Elliot Page poses shirtless for Esquire magazine

The trans actor opens up about being forced to wear women’s clothing on a red carpet in a candid new interview and photo shoot.

Elliot Page has spoken about struggling in women’s clothing on the red carpet in a candid new interview and photo shoot.

The Umbrella Academy actor, who came out as transgender in December 2020, features on the cover of Esquire’s summer issue dressed in a white tank top and dark Ralph Lauren jeans, with a silver chain around his neck.

Inside the issue, Page models more menswear styles from Celine, Giorgio Armani, Gucci and Saint Laurent, looking at ease in his own skin.

But it wasn’t always so; in an accompanying essay for the publication, the 35-year-old recalls struggling to promote his 2007 film Juno while wearing women’s clothing.

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Elliot Page appears shirtless in the photo shoot. Picture: Ruven Afanador/Esquire

The actor pictured on the cover of Esquire. Picture: Ruven Afanador/Esquire

“When Juno was at the height of its popularity, during awards season time, I was closeted, dressed in heels and the whole look. I wasn’t OK, and I didn’t know how to talk about that with anyone,” Page said, adding that the studio told him to wear a dress to the movie’s Toronto Film Festival premiere.

“I said I wanted to wear a suit, and Fox Searchlight was basically like, ‘No, you need to wear a dress.’ And they took me in a big rush to one of those fancy stores on Bloor Street [in Toronto]. They had me wear a dress, and … that was that. And then all the Juno press, all the photo shoots – Michael Cera was in slacks and sneakers.”

Elliot Page opened up about how hard it was being forced to wear dresses on the red carpet. Picture: Ruven Afanador/Esquire

The actor called the incident “really extremely, extremely f***ed up”.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m trans or cis. Lots of cis women dress how I dress. That has nothing to f***ing do with it,” Page wrote.

“I get that people don’t understand. Oh, f**k you, you’re famous, and you have money, and you had to wear a dress, boo-hoo. I don’t not understand that reaction. But that’s mixed with: I wish people would understand that that sh*t literally did almost kill me.”

In a 2021 interview for Time – Page’s first since disclosing he was trans – the actor said he “never recognised” himself on the red carpet previously.

“Even though [I was] an actor, just putting on a T-shirt cut for a woman would make me so unwell,” he said, adding that feminine clothing felt like a “costume”.

Since then, Page has made his Met Gala debut in a sharp Balenciaga suit and hit the 2022 Oscars in a Gucci tux, the latter of which he described as a moment of “trans joy”.

This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission