Elliot Page opened up to Esquire magazine about how difficult it was on his mental health to have to endure the awards season press tour for “Juno” while being in the closet. The Jason Reitman-directed abortion drama served as a breakthrough for Page, who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as the title character.

“When ‘Juno’ was at the height of its popularity, during awards-season time, I was closeted, dressed in heels and the whole look — I wasn’t okay, and I didn’t know how to talk about that with anyone,” Page said.

Page pinpointed one moment during the “Juno” rollout in which executives at the film’s distributor, Fox Searchlight, demanded he wear a dress on the red carpet. The actor preferred to wear a suit but his request was denied. While the “Juno” release pre-dated Page coming out as transgender, he stressed that forcing anyone to wear a certain type of clothing is “fucked up.” Page pointed out there are many heterosexual cis women who don’t like to wear dresses, so it’s not like this is just a trans issue.

“I remember going and having the thing I wanted to wear, and then understanding the degree of expectation of how fancy someone is supposed to look. So I said I wanted to wear a suit, and Fox Searchlight was basically like, ‘No, you need to wear a dress,’” Page said. “And they took me in a big rush to one of those fancy stores on Bloor Street. They had me wear a dress, and…that was that. And then all the ‘Juno’ press, all the photo shoots — Michael Cera was in slacks and sneakers. I look back at the photos, and I’m like . . .?”

Page continued, “And it’s easy for people to roll their eyes, but you know what? No. That was really extremely, extremely fucked up. I shouldn’t have to treat it like just this thing that happened—this somewhat normal thing. It’s like: No. Regardless of me being trans! I’ve had people who’ve apologized about things: ‘Sorry, I didn’t know, I didn’t know at the time.’ It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter if I’m trans or cis. Lots of cis women dress how I dress. That has nothing to fucking do with it.”

Head over to Esqure’s website to read Page’s cover story in its entirety.

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