Elliot Page: 'It’s impossible to separate my work from struggles facing trans people'

Close To You follows Sam (Page), a transgender man who returns to his family home for a gathering after a few years away. While his family are accepting of him, it becomes clear that there are certain thoughts lingering beneath the surface – particularly when it comes to the man his sister has married. On the way home, he also bumps into old friend Katherine (Hillary Baack) and it's clear the pair have history.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com about whether he can separate his work from the struggles that trans people face, Page says: "I don't think it can ever be separate, because our lives and bodies are politicised, criminalised, all of those things, and it's just becoming progressively worse, which is so horrific and devastating.

"So I suppose it's always on your mind somewhat, and all you can hope is that this film…really, mostly I just love the thought of maybe someone who needs to see this sitting in a theatre and being able to have something about their experience reflected, or maybe there is somebody who says they're an ally, but does have those thoughts lingering like the brother-in-law, and [it] helps them potentially understand not only the impact, but just, quite frankly, that they're wrong.

"You can never sort of separate the reality of what's facing trans people."

Page came out publicly as a transgender man in December 2020, specifying his pronouns and sharing his name.

Speaking about what personal experiences he brought to Close To You, he explains: "Almost every character job feels personal. Meeting someone from your past – when I was in Grade 10 and a big high school, as far as I knew, not a single kid was out in the whole high school, and I did have feelings for someone.

"So there's certain things that you are drawing. For me, that was like, 'what would that be like if you hadn't seen each other in a long time and now you're seeing each other and potentially having conversations that you couldn't have before?' And certain aspects of that definitely felt personal."

Despite Page's years of experience in the movie industry, the new film was far from easy for him due to Savage's unique and unconventional style, which saw all of the dialogue improvised.

Savage tells RadioTimes.com: "I think it's really how I've made all my work... what I really enjoy is to be able to put the actors in the story in a way that they are kind of living the story, rather than acting the story. That's what I think the the removal of dialogue does – it allows the actor to completely lose themselves in the scene.

"The scenes all have a purpose, that's very clear from the script, but what I love is when an actor is often reacting to things that are happening as well as it's going along, it's a very organic process. Things change all the time. What I think this way of working does is it brings up real emotions, and real feelings. And it's an it's an emotional journey like no other."

Page admits, though: "Literally all of the cast and everybody before going into it were just terrified. Like I really was s***ting myself. ‘I don’t know how to improvise. What am I doing? Dominic's gonna be so disappointed.’

"And then what's amazing is when it starts happening, it just starts happening, like you disappear into it and [Baack and I] had a little bit of communication, we’d talked a little bit about what the relationship could have been like in high school and all those things, but we kept it pretty fresh for when we made the film."

In terms of backstory for her character Katherine, Baack explains: "I didn't have one specific story like Elliot has in terms of thinking about someone from my past, but at the same time, of course, I have several experiences I felt like I was drawing on and was bringing [in] with what was happening in the present with Sam and Katherine.

"It just felt like a bringing together of parts of me and who Katherine is as well. And then, of course, Katherine's deafness and being in the hearing world and speaking and signing a little bit, that's one thing that I've experienced that I could bring to the character.

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"Also, that feeling of being a little bit on the outside, or a little bit different from the mainstream was one of the things that I felt like drew Katherine to Sam."

It's clear how the film as a whole could educate about the experiences of trans people, with Page recalling of his first conversations with Savage: "We didn't want to have parents that didn't accept [Sam], but to show something just a little bit different, that's still complicated, and uncomfortable for somebody. But I think mostly we just wanted to make a deeply human, intimate story about the longing to be seen, and what it means to decide to truly love yourself."

Baack adds: "I'm just proud of how much we poured our hearts into it, we gave it everything, and had an amazing experience. It was so much fun, and challenging and intense and beautiful. And I'm just glad that we did this and that we are telling this complicated human story."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, visit the LGBT Foundation for support and further information.

Close To You had its first UK screening BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news.

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