Original-Cin Q&A: Close to You Actor Elliot Page and His Director on Keeping It Real
By Bonnie Laufer
Elliot Page is keeping it real and personal. His new film Close to You, which made its debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, stars the Oscar-nominated trans actor as, fittingly, a trans man who returns to his hometown for the first time in years.
Page teamed up with director Dominic Savage to bring this story to screens Canada-wide starting on Friday (August 16). Bonnie Laufer spoke with Page and Savage about their collaboration, which was mostly improvised by the cast.
ORIGINAL-CIN: Congratulations to you both. The reception to the movie at TIFF last year was overwhelming. I can’t even imagine how you felt releasing it to the world and on that stage?
ELLIOT PAGE: Oh gosh, yes it was extraordinary. I did have goosebumps as one typically does at a premiere! I guess what I really felt was such gratitude to be there with Dominic and Hilary Baack and the rest of our incredible cast and crew who poured their hearts into this film and collaborated to make this piece, so it is special to be there with this cast in a city, Toronto, I love very much.
O-C: Dominic, how did the two of you connect and ultimately collaborate on the film?
DOMINIC SAVAGE: It all started on Zoom. It was interesting, because you'd imagine that over Zoom you couldn't necessarily connect in a way that you can in real life. But we did. I think we understood each other immediately. I always feel when I go into a project that I need to test the waters with both actors and directors, just to see if we're on the same wavelength. Me and Elliot were. It's great, because it doesn't always happen like that. We trusted each other’s ideas; we bonded over films that we both liked and films we wanted to make. Then we started working together on the story for this and we were on our way.
OC: Most of the film is improvised with only stage directions written in the script. Being such a personal project for you, there’s no way that reality didn't blend into what you were showing us on screen. Was this process exhilarating or did it initially scare you?
EP: The thing that scared me about it was improvising this dramatic movie. How was that going to work? In the ways that it's personal, of course, certain themes that relate to identity but so much of the actual storyline itself was not like my own. It's quite dissimilar, but I think in this way of working, it inherently becomes so personal.
Every actor in this film was fantastic and gave it their all. When you work in this process, and you are having to be that present in the moment to do a 20-minute take, a 40-minute take and even a 53-minute take you really disappear. You can see it in all of the cast these moments of such extreme emotion that often for some it would come out of nowhere. They didn't know what was going on. You could see how inherently working in this way became almost personal for everyone, even if the situation itself is quite different than your own.
O-C: Dominic, what impressed you most about Elliot?
DS: Many things. Just how much Elliot put himself in it 100 percent. He believed in me and this process, even at times when I didn't. Whatever the challenge was, Elliot always rose to it. It doesn’t always happen with actors. I've worked with others who found ways not to confront something uncomfortable or wouldn’t deal with that particular emotion they need.
It was an emotional journey that we went on for this film and Elliot was very committed right from the beginning. You can have conversations that are perfectly great and interesting, but they don't mean very much. We knew that this conversation meant something. There was a real sense that Elliot and the other actors were always in it, in the way that it transcended the idea of performance.
O-C: Elliot, there is a scene in the film where Sam’s mom, played by Wendy Crewson, is struggling with pronouns and keeps referring to your character as her. She gets very upset because she is trying so hard not to be offensive and wants to be respectful. Can you talk to me a little bit about what that meant to you, and also on a personal level how it might have related to your own mother.
EP: Wendy's amazing and she is just so good in this movie. I think with that storyline in particular, the relationship with the parents, we really wanted to be mindful of the situation because everyone has a different and personal experience. It was almost like we sort of set these parameters. We didn’t want it to seem stereotypical, we didn't want relentless trauma, but we wanted to show the nuances and those uncomfortable moments.
Showing this mom who’s trying and of course, it's taking a second, just like it took my mother a second. We wanted to capture all of those little moments and dynamics, and it isn't always joy when you watch it, but we know there's going to be a lot of queer and trans people in the audience who will relate. There's a lot of weight on these things as there should be.
This is about respecting someone, their humanity and who they are. And it’s OK if you say the wrong thing but are truly earnest in trying. In terms of my mom, it's similar. I get it, it’s a huge change. As long as someone's not intentionally coming for me or something, it’s really all about patience.