Elliot Page literally hid in the closet to avoid his “most closeted” relationship being exposed.
Elliot Page literally hid in the closet during his “most closeted” relationship
The 36-year-old ‘Juno’ actor – formerly known as Ellen Page and who came out as homosexual in February 2014 before his gender transition in December 2020 – said he had to jump in a cupboard in a hotel when room service was delivered to an actress he said had not revealed to the world they were gay.
A profile interview with Elliot in The Guardian said: “Page’s most closeted relationship was with an actor he refers to as Ryan.
“He met her while making a film, and they were together for almost two years. By then Page was in his mid-20s and, he says, most people in the industry assumed he was gay.
“But Ryan passed as straight and was terrified of being outed. The degree of secrecy sounds painfully dysfunctional.
“Page literally hid in a closet once when room service was delivered to Ryan’s hotel room.”
The article adds the secret couple ignored each other at parties and said Elliot “couldn’t cope with the shame and lies”.
When asked in the chat if Ryan was still “closeted”, Elliot said: “No, I wouldn’t call it that. I gave (‘Pageboy’) to Ryan to read, and it was another example of getting to talk about things in a real way for the first time, and now we’re buddies again.”
Elliot added when asked if Ryan worries people will be trying to guess who she is: “I don’t know how she feels about that deep down. I understand people will be curious.
“She can’t care too much, because people do figure things out.”
Elliot said in his ‘Pageboy’ memoir about the relationship: “My partner was more closeted than me for a change.
“She was radiant – her dress, her smile, how she pushed her hair from her face … we discussed books, activism, our collective consciousness, and the deep intelligence of nature.”
Elliot added they first met in a coffee shop in Los Angeles when he was 26 and only a handful of people knew about the relationship.
He said: “Her parents did not know. I was the friend that came for Christmas… we never touched outside, we barely went to dinner. She was in my phone under the name ‘Ryan’.”
Elliot recalled their “discreet but adventurous sex” which he said happed “on rocks, just below the Pacific Coast Highway, hidden in boulders in Joshua Tree National Park” and “on an airplane”.
He said even though ‘Ryan’ once wrote him one of the “most beautiful letters I have ever received” it was not a “sustainable relationship” as it was characterised by “lying”, “anxiety” and “disgust” over keeping it quit and the fact ‘Ryan’ hadn’t publicly come out.
Elliot said his lover could not bear the “shame” of being seen as “queer” and broke up with him, which the actor said left his heart “shattered”.
Elliot also tells in his autobiography how he had an alleged romance with Kate Mara, 40, while the actress was dating Max Minghella, 37.
Kate and Max split in 2014 after four years of dating and she is now married to actor Jamie Bell, 37, with whom she shares two children.
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