Transgender actor Elliot Page is blasting Hollywood producers who feel that queer films are not movies for a mainstream audience.
Speaking from the stage at BFI Flare, London’s gay film festival, Page insisted that gay films can’t be “niche” because a recent survey claimed that 30 percent of American youth identify a LGBTQQIAAP2S+.
If such a large number of kids claim to be LGBTQQIAAP2S+, then, Page said of gay-themed films, “I’m sorry, but this is not niche,” Variety reported. She also recounted the story of how she came out as “trans” to the showrunner of her Netflix series The Umbrella Academy, applauding Steve Blackman for how accommodating he was in rewriting her character.
“I hate that I have to say [that I feel lucky] because it should not be the case, and we should have lots of trans actors,” Page remarked.
Page is starring in the film, Close to You, the story of a woman who undergoes transition surgery to become a man and encounters a man for whom she had feelings when she was younger.
Speaking of the new film in September, the star formerly known as Ellen Page said allowing an audience to know what it was like to play a scene shirtless after the transition surgery, was paramount.
Page said it was important to open people’s minds to the gay agenda.
Her preferred pronouns are now “he/him” and “they/them,” and Page self-identifies as “non-binary.”
Page also reportedly insisted that acting awards need to be “gender-neutral.”
Several major awards, including the Oscars, already dumped categories such as “Best Actress” to be more neutral, and Page agrees with the trend.
“Yeah, it seems like a good idea,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “And, again, this sort of unusual aspect of that being the only category, right, where that sort of happens? So, hopefully, we start moving beyond that degree of binary thinking.”
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