Elliot Page Recalls First Time in a Gay Bar Months Before 'Juno' Premiered
26.05.2023 - 00:01
/ etonline.com
Elliot Page is recalling a transformative moment. In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir, , the 36-year-old actor discusses sharing a kiss with a woman in a gay bar, just months before , the film that shot him into celebrity, was released. In the excerpt, which was obtained by , Page writes about a woman named Paula, whom he met when he was 20.«The sound of her voice radiated warmth, a kindness. It wasn't so much that her eyes lit up but that they found you.
I could feel her looking,» he writes. «We went to Reflections. It was the first time I had been to a gay bar and would be my last for a long time.
I was a miserable flirter. Flirting when I didn’t mean to and not when I wanted to. We stood close, but not too close.
The air so thick, I was swimming in it.»The experience, Page writes, «was new» for him, «being in a queer space and being present, enjoying it.»«Shame had been drilled into my bones since I was my tiniest self, and I struggled to rid my body of that old toxic and erosive marrow,» he writes. «But there was a joy in the room, it lifted me, forced a reaction in the jaw, an uncontrolled, steady smile.»«Dancing, sweat dripping down my back, down my chest. I watched Paula's hair twist and bounce as she moved effortlessly, chaotic but controlled, sensual and strong,» Page continues.
«I would catch her looking at me, or was it the other way around? We wanted to be caught. Deer in the headlights. Startled, but not breaking.»Soon, Page asked Paula a question: «Can I kiss you?» "[I was] jolted by my boldness, as if it came from somewhere else, powered by the electronic music perhaps, a circuit of release, of demanding you leave your repression at the door," he writes.
«And then I did. In a queer bar. In front of
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