In his forthcoming memoir, Elliot Page writes that he had a secret romance with fellow actor Kate Mara, People magazine reports.
Page makes the revelation in Pageboy, scheduled for publication on Tuesday by Flatiron Books. The press describes the memoir as “a love letter to the power of being seen.”
In the book, Page, known for his work in films including Juno and X-Men: The Last Stand, says that Mara (Pose, A Teacher) was “the first person I fell for after my heart was broken.”
Page writes that Mara was in a relationship with actor Max Minghella at the time, and that Minghella knew about, and was supportive of, Page and Mara’s romance, which happened before Page came out as a trans man.
“This was right after I’d come out as gay and it was a time of exploration and also heartbreak,” Page told People. “I think my relationship, or whatever you want to call it with Kate, very much encapsulates a certain dynamic that I consistently found myself in, which was falling for people that—I think a lot of us do this—who aren’t fully available. And the sort of safety in that and the highs and the lows and the serotonin bump, and then it goes away.”
Page also writes in his book that an actor—whom he refers to as a “famous asshole”—once verbally assaulted him at a birthday party, telling him that “you aren’t gay. That doesn’t exist. You are just afraid of men. I’m going to fuck you to make you realize you aren’t gay.”
Page declined to name the actor, but said, “He will hear about this and know it’s him.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
