After a decade of advocating for gender and sexual rights, The Umbrella Academy‘s Elliot Page is detailing a homophobic threat he received from an unnamed actor. Page stars in the Netflix comic book adaptation as Viktor Hargreeves, the seventh of the Hargreeves siblings whose estrangement nearly leads to the end of the world and leads to their time-travelling antics. Season 3 saw the character transition from Vanya to Viktor, incorporating Page’s own transition, which was met with largely favorable reception from critics and audiences alike.

Page recently caught up with People to promote his new memoir, Pageboy, and breaking down some of the chapters explored in the book. One such chapter, entitled “Famous A—-le at Party,” reveals that The Umbrella Academy actor was met with a homophobic threat by an unnamed actor shortly after coming out as gay in 2014, where he was told homosexuality “doesn’t exist” and would be sexually assaulted to the point of realizing “you aren’t gay.” See Page’s shocking details below:

“You aren’t gay. That doesn’t exist. You are just afraid of men.” He said, “I’m going to f—k you to make you realize you aren’t gay.” [We saw each other at the gym a few days later and he said], “I don’t have a problem with gay people I swear.” I told him, “I think you might.” I’ve had some version of that happen many times throughout my life. A lot of queer and trans people deal with it incessantly. These moments that we often like don’t talk about or we’re supposed to just brush off, when actually it’s very awful. I put that story in the book because it’s about highlighting the reality, the s–t we deal with and what gets sent to us constantly, particularly in environments that are predominantly cis and heterosexual. How we navigate that world where you either have more extreme, overt moments like that. Or you have the more, like, subtle jokes. [In Hollywood] these are very powerful people. They’re the ones choosing what stories are being told and creating content for people to see all around the world. I’m purposely not sharing his name. [Many people at the party saw and heard what he said]. But he will hear about this and know it’s him.”

Page’s Journey Of Self-Discovery In Hollywood

Having begun his acting career as Ellen Page in the late ’90s with the Canadian drama Pit Pony, Page has seen a steady rise in stardom since his breakout turn in 2005’s Hard Candy. Page would follow the psychological thriller up with the likes of X-Men: The Last Stand as Kitty Pryde, a character he reprised in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and 2007’s Juno, for which he scored both a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for his performance.

Behind the scenes, as Page’s spotlight continued to grow with such high-profile projects as Inception, so did his work becoming a key spokesperson for a number of communities. Shortly after Juno‘s release, Page expressed having pro-choice beliefs, while also later taking part in campaigns to help end the military dictatorship in Myanmar, and promoting a vegan lifestyle. Page’s personal life became a bigger subject of conversation when he announced in 2014, when he was still identifying as a woman, that he was gay, and recalling X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner outing him on set.

Recent years have seen Page enter a new phase of his life by transitioning to a man, a decision celebrated by everyone from such prior collaborators as James Gunn to other major celebrities, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with Netflix also announcing it would update his credits and metadata across the streamer. With The Umbrella Academy not only incorporating Page’s transition into his character’s story, but also continuing his prior trend of coming-of-age projects early in his career, it will be interesting to see what the actor lines up following season 4, which will end the comic book series.

Page recently caught up with People to promote his new memoir, Pageboy, and breaking down some of the chapters explored in the book. One such chapter, entitled “Famous A—-le at Party,” reveals that The Umbrella Academy actor was met with a homophobic threat by an unnamed actor shortly after coming out as gay in 2014, where he was told homosexuality “doesn’t exist” and would be sexually assaulted to the point of realizing “you aren’t gay.” See Page’s shocking details below:

 

“You aren’t gay. That doesn’t exist. You are just afraid of men.” He said, “I’m going to f—k you to make you realize you aren’t gay.” [We saw each other at the gym a few days later and he said], “I don’t have a problem with gay people I swear.” I told him, “I think you might.” I’ve had some version of that happen many times throughout my life. A lot of queer and trans people deal with it incessantly. These moments that we often like don’t talk about or we’re supposed to just brush off, when actually it’s very awful. I put that story in the book because it’s about highlighting the reality, the s–t we deal with and what gets sent to us constantly, particularly in environments that are predominantly cis and heterosexual. How we navigate that world where you either have more extreme, overt moments like that. Or you have the more, like, subtle jokes. [In Hollywood] these are very powerful people. They’re the ones choosing what stories are being told and creating content for people to see all around the world. I’m purposely not sharing his name. [Many people at the party saw and heard what he said]. But he will hear about this and know it’s him.”