Celebrity Elliot Page announced his transgender status in 2020. Now the star of Netflix‘s Umbrella Academy opened up about having done his first shirtless scene in a movie for the first time since then.
As Page explained while speaking with EW, “it just felt natural,” and he was quite happy to act the scene out. The moment plays out in Page’s film Close To You, which not only does he star in, but he also produced and co-wrote the feature.
Here’s what he shared about the moment:
“Shooting on the day, I was getting out of bed and getting dressed, it was sort of clumsy, like, ‘Oh, it would be great, he sleeps shirtless.’ In the moment when you’re making this, you’re making it from this instinctual place that I don’t know how to describe,” Page said.
“It just sort of happens, but at the same time, it just felt natural. Showing this dude who’s comfortable and present and waking up in his body, that means a lot to me. I never thought I’d feel that way, so it’s nice to get to act it.”
The LGBTQ actor added how it feels like to work in such scenes now:
“The way I get to feel working now is far more embodied coming from that foundation, versus entering and not feeling that way. It’s a huge shift. Doing something like this, complete improv, before, would’ve been close to impossible,” Page explains. “The sensation of being able to do it and feel that present enough to do it, I just felt exhilarated every day. What a special film to do, first time [back on film], because it lets you feel embodied to the extreme.”
Additionally, it seems that Page feels more comfortable working on feature films now than prior:
“When I was the most uncomfortable, those [past] performances, you’re a little more stiff, you’re less loose,” he recalls. “There’s less ability to kind of go with the flow in the present moment.”
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding Elliot Page and his upcoming film and television projects as we have them.