Elliot Page says he hopes sitting down with Oprah Winfrey for a one-on-one interview will help combat the “misinformation and lies” being spread through anti-transgender legislation.
In a Vanity Fair interview published Wednesday, the Halifax-raised actor says he feels a responsibility to use his platform to speak out against “devastating” rhetoric coming from anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ activists.
Five U.S. states have passed laws or implemented executive orders this year limiting the ability of trans youths to play sports or receive certain medical treatment.
The 34-year-old actor told Vanity Fair those bills will be “responsible for the death of children” which is why he felt it important to speak about his experiences and the “resources I’ve been able to access — whether therapy or surgery — that have allowed me to be alive, to live my life.”
Page’s interview with Winfrey will debut Friday on her Apple TV Plus series “The Oprah Conversation.”
The actor, who received an Oscar nomination for 2007’s “Juno” and stars in “The Umbrella Academy” on Netflix, shared in December that he was transgender and used the pronouns he and they.
At the time, he was in Toronto recovering from “top surgery,” a procedure to remove breast tissue.
Page says since coming out as trans he has felt “a significant difference in my ability to just exist — and not even just day to day, but moment to moment.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2021.
The Canadian Press
