Elliot Page has said working on the reboot of Flatliners was “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.
In a chapter dedicated to Flatliners, Page wrote about a scene in which he says that he and co-star Kiersey Clemons felt they were not protected during the filming of a stunt.
“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 them they would be “fine” and that it would be “even better if you aren’t strapped in.”
After a first take in which Page said the pair were “flailing” and had “no control,” he went on to say the pair were in “shock” and “speechless, staring at our shaking hands.”
During the second take, Page claimed a pedestrian car had driven onto the closed set, causing the stunt car to suddenly 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 say that: “In retrospect, I should have known the shoot was going to be a shit show.” He continued: “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.”
Elsewhere, the actor made claims of queerphobia “from the initial wardrobe fitting” with producers wanting 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.
“[The characters] were medical students in residency at an intensive care unit,” Page wrote. “There was categorically no rationale for the character to wear heels or a skirt.”
Page said he eventually got producers to settle on him wearing “fancy blouses, tight jeans and boots with a heel,” but wrote that “one of the heads of production” later confronted him about the ordeal.
“‘Are you mad that this character isn’t gay?’ he asked me,” Page wrote, before the actor responded: “‘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 claims he immediately went to the studio with his concerns. He went on to claim that he confronted an 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 contacted Sony Pictures Entertainment for a comment.