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Nov 17, 2023

Elliot Page Reveals He Developed Shingles Filming Inception

These days, fans know Elliot Page for his role as Viktor Hargreaves in the

These days, fans know Elliot Page for his role as Viktor Hargreaves in the Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy, but the actor has also made many revered films. In his new book, Pageboy, Page wrote about Juno, the role that helped him rise to fame and earned him an Academy Award nomination in 2008. Page shared details about making Inception, the Christopher Nolan film that won four Academy Awards back in 2011. Page revealed he got shingles while filming the movie, and opened up about his gender struggles while working alongside so many men. In 2020, Page came out as transgender, so his true identity was not known back when he was working on the Nolan film.

"Shingles popped out of my spine while filming Inception when I was 22," Page wrote (via Insider). "Despite everyone being delightful to work with, I felt out of place. In a cast full of cis men, I did not understand the role I found myself in." Page added, "For the first two weeks of the film I joked I would be recast with Keira Knightley, and rightfully so."

In 2021, Page was interviewed by Oprah for, marking his first television interview since coming out as trans. During the conversation, he revealed he suffered an anxiety attack after the Paris premiere of Inception due to the pressure of having to present as a woman.

"There was so much press and so many premieres all around the world and I was wearing dresses and heels to pretty much every single event," Page explained. "I lost it, it was like a cinematic moment. That night, after the premiere at the after-party, I collapsed. That's something that's happened frequently in my life, usually corresponding with a panic attack." He added, "Ultimately, of course, it's every experience you've had since you were a toddler, people saying, 'The way you're sitting is not ladylike, you're walking like a boy. The music you're listening to as a teenager,' obviously, the way you dress. Every single aspect of who you are constantly being looked at and put in a box in a very binary system. That's what it leads to."

Page is expected to reprise his role as Viktor Hargreaves in the upcoming fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy. Last year, Netflix announced The Umbrella Academy would be returning for one last season, and showrunner Steve Blackman recently revealed the upcoming season will be shorter with only six episodes.

In February, it was announced that beloved real-life couple Nick Offerman (The Last of Us) and Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) will be playing "a mild-mannered married couple named Jean and Gene who are college professors." It was also announced that David Cross, who is best known for Arrested Development and Mr. Show with Bob and David, had also joined the cast as Sy Grossman, "an upstanding, shy business owner and family man desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter, who will stop at nothing to get her back."

In addition to the exciting newcomers and Page, The Umbrella Academy will also see the return of Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Justin H. Min, Ritu Arya, and Colm Feore.

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