Trans man confused why rejected

In an interview on the podcast On Film … With Kevin McCarthy, the actress formerly known as Ellen Page — she now goes by “Elliot” and identifies as a “transgender man” — admitted that offers for film roles have dried up.

Page recently starred as Sinon, a Greek soldier who helped perpetrate the Trojan Horse ruse, on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which raked in over $1.5 billion worldwide and became the filmmaker’s highest-grossing movie. McCarthy asked Page what she was planning next. “I imagine you’re getting a zillion calls after this movie,” he said.

“No, Kevin, I’m not,” Page replied. “So, if someone wants to call me … ” Page implied that it was hesitancy about her “transition” that is at fault. “I know I get some pushback for being Canadian? I don’t know what it’s about,” she joked. When McCarthy asked Page if she wanted to take a break, she was emphatic. “No, I really love to do, ideally, good work. That’s what I’d love to do.”

Page said that she had felt “really uncomfortable” working on previous films such as Inception, referencing the fact that she was struggling with gender dysphoria. “But I feel now, because that’s removed, and I don’t have to deal with that when I’m acting in my performances … I feel like I could maybe do some of my best work now.”

McCarthy asked Page if she would start pitching herself to filmmakers, and Page admitted that because she was “seen in a certain way before” — that is, as a woman — “and it is different now, so maybe there is something to reaching out to people and trying to create connections that way … I think it’s a little tricky for me to get cast right now. I think that’s probably for pretty obvious reasons.”

Commentators were swift to note the irony in Page’s comments. “Page: Treat me as a 5’1” … straight white man!!!” Rebecca Tucker wrote on X. “Hollywood: You got it. (Doesn’t offer her any roles.) Page: NO, NOT LIKE THAT! TREAT ME SPECIAL!” Another concurred: “Ellen Page had more roles because there are more parts for a woman than a 5’1 man.”

There is also the matter of Page’s voice, which now sounds squeaky and unsteady due to the testosterone she has been taking since late 2020 or early 2021 as part of her “transition.” Her larynx would have finished growing during female puberty; testosterone thickens and lengthens the vocal folds, dropping the speaking pitch. This distinctive change is permanent, as is her “top surgery,” which removed her breasts and left her with vivid chest scars.

Hollywood enthusiastically celebrated Page’s transition, although there seemed to be a hint of panic in the cheers; in her memoir Pageboy, she detailed the sexual abuse she suffered as a young girl in the film business while withholding the names of the perpetrators. At one point, a male actor graphically described the things he would like to do to her. “He was, and still is, one of the most famous actors in the world,” she wrote. No doubt he was one of her cheerleaders when she publicly decided to go under the knife to have her feminine vulnerability cut away.

The saga of Ellen “Elliot” Page is a desperately sad one. She was preyed upon, experienced mental illness and profound gender dysphoria, and decided to undergo “sex change” treatments while the business that did her so much damage applauded. Now, the casting calls have stopped coming. She’s probably right about why. She should have seen it coming.