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Elliot Page was groomed and sexually abused by two men and a woman as a teenager.
The actor, 36, came out as homosexual in February 2014 before his gender transition in December 2020, and said he was groomed by a director at the start of his career before being targeted by other abusers around 2005 when he made a film called ‘Hard Candy ‘ – ironically about a 14-year-old female vigilante’s trapping and torture of a man whom she suspects of being a sexual predator.
Elliot, formerly known as Ellen Page, told The Guardian the director who groomed him took him to dinner, stroked his thigh under the table and told him: “You have to make the move, I can’t.”
Just before he turned 18, Elliot said he was also targeted by members of the ‘Hard Candy’ production team.
He said in his newly released memoir ‘Pageboy’ about one apparently funny and kind man who drove him home before he forced himself on the actor: “His voice sweet, his hands on my shoulders, he guided me to the bedroom.
“I went stiff. Unsure what to do as he stood tall and removed his glasses. He laid me down on the bed.”
Elliot was told by the man he wanted to perform a sex act on the actor, which he said left him feeling numb.
He added in his autobiography: “I froze. After it was over, he tried to stay in the bed with me. I had thawed marginally and told him he couldn’t, to get out.”
Elliot was again targeted at the start of shooting ‘Hard Candy’ by a female crew member who offered to take the actor house-hunting.
He said in his book: “I was standing in the empty living room, in front of the couch, when I felt her grab me.
“She pressed her face into mine, some version of kissing. That freezing coming over me again. The next thing I knew I was on the rug, the floor firm on my back. I didn’t say no, I did not resist, I just stiffened.”
Elliot was 20 when he starred in Juno as a 16-year-old who gets pregnant by her friend Paulie Bleeker, played by Michael Cera, 35.
The same year Elliot played another 16-year-old in ‘An American Crime’, which tells the true story of Sylvia Likens, who was tortured to death by a woman she was left in the care of.
He said he was drawn to “that intense, traumatic work at the time”, adding: “As a teenager who dealt with a lot of s***** predatory behaviour, it was something I was interested in tackling.”
The actor also said about using acting to avoid reality: “There was an element of escape. You’re going to a place where it’s your job to feel and connect as much as possible, and we live in a world that encourages us on some level not to.
“I was feeling things through other characters without permitting myself to do so in my life.”