Elliot Page has opened up about coming out as transgender at the end of last year, explaining that he is "fully who I am in this body".
In December 2020, the Juno actor took to Instagram to share a lengthy heartfelt post, in which he shared with his 4.7 million followers that he is trans and his pronouns are he/they.
Now, speaking to Time Magazine, 34-year-old Page has gone into detail about his thought process at the time of his coming out to his fans online, and his journey since.
"What I was anticipating was a lot of support and love and a massive amount of hatred and transphobia," he said. "That’s essentially what happened."
Fortunately, Page received an outpouring of love from his fans, co-stars, and other celebrities.
Everyone from Anna Kendrick to Mark Ruffalo to Ellen Degeneres took to social media to praise the X-Men star for sharing his story.
Page had previously struggled with many of his film roles especially in those that required a feminine touch.
"I just never recognized myself," Page said. "For a long time, I could not even look at a photo of myself."
The 34-year-old said he had always "felt like a boy".
"I wanted to be a boy. I would ask my mom if I could be someday," he added.
The Canadian actor, who grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, recalled feeling "excited" when people started perceiving him as a boy after having his hair cut short at the age of nine.
When he was older, he started experiencing gender dysphoria, explaining that he didn’t know "how to explain to people that even though [I was] an actor, just putting on a T-shirt cut for a woman would make me so unwell."
Page, who currently stars in Netflix's The Umbrella Academy, also told the publication that he was excited for the road ahead in terms of his acting career.
"I’m really excited to act, now that I’m fully who I am in this body," he said. "No matter the challenges and difficult moments of this, nothing amounts to getting to feel how I feel now."
This comes some months after it was reported that Elliot had filed for divorce from his wife after three years of marriage.
"After much thought and careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to divorce following our separation last summer," the couple said in a statement cited by the BBC.
"We have the utmost respect for each other and remain close friends."