Elliot Page was so uncomfortable while filming “Inception,” he broke out in shingles.
In 2009, when Christopher Nolan’s twisted blockbuster began production, Page was still years away from publicly identifying as gay or transgender. The actor, who has since become one of Hollywood’s most prominent openly trans stars, described this discomfort in his memoir, “Pageboy.”
“The shingles came off my spine while filming ‘Inception’ when I was 22,” he wrote in the recently published book, per Variety. “Even though everyone was excited to work, I felt out of place. In a cast full of cis men, I didn’t understand the role I was in.”
“For the first two weeks of the film I joked that it would be recast with Keira Knightley, and rightly so,” he continued.
Inception, in which Page played brilliant undergraduate Ariadne, appearing alongside actors such as Cillian Murphy, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Caine and Tom Hardy, became one of the biggest box office hits of a generation , grossing over $825 million. It was a big step for Page, whose breakthrough role in Jason Reitman’s “Juno” won him an Oscar in 2008. But being locked up at the time proved very stressful.
Shingles is an infection of the varicella-zoster virus, which also causes chickenpox, and usually appears as a strip of blisters that cause a painful rash, according to the Mayo Clinic. Although not fatal, the disease can cause headaches, fever, sensitivity to light and fatigue.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press
In 2021, in her first televised interview since coming out as trans, Page told Oprah Winfrey that she had had a panic attack after the 2010 premiere of “Inception” in Paris and said that the his body was achieved “frequently”.
“There was so much press, so many premieres, all over the world, and I wore dresses and shoes to almost every event,” Page told Oprah while describing the incident in Paris. “That night, after the premiere and after party, I collapsed.”
Page came out as gay in 2014 and announced his gender identity in 2020. Since then, he’s chronicled that journey in detail, sharing a few bombshells about wet flings, homophobic bullying and more .
“I love that I’m trans,” Page wrote in her emotional Instagram announcement in December 2020. “And I love that I’m queer. And the more I come closer and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more grow my heart and prosper more.”
“Pageboy” premiered on June 6.
