Celebrity3 min(s) read
Juno star who Elliot Page admitted to having sex with explained why 'same-sex movie' with pair never happened
During the filming of Juno, Elliot Page and co-star Olivia Thirlby shared an intense off-screen relationship that went far beyond what fans saw on screen. In his 2023 memoir Pageboy, Page revealed that he and Thirlby had sex “all the time” while working on the 2007 teen drama.
“It was on... we started having sex all the time: her hotel room, in our trailers at work, once in a tiny, private room in a restaurant,” he wrote. The connection began when Thirlby told him, “I'm really attracted to you,” and Page responded in kind.
Their dynamic was especially notable given the film’s themes of teen pregnancy, friendship, and self-discovery. Page, who played the title role in Juno, wrote that the project offered him “a modicum of autonomy” and became a rare experience of not being “hyperfeminized” on set.
That time in his life, he said, was shaped by personal exploration and a series of complex relationships, including an affair with actress Kate Mara.
But despite their on-set closeness and artistic alignment, a separate film project meant to bring Page and Thirlby back together never materialized. The movie, a moody indie romance with surreal elements, was talked about in interviews and even listed on IMDb - but ultimately, the original version never got made.
The ‘Jack and Diane’ project failed to secure funding
In a 2008 interview with The Guardian, Thirlby confirmed that she and Page were once attached to star in Jack and Diane. “It was true. The film is called Jack and Diane. We both gravitated towards it a year before Juno solidified. It would have been a very special project - the script is very experimental and abstract and dark - but it probably should have been made before Juno. It's not the right time, unfortunately,” she said.
The film’s unusual premise drew early attention. It told the story of Jack and Diane, two teenage girls who meet in New York City and fall into an intense, emotionally charged relationship. When one of them learns she is about to leave the country, their bond is tested - while the stress of it all begins to trigger a surreal transformation involving werewolf-like imagery.
Page and Thirlby clarified the werewolf metaphor
In a 2007 interview during the Toronto International Film Festival, Page and Thirlby addressed the film’s unusual description as a “lesbian werewolf movie.” Thirlby explained, “People are just intimidated by the subject matter.” Page added, “They think it's about lesbian werewolves, and it's not.” Instead, they said, the werewolf element was metaphorical, part of director Brad Rust Gray’s recurring themes of emotional repression and transformation.
Thirlby elaborated that the director had previously explored similar motifs in his film Salt, where a character turns into a seal, inspired by Icelandic folklore. “It’s very metaphorical; it’s not a literal metamorphosis that happens,” she said.
Despite their interest and enthusiasm, the film struggled to get financing. Page said, “We haven't shot Jack and Diane yet but hopefully someone will give us money soon and we can.”
Different actors eventually took on the roles
Years later, Jack and Diane was finally made, but not with Page and Thirlby. The roles originally planned for them went to Riley Keough and Juno Temple. The film was released in 2012 with a limited theatrical run and received mixed reviews. While it retained the surreal love story and metaphorical horror elements, it never achieved wide recognition.
For fans of Juno and indie cinema, the original version of Jack and Diane remains a missed opportunity. The combination of Page and Thirlby - whose chemistry clearly extended beyond their first film - might have made it one of the more daring and emotionally complex projects of its era.