-Our next guest is an Oscar-nominated actor
who stars in the Netflix series "The Umbrella Academy."
The third season starts streaming June 22nd.
Let's take a look.
-Viktor, we could go home tonight.
Okay? And for the first time in days,
I'm feeling hope, so please don't step on that.
-Okay.
Come on. We have to be smarter about this.
We don't know enough about the Sparrows.
-I've got you. No one's gonna want to fight
against me and my tiny badass brother.
-No more improvising, okay?
We do things together from now on. Got it?
-Please welcome back to the show Elliot Page, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Ahh. -Hey.
-Welcome back. -How's it going?
-This is a fantastic show
about adoptive siblings with superpowers.
It's full of action. The clip did not show that.
I feel like this is a very spoiler-laden show.
So when someone like you comes on to do press, they give us
a clip that does not tell much about the show at all.
-Yeah, it's nice to keep it exciting and full of surprises.
There's great twists and turns this year.
So -- And I think it shows the balance of the show,
and it's so fun to make as an actor.
It's so fulfilling as an actor, and, yeah, we have so much fun.
-You also play violin on the show.
Is this a skill you had to teach yourself?
Because it looks very convincing.
-I most certainly did not teach myself,
and I was pretty horrible at it.
In my defense, they say it's the most difficult instrument
to learn, which I very much understand.
[ Laughter ]
But I had an amazing teacher and a fantastic double.
And I just...
-That seems like -- -...did my best.
-It seems like the second one might be more helpful.
-Yeah. She was fantastic. Imogen. Incredible.
So what a joy to listen to her play on set.
Me? [ Clicks tongue ]
I'm sure the crew members
were probably ready to walk off set.
-Right. So, since the show started,
you, as an actor, came out as trans,
and then your character also came out as trans.
Were these conversations that you got to have with the writers
about the journey that your character took,
having lived that experience yourself?
-Yeah, it was.
And really with Steve Blackman, the showrunner of "Umbrella,"
who's just incredible and such a wonderful person.
And so, when we first talked about it,
he seemed really excited about incorporating it into the show.
And an incredible writer, journalist, author
Thomas Page McBee, who I met doing a miniseries
called "Tales of the City,"
he wrote an extraordinary book called "Amateur,"
which I highly recommend everybody to read.
He was the first trans man to box in Madison Square Garden.
And his book and his work in general,
there's so much about masculinity
and what it means and exploring that.
So Thomas came on board and helped out,
and I feel proud of it
and excited for people to see it.
-One of the nice things is, your siblings on the show,
when receiving the news of the transition,
are very supportive and loving.
Was this something that you had?
I know you have run the gamut of having to respond to reactions,
both positive or negative.
Were the people closest to you in your real life
as supportive as the people on the show?
-Yeah, absolutely. So --
And I feel really grateful for that. [ Laughs ]
I think most people weren't surprised or --
It's something I'd been talking about
with a lot of people in my life.
-I think that is really important to know,
which is -- So much is being said about this issue
from people who aren't experiencing in real time
or who don't know people who go through it, right?
If you know a loved one,
this news probably comes as less of a surprise
than those of us on the outside would expect it to be received.
I know that since you've come out as trans,
you've had to receive, you know, from the strangers,
from people who don't know you as a person,
some pretty negative reactions.
What has that journey for you been like?
-[ Chuckles ]
Well, you know, what I want to focus on right now
and has been so extraordinary
is the degree of joy that I feel,
the degree of presence that I feel.
I feel a way that I really never thought possible
for a long, long time.
So that's really what I'm focusing on embracing the most.
But, of course, moments can be overwhelming.
Um...
I feel like it's one of those things where it's so unfortunate
because it's like we're all on the same team here.
You know? Whether you're trans, non-bin--
you know, gender-nonconforming, cis,
we all have these expectations
and these sort of limits and constraints
because of, yes,
sort of people's obsession
with, you know, the binary
and how we're all supposed to live our lives.
So, you know, to me,
it'd be so special for us to all be able to connect
and talk about how similar we are in all of our journeys.
-You wrote very beautifully in "Esquire"
about the joy you feel now
and about how present you feel in your body.
Do you feel like that's making you a better actor?
I would imagine that you had to get through so much
to do a performance in the past,
and now it just must feel easier to go out and do work.
-It does, yeah. I mean, everything does. You know?
And that's obviously a big component
and part of my life.
And, yeah, beautiful thing to experience now,
because a lot of the time,
my life was just trying to move forward.
And so getting to embrace the experience
as much as I get to now.
And I think it's made me better in so many facets,
like, as a person, I think, as a friend,
and, you know, relationships.
-I think you both embrace it
and you've probably had it forced upon you
to be an activist, to some degree,
about this really important issue.
And you've spoken about how you want to approach it
with empathy, which I think is really beautiful
and probably more effective.
Do you find -- Does it come easy to you
to approach this all with empathy?
-Not always. Um, but...
[ Laughter ]
I think --
Yeah, I think, in some ways.
And I think when you do --
I reflect on certain very difficult times in my life,
certain struggles and obstacles and all that.
And I think, ultimately getting through that,
I think it really deepens your empathy.
And I think of the times in my life
where I was the most uncomfortable,
where I was the most unwell
are the times when I was the most angry
and I was the most unkind to myself or self-righteous
or all of those things.
And so it's just --
It's improved my life drastically.
And, um --
And I hope, you know --
I hope maybe people who do have an issue with me
can maybe try
and hear that and embrace that on some level.
-Well, personally, it is really lovely to hear
how much joy it's brought you.
And thank you so much for sharing it with us
and continuing to make it a story other people can hear.
Really nice to see you again. -You too, Seth.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Elliot Page, everyone.
The first season of "The Umbrella Academy"
starts streaming June 22nd on Netflix.