Elliot Page on How Making ‘Close to You’ Reignited His Love for Acting: ‘It Was Definitely Something I Would Not Have Been Able to Do Pre-Transition’
variety.comAlex Ritman Elliot Page heads to the U.K on Thursday to open the BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQIA+ film festival, for the European premiere of “Close to You.” Written and directed by Dominic Savage (behind the recent acclaimed “I Am…” anthology series that has starred the likes of Kate Winslet and Letitia Wright), the film — which bowed in Toronto — marks Page’s first feature since 2017.
It’s a return to the big screen he says “felt amazing,” allowing him to experience the “joy of what it means to get to create and being creative.” It was also an acting experience unlike anything Page had undertaken before, with much of “Close to You” improvised.
Savage claims that the lack of scripted dialogue made the on-screen interactions appear “as natural as possible,” although Page admits it was, at least initially, “terrifying.” In the film Page plays Sam, a trans man returning to see his family in small town Canada.
It’s a trip he’s been putting off for several years, his first time home since transitioning and finding the sort of inner peace he’d once thought impossible.
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