Elliot Page has spoken out about his regret over the inclusion of a homophobic joke in his 2007 movie, Juno.
Page, who is now 37, was just 20 years old when he took on the role of Juno MacGuff, a high school student who gets pregnant with her awkward friend Paulie Bleeker, played by Michael Cera.
The two teenagers end up putting the baby up for adoption, which leads them to meeting Mark and Vanessa Loring, played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.
Throughout the adoption process Juno becomes close with Mark as they bond over their love of music, and in one scene the pair begin discussing potential names for the baby.
It’s in this scene that Page’s character makes a comment which, looking back, he wished he’d pushed back on.
Page expressed his regret over the line during an interview with Bustle in 2017, three years before he came out as transgender in 2020.
“It wasn’t something I totally registered at the time,” he said.
The comment in question came after Mark announced that he was thinking of naming the baby Madison.
In response, Juno says: “Isn’t that a little gay?”
With more life experience on his side, Page told Bustle that he better understands the impact of the comment.
“Now that I’m older I do. So many movies I loved as a kid are just rampant with homophobia and transphobia and biphobia, and I’m not excusing it by any means,” he said.
In an effort to make changes where he can, Page also revealed that he refused to make the same joke when reciting the script for Juno more recently for Planned Parenthood.
After Page came out as transgender, his transition was weaved into the hit Netflix series The Umbrella Academy, in which he plays Viktor Hargreeves.
Crediting showrunner Steve Blackman for his support, Page said: “I called him nervously and he was incredible. If anything, he was the one who was very insistent on immediately having it be a part of the show and supported me to be able to access the care I was hoping to get at that time.”
Speaking to Time Magazine, Page said Hollywood has a ‘lack of representation for trans people’, but he’s sought to become a prominent LGBTQ+ activist since coming out.
“Hope for me is for those who continuously resist and support each other,” he told the publication.
Page shared the news of his transition in an Instagram post, and looking back he remembered feeling ‘utterly elated and beyond grateful to finally be in a place’ where he could ‘accept and love’ himself.
