Elliot Page has opened up about a line in the 2007 film Juno that he now regrets, calling attention to the casual homophobia embedded in much of early 2000s media.
Speaking in a 2017 interview with Bustle, the actor, who came out as transgender in 2020, addressed a joke made by his character, Juno MacGuff, in the Oscar-winning film.
Reflecting on the moment, Page admitted (via Tyla): “It wasn’t something I totally registered at the time, but, of course, now that I’m older I do.”
The scene revolved around discussing baby names, whereby Jason Bateman’s character, Mark, suggests the name "Madison." Juno’s quick response: “Madison? Wait, hold on… isn’t that like a little, gay?”
Years later, Page pointed out the broader issue in the industry: “So many movies I loved as a kid are just rampant with homophobia and transphobia and biphobia, and I’m not excusing it by any means. It really hurts the industry and it really hurts film. We need more stories. We need more representation. We need more points of view.”
Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody, Juno was both a critical and commercial success. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned Page a Best Actress nomination for his breakout performance, IMDb details.
Page has also spoken about the personal experiences he had while filming Juno, including his relationship with co-star Olivia Thirlby, who played Juno’s best friend. In his memoir Pageboy, he revealed that they had a private romance during the shoot.
“I was taken aback the moment I saw Olivia Thirlby,” Page wrote, per The Independent. “We stood in her hotel room. Billie Holiday played. She was about to start making lunch when she looked directly at me and said point-blank, ‘I’m really attracted to you.’”
Their connection quickly escalated. “We started having sex all the time: her hotel room, in our trailers at work, once in a tiny, private room in a restaurant,” Page revealed.
“Being intimate with Olivia helped my shame dissipate. I didn’t see a glint of it in her eyes, and I wanted that, to be done feeling wretched about who I am.”
He also reflected on how playing a pregnant teenager gave him a rare sense of freedom on set. “Ironically, playing a pregnant teenager was one of the first times I felt a modicum of autonomy. I was wearing a fake belly but not being hyperfeminised. For me, Juno was emblematic of what could be possible, a space beyond the binary.”
Page’s reflections highlight how cultural awareness around LGBTQ+ representation has evolved, and how, even in groundbreaking films, progress is still needed.