Elliot Page got shingles while filming Inception because he 'felt out of place'

08 June 2023 , 15:12

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Elliot Page got shingles while filming Inception because he 'felt out of place'

Elliot Page has opened up about the stress-induced shingles he came down with while filming Inception.

The 36-year-old starred in the 2010 Christopher Nolan movie alongside the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, but claims that he felt "out of place" due to being surrounded by a "cast full of cis men."

While taking on the role of architecture student Ariadne, he admitted to suffering high levels of stress as he tried to balance his work life and the "chaos" in his personal life.

Known also as herpes zoster, shingles manifests as a painful rash and typically looks like a strip of blisters but can also cause symptoms including chills, fever, headaches, and vision loss.

Elliot opened up about the stress filming had caused (Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)

The shingles had communicated the stress he was under (FilmMagic)

Writing in his memoir, Pageboy, Elliot said: "Shingles communicated the stress my body felt. It popped out of my spine while filming 'Inception' when I was twenty-two.

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"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," he added.

Elliot said that early on in filming he would joke that he'd be "recast with Keira Knightley, and rightfully so."

Elliot starred in the film as Ariadne

He shot the hit sci-fi movie more than a decade before he made his gender transition from female to male. It was also before he had publicly announced that he was attracted to women while still presenting as female.

At the time of filming, he was navigating closeted relationships with other women which had caused him confusion and stress.

He released his memoir (AP)

He had been facing confusion and chaos in his personal life at the time (Instagram)

Elliot was also secretly dating a woman who was "out, and surrounded by a community of queer women" while he was still keeping his sexuality a secret.

"I was not settled, I still felt out of place, stirring up the dust. A pinball of projection, I internalized the chaos. It left me feeling bereft of hope," he recalled.

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Lauren Gordon