Elliot Pgae: ‘Close to You’ Transphobe Scene ‘Pretty Healing’

“It was almost cathartic because I’m dealing with that challenge,” Page, 37, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. “For me, it was probably quite healing to be able to tell him my side the way Sam does.”

close to you was improvised from a story by Page and director Dominic Savage. The particular scene dictated that Paul upset Sam.

Paul asks if he can still call Sam “Sammy”. Sam says no, because he’s walking past Sam now. Paul complains that he doesn’t know the rules for talking about Sam.

Page recognized the way Paul pretended to ask questions, but really wanted to argue about Sam’s answers.

“He gets the answer, but that answer doesn’t satisfy him,” Page said. “My body said, ‘I know what this guy is doing now.’

In real life, Page said, he avoids giving such challengers the satisfaction of indulging them. In Sam’s case, he was stuck at his family’s house with Paul.

“I could tell that’s what they wanted,” Page said of the recent real-life encounters. “They wanted me to be upset and I decided not to get involved at that particular time.”

After the scene, Page said the cast had a group hug. Reale was also kind to Page when he wasn’t playing Paul, Page said.

“He’s such a nice guy who plays (expletive) so well,” Page said. “Even just his little smiles and looks, I’m thinking, how are you so cute, but so good at making such a scoundrel?”

Other improvised scenes lead to positive dialogue in the film. When Sam has some alone time with his father, he shares how relieved he is that his son is finally happy after growing up with depression.

Savage said he selected actors who could bring life experiences to their roles. The director added that once the family started interacting in character, it inspired meaningful improvisations like Outerbridge’s.

“I think Peter was very, very honest and sincere in what he was saying and what he was feeling,” Savage said. “The actors felt very safe to be honest about how they felt about life.”

Page said Outerbridge’s speech was powerful for him as well.

“He’s there with a father who really explains how painful it was for him to see his son in this pain and the joy it gives him to see Sam find his way through it,” Page said.

After the confrontation with Paul, Sam’s brother Michael (Daniel Maslany) expresses his pride that Sam spoke up for himself.

“I wanted him to feel what he wanted to say in that moment,” Savage said. “It’s something he felt very sincere about at the time.”

While visiting his family, Sam sees his high school sweetheart, Catherine (Hillary Baack). Catherine is now married with children, so she panics after their first date and breaks off contact.

“Maybe two huge loves in her life were intersecting and she didn’t know what to do about it,” Baack said. “It felt so good to see Sam.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEg_vaaMe_U

Catherine meets Sam again and decides to reconnect.

“She just lets herself be present in that moment,” Baack said. “I think she’s so happy to see Sam again. She goes with it.”

Baack appeared in Page’s 2013 film the east. When assembling the plaster for close to you Page remembered her.

“Our friendship has continued over the years and deepened,” Page said. “We really wanted to do something together again, especially since in eastour characters had very little interaction.”

close to you comes a week after Netflix premiered the final season of Page’s series Umbrella Academy. Page said Hollywood offers are rarer than they were before the transition.

“We’ll see what happens in Hollywood with trans representation and trans men,” Page said.

Umbrella Academy wrote Page’s transition to the series in the third season. Page said he would welcome more accurate portrayals of trans characters like Sam.

“We have such little representation, I’m more than happy to play trans characters and absolutely to play cis characters,” Page said.