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Elliot Page Talked About When He Collapsed Because Of Gender Identity Pressure At An "Inception" Premiere

"That's what it leads to."

Larry Fitzmaurice
by Larry Fitzmaurice

BuzzFeed Staff

Elliot Page recently sat down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Apple TV+, discussing his decision to talk about having top surgery and his happiest moments since transitioning.

Elliot Page during his interview with Oprah
Apple TV+

During the interview, Elliot also discussed an instance in which he collapsed during an afterparty for a premiere of Inception.

"There was so much press and so many premieres all around the world, and I was wearing dresses and heels to pretty much every single event," Elliot recalled before discussing a moment when his manager offered dresses to choose from for a premiere.

"I lost it; it was like a cinematic moment," he explained. "That night, after the premiere at the afterparty, I collapsed. That's something that's happened frequently in my life, usually corresponding with a panic attack."

Elliot told Oprah how the incident reflected "every experience you've had since you were a toddler, people saying, 'The way you're sitting is not ladylike; you're walking like a boy.' The music you're listening to as a teenager. Obviously, the way you dress."

He added, "Every single aspect of who you are constantly being looked at and put in a box in a very binary system. That's what it leads to."

Elliot also talked about his experience being nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for the 2008 film Juno, which he described as "a pretty intense time."

"I remember it felt so impossible to communicate with people how unwell I was because obviously, there is so much excitement," he continued. "The film unexpectedly became a big hit, I became quite known — all these things — and I felt I couldn't express just the degree of pain I was in."

Elliot told Oprah that he "could not" look at photos from the Oscars red carpet from that year: "People might watch this and say, 'Oh my gosh, this person is crying about the night they went to the Oscars.'"

He continued, "And I think again that prevents the ability to allow yourself to not just feel the pain but reflect on the pain, to even begin to sit down and bring it all up and finally confront all of that."

Watch Elliot's full interview with Oprah at Apple TV+.

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