TORONTO, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 07: Elliot Page attends The IMDb Studio Presented By Intuit QuickBooks ... [+]
Elliot Page, the star of movies like Juno, Inception and Hard Candy as well as TV shows like Netflix’s
I am indeed curious from a mercenary perspective, as Page’s declaration as non-binary and transgender may give the respective community something it has previously lacked: A viable and previously visible movie star.
No, I’m not saying that Elliot Page can get butts into movie theater seats for a non-franchise, old-school star vehicle. Page couldn’t do that yesterday and they can’t do that today. Maybe if this were 2002 and audiences still cared more about star power than franchises and marquee characters, I’d feel otherwise. That said, in an entertainment world currently ruled by streaming and VOD filmed entertainment, you can absolutely make the case that the star of Super and X-Men: The Last Stand may well have encouraged some otherwise merely curious folks to sample Umbrella Academy during its first two seasons.
Moreover, Page is arguably the first transgender actor who was already well-known and well-liked prior to transitioning. This isn’t about box office drawing power for otherwise not-so-commercial projects. But it is about established visibility. Transgender actors that work in Hollywood are either mostly unknown jobbing actors or mostly known partially for being transgender.
The likes of (offhand) Brian Michael Smith (currently on 911: Lone Star), Josie Totah (arguably breaking barriers by playing the hottest girl in school on Peacock’s new Saved by the Bell show) and/or Nicole Maines (currently co-starring on Supergirl) are either relative unknowns (in terms of general audience awareness) or transgender or non-binary actors playing transgender or non-binary characters. Fair or not, the famous ones, like Laverne Cox, are partially famous for being transgender actors and actresses.
Page has been relatively famous for around 15 years. Without putting too much stock in the future career prospects of a single newly “out” actor, Page could find himself as a go-to choice for when investors want a “name” for a project that specifically deals with transgender issues.
When you’re a “name,” you tend to be viewed as a movie star or a bankable draw regardless of your actual box office history. For example, and he’s a terrific actor and presumably a decent human being, but Ewan McGregor has been viewed as “bankable” for over 20 years despite having (at best) limited theatrical successes outside of the Star Wars prequels. Ditto Russell Crowe (another engrossing screen presence) who has been banking off Gladiator for 20 years.
It is the need for a “name” (which usually means “a well-known hetero white guy”) that drives some of the casting in big movies, and it’s why Ridley Scott was correct in saying that he couldn’t cast “Mohammad So-and-So” in Exodus. That’s why I get so damn cranky when audiences don’t show up to movies like Widows and Birds of Prey, because those failures will impact their “not a white guy” stars far more than their peers. Charlie Hunnam can still be a “name” after King Arthur and Armie Hammer can be a star after The Lone Ranger.
Where Page fits into this is two-fold. Presuming he continues to act in TV and movies then he’ll continue to be one of the more famous transgender actors in the business. Merely working with a relative level of fame, even if (or especially if?) those projects aren’t necessarily “about” living as a transgender person (in a world that all-too-often loathes or fears them) would count as a shattered glass ceiling.
Moreover, Page’s pre-transition levels of fame makes him an easy pick for producers and studios wanting to make transgender-friendly content with actual transgender actors. The notion that you need a viable name to get a movie made is mostly true, but now Page could (relatively speaking) be that name.
Page could be, if he so desires, the kind of actor who gets cast in what was initially supposed to be Scarlett Johansson’s Rub and Tug. If you recall, that period piece mob melodrama caused controversy and got canceled when it became known that Johansson would be playing a real-life person who might have been trans.
Page is a “known entity” rather than an unknown actor who happens to be non-binary or trans. He arguably has as good of a box office track record as any alleged male movie star who gets treated like the next Tom Cruise despite barely being the next Taylor Kitsch. Optimistically speaking, Page’s pre-transition fame and status as an Oscar-nominated performer (for Juno in 2007) gives investors and producers a chance to put their money where their mouth is.
At the very least, maybe the increased attention will inspire more folks to check out Drew Barrymore’s awesome Whip It. I’m still bitter you all ignored that modern classic 11 years ago...
