Elliot Page has detailed his experience filming the reboot of Flatliners, describing it as “a true mess”.
The Umbrella Academy star – who appeared in the 2017 remake of the ’90s psychological horror thriller – has alleged in his new memoir Pageboy (via Entertainment Weekly) that there were unsafe stunts, racism, misogyny and queerphobia on the set.
He first detailed a scene in which he and co-star Kiersey Clemons found themselves performing a stunt without adequate safety measures.
“We were getting ready for a car stunt when Kiersey and I realised that everyone had a built-in thick seat belt, except for us,” Page wrote. “No restraints, a basic safety measure of the carefully orchestrated, expensive, and elaborate stunt that hadn’t been thought through… We looked to the various stunt crew members strapping the others in, perplexed, questioning why we weren’t being secured for the scene. ‘Why does everyone else have a safety belt but not us?’ we’d inquired.”
Page recalled how stunt coordinators allegedly told him that he’d be “fine”. After the first take, he and Clemons were left shaken after flailing around in the vehicle with no control. He then detailed how a pedestrian car drove onto the closed set, causing their driver to slam on the brakes.
“Luckily, everyone was fine, but I think back to how reckless and dangerous that was,” Page wrote. “How Kiersey and I were treated with such flippancy and disrespect. Regardless of a stranger’s car making it onto the closed set of a car chase, what if something just… went wrong?”
Page went on to admit that “in retrospect, I should have known the shoot was going to be a shit show. Within our first week, someone approached Kiersey on set, sitting in her chair between takes, you only have this part because you’re Black, you know, he said to her”.
The actor explained how he had a similar experiencing dealing with queerphobia “from the initial wardrobe fitting”, when producers wanted him to dress “more like a girl” and “less queer”. Page was openly gay during the making of Flatliners, and he later came out as transgender in 2020.
Page added that he was confused as to why “heels and skirts were laid out” for his character as “they were medical students in residency at an intensive care unit.”
After the first table read, the actor was approached by “one of the head of the production”, who asked him: “Are you mad that this character isn’t gay?’”
Page recalled responding: “‘Are you asking me this because I did not want to wear a skirt?’ His face remained the same, an annoying grin with a glinting youthfulness in the eyes, but I pressed on. ‘Are you really asking me if I am angry about this character not being gay because I am not wearing a fucking skirt?’ He looked on inscrutably, as if being pleasant means you are not queerphobic. ‘Your view of women is egregiously narrow,’ I said to the man, reminding him lesbians wear skirts, too.”
Page said he immediately went to the studio with his concerns. “When I arrived, I beelined to an executive’s office, a man I would later watch give a woman an unwanted massage on set,” he wrote.
“His subsequent texts to Kiersey asking her to go to dinner glared with gross.” Page claimed to have confronted the unnamed executive, “speaking of the limitations, the misogyny, the queerphobia. All that I had swallowed for years, I hauled out my insides for him to gorge on”.
NME has reached out to Sony Pictures Entertainment for a comment.
Elsewhere in his memoir, Page revealed that he once went on a date with Leonardo DiCaprio and his mum.