Fox Searchlight Studio Bosses Forced Elliot Page To Wear A Dress For Juno Premiere
Image: Elliott Page
Elliot Page has recently recounted the sexist harm that was forced on him when promoting his 2007 film, Juno. Page revealed that despite asking to present in a suit, he was ‘made to wear a dress’ by studio bosses.
In December 2020, the actor came out as transgender, saying in a statement released at the time: ‘I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life’.
Page’s first breakthrough role was in the film Hard Candy (2005), followed by his critically acclaimed role two years later as a pregnant teenager in Juno, that won him an Academy Award nomination.
Closeted And Dressed In Heels
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The 35-year-old has written a new essay opening up about his transition, and explaining that when Juno was ‘at the height of its popularity’, he was ‘closeted, dressed in heels and the whole look- I wasn’t okay.”
‘I think of times when people actively were like, “No, you need to wear a dress” in very, very, very pivotal moments. I remember the premiere of Juno at the Toronto International Film Festival,’ he wrote for Esquire. Elliot explained that on previous occasions, he didn’t know the concept of a stylist’ so he ‘dressed how I wanted to dress- not dissimilar to now’.
‘And I remember going and having the thing I wanted to wear, and then understanding the degree of expectation of how fancy someone is supposed to look. So I said I wanted to wear a suit, and Fox Searchlight was basically like, “No, you need to wear a dress,”’ he said.
The actor said the team took him to a shop to buy a dress and he could not refuse, ‘that was that’. When doing press for Juno, which included photo shoots, his co-star Michael Cera was allowed to wear ‘slacks and sneakers’.
The Umbrella Academy
Later this month, Elliot is set to return to The Umbrella Academy as Viktor for season three. The recently released trailer teased the superpowered siblings clash with the newly introduced Sparrow Academy, who had taken their place in their familial home in an alternate reality.
Fans were left sobbing when a poster featuring Viktor was released, as they spotted a nod to the character’s late brother Ben with his choice of attire.
