Elliot Page says he declined a period drama role over feminine costume concerns

In his memoir Pageboy, Elliot Page disclosed that he declined a "sought-after role" in a period drama due to the overwhelming thought of having to wear feminine period-appropriate costumes.

Page revealed that the role was based on a famous book and his “agents excitedly spoke of the opportunity," but he couldn’t find it in himself to put on a feminine costume.

"I would imagine myself in a woman's costume from the mid-nineteenth century," he wrote. "The dress, the shoes, the hair, flashed before my eyes. It was too much after having put on the mask for awards season."

"I understood that if I were to do it, I would want to kill myself," he added.

At the time Page was in his early twenties and had not yet publicly declared his attraction to women (while still presenting as female).

As indicated in his memoir, he was also grappling with gender dysphoria, a condition he had been experiencing since he was a child.

"It was too much to play a role on-screen when the role I played in my personal life was suffocating me already. I ended up backing out of the film," he shared.

The actor, who now identifies as a transgender man (also non-binary and queer), expressed his feelings about wearing feminine dresses in these words: "I cringed at the way people lit up when seeing me in feminine clothing, as if I had accomplished a miraculous feat.”