The 2005 film Hard Candy is about a teenage vigilante named Hayley (played by Elliot Page) who exacts revenge on a sexual predator named Jeff (Patrick Wilson). But in his book, Pageboy, Page describes a set filled with toxicity, where he alleges he was victimized by two crew members who put him in unwanted sexual situations that traumatized him for years.
Page was 17 while filming the movie, and he writes in the book that after being given a ride home by one crew member, that man propositioned him.
“He guided me to the bedroom,” Page writes. “I went stiff. Unsure what to do as he stood tall and removed his glasses. He laid me down on the bed. Starting to remove my pants, he said, ‘I want to eat you out.’ I froze. After it was over, he tried to stay in the bed with me. I had thawed marginally and told him he couldn’t, to get out.”
If that wasn’t traumatic enough, Page writes that on another occasion, a female crew member on the same film who took Page house-hunting also took advantage of him.
“I was standing in the empty living room, in front of the couch, when I felt her grab me,” Page writes. “She pressed her face into mine, some version of kissing. That freezing coming over me again. The next thing I knew I was on the rug, the floor firm on my back. I didn’t say no, I did not resist, I just stiffened.”
Speaking to The Guardian about the incidents, Page said, “Apart from the power conversation and the toxicity that comes with that, it is just being a young person who’s in a space with lots of adults and in situations where people took … I don’t even know the word. I was about to say ‘advantage’ or ‘awful advantage’, but that just feels gross.”
He added, “I almost don’t have the words for it because it’s so f—ing hard to wrap my head around why somebody wants to do that.”
Page says he’s coming clean now about the incidents because he didn’t know how to discuss them or process them earlier: “I didn’t know how to talk to people about it,” he said. “I thought you just get over it and move on. It took me a long time to be able to sit and fully talk about these experiences or acknowledge that they were traumatic and had a significant impact on me.”
Much like the new Maureen Ryan book Burn It Down, Pageboy has been a source of numerous shocking examples of the way Hollywood protects harmful predators and toxicity is often the norm on sets. Pageboy is in stores now.
If you or someone you know needs to reach out about sexual abuse or assault, RAINN is available 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673), or online at RAINN.org.