Recklessness And Homophobia: Elliot Page Reveals Troubling Behind-The-Scenes Secrets Of Flatliners Remake In Memoir

Elliot Page has slammed the set of the Flatliners remake as “reckless and dangerous”.

In his Pageboy memoir (via Entertainment Weekly), Page, 36, shared that he didn't have fond memories of making the 2017 reboot of Joel Schumacher's 1990 supernatural thriller, in which he starred alongside Kiersey Clemons, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev and James Norton. So much so that he dedicated a whole chapter to the Niels Arden-Oplev-helmed movie.

“A brilliant cast, a cult classic, it was set to be great," he wrote. "But it went off the rails, one of those movies that is a true mess from the very beginning.”

Page got concerned with a behind-the-scenes exchange as he and Clemons were getting ready to shoot a getaway scene in a car from hospital security, but realised they had no “built-in thick seat belt” like everyone else.

He wrote, “No restraints, a basic safety measure of the carefully orchestrated, expensive and elaborate stunt that hadn’t been thought through… We looked to the various stunt crew members strapping the others in, perplexed, questioning why we weren’t being secured for the scene. ‘Why does everyone else have a safety belt but not us?’ we’d inquired.”

Page claimed the stunt coordinators assured them that everything would be “fine” and that it would be "even better if you aren’t strapped in.”

When the cameras started filming the scene, the actors were "flailing around" and they were left “speechless, staring at our shaking hands.” 

Looking back, Page said they should have “removed ourselves, called someone, said something”.

Page said they didn't protest because they had been “conditioned” to understand the importance of meeting shooting deadlines they went ahead and were plunged into “a degree of intensity we did not quite anticipate”.

Page added that during another take saw a stunt driver suddenly slam on the brakes when a random person accidentally drove into the street that was supposed to be blocked off for filming.

He said: “Luckily everyone was fine. But I think back to how reckless and dangerous that was. How Kiersey and I were treated with such flippancy and disrespect.

“Regardless of a stranger's car making it onto the closed set of a car chase, what if something just… went wrong?”

Elsewhere, Page revealed that producers wanted his character to dress “more like a girl” and “less queer” by wearing heels and skirts. Page was openly gay during the making of Flatliners and came out as transgender in December 2020.

“[The characters] were medical students in residency at an intensive care unit,” Page wrote. “There was categorically no rationale for the character to wear heels or a skirt.”

Page eventually got producers to settle on him wearing “fancy blouses, tight jeans and boots with a heel".

He also brought up a confrontation with “one of the heads of production” over his character's sexual orientation. 

“‘Are you mad that this character isn’t gay?’ he asked me,” Page wrote, saying he responded: “‘Are you asking me this because I did not want to wear a skirt?’ His face remained the same, an annoying grin with a glinting youthfulness in the eyes, but I pressed on. ‘Are you really asking me if I am angry about this character not being gay because I am not wearing a f***ing skirt?’ He looked on inscrutably, as if being pleasant means you are not queerphobic. ‘Your view of women is egregiously narrow,’ I said to the man, reminding him lesbians wear skirts, too.”

Pageboy is now in stores. Flatliners is available on iTunes and Google Play; it's streaming on Netflix.  — BANG SHOWBIZ

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos

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