry.
‘As puberty transmuted me into a character I had no interest in playing, my isolation, insecurity, and unknowing grew,’ Page said. ‘I desperately needed to anchor myself. In new cities, with no friends, alone in hotel rooms, it was not hard for someone to prey. I’m sure they sense that.’
Elsewhere in his new memoir, Page graphically detailed his failed attempts to have sex with a man at age 16, as he battled with his sexuality years before coming out as gay.
Page revealed he once dated a classmate called Kenneth and repeatedly attempted to lose his virginity to him – to no avail.
Page said the pair – who met in grade 10 at Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia – would ‘fool around upstairs’ and engage in ‘dry humping,’ which did not arouse Page.
He wrote: ‘Kenneth was sweet, sensitive and cute. A unique face with prominent cheekbones and electric eyes, his hair dark brown and floppy.
‘We’d fool around upstairs. I didn’t really like it but I didn’t mind it either.
‘The kissing, meh. The dry humping, alright. I would pretend to orgasm. Not that Kenneth wasn’t or wouldn’t be fantastic in bed. I am certain he would be a selfless and generous lover.’
Going into further explicit detail, Page said when they tried to have sex, Kenneth was unable to enter him, adding: ‘That whole ‘wet’ thing was not happening.
‘We’d try and then stop, try and then stop, try and then stop, and then we stopped trying. I was lucky it was with someone as lovely as him, it could have ended a different way.’
The star added that due to suffering a tear in his private parts during a rollerblade accident, he had this ‘idea that something had happened to my vagina – causing my body to refuse entry.
‘Everyone was talking about ‘doing it’ and ‘hooking up’ and ‘virginity’… and I didn’t get it. Was everyone also pretending?
‘I avoided sex with guys and suppressed my real, unrequited crushes. My brain could not comprehend that I simply wasn’t interested, that I just didn’t want to go through with it, which would be a completely appropriate feeling and response.’
Page would come out as a lesbian in 2014 – and would transition from female to male six years later.
This comes after Page claimed he had sex with Juno co-star Olivia Thirlby ‘all the time’ while they filmed the hit 2007 movie – just days after revealing he had a secret romance with Kate Mara.
The star said he was instantly attracted to Thirlby, now 36, who played Juno’s best friend Leah in the film, as he recounted their fling in Pageboy.
He said: ‘I was taken aback the moment I saw Olivia Thirlby. She seemed so much older, capable, and centered.
‘Sexually open, far removed from where I was at the time. But the chemistry was palpable, it pulled me in.’
Page – who played pregnant teen Juno MacGuff in the film – recounted how they started ‘sucking face’ in a hotel room after Thirlby confessed she was ‘really attracted’ to him, to which Page reciprocated her feelings.
He wrote: ‘It was on. I had an all-encompassing desire for her, she made me want in a way that was new, hopeful.’
He added it was one of the first times someone would make him orgasm.
Terrible: It comes as Elliot said a male director sought to groom him for sex when he was a teenager (pictured 2022)
Fling: This comes after Page claimed he had sex with Juno co-star Olivia Thirlby ‘all the time’ while they filmed the hit 2007 movie – just days after revealing he had a secret romance with Kate Mara (pictured)
Candid: Page opens up about a number of sexual advances made toward him at a young age in his new book
Page said he and Thirlby began having sex ‘all the time’, writing: ‘Her hotel room, in our trailers at work, once in a tiny, private room in a restaurant … We thought we were being subtle. Being intimate with Olivia helped my shame dissipate. I didn’t see a glint of it in her eyes and I wanted that — done feeling wretched about who I am.’
Around the time Page and Thirlby filmed Juno, the pair were slated to star as the title characters in Jack & Diane – playing two young women who fall in love – but both dropped out before production, and the cast was replaced numerous times over.
Thirlby publicly came out as bisexual in 2011 – she has been married to Jacques Pienaar since 2014.
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Thirlby for comment.
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