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[title]‘The first thing I saw was the film he did with Samantha Morton, who’s one of my favourite actors of all time,’ says Elliot Page of his introduction to the work of Dominic Savage, the British director behind BAFTA-winning drama series I Am… and several other critically acclaimed social realist dramas. ‘It completely blew me away. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I couldn’t stop feeling it. And then Dominic and I met on Zoom and just truly hit it off’.
The Canadian actor is meeting me on another video call, along with friend and co-star Hillary Baack, to discuss the pair’s new film Close To You. Created in close collaboration with Savage, Page’s first movie role in six years tells the story of Sam, a young trans man who is returning home for the first time since moving to Toronto and transitioning, encountering an old friend from high school on the way.
With the bulk of his previous work made for British TV, Savage’s new film might not have the same reach or budget as many of the Hollywood-backed projects that Page has done on since his breakout role in 2008’s Academy Award-winning Juno. But the opportunity to work on a film like Close To You is a dream come true for any actor that’s serious about their craft.
Typical of a Savage film, the drama was largely unscripted, with scenes improvised around a basic narrative suggested by Page and fleshed out by the director. Filming took place in chronological order, with the actors knowing very little about what each day would entail before turning up on set, where they would embark on lengthy improvised scenes – including one uninterrupted take that lasted for 53 minutes. ‘We would understand the basic scene that we were shooting, and Dominic would chat with us before about things that he wanted to happen or not, and then we would just go!’ says Baack, who plays Sam’s deaf school friend Katherine.
‘It was intense,’ adds Page. ‘When the day was done you were wiped, because you don’t stop, you’re shooting in order, in all natural light, on the same lens so there’s no pauses. But the gruelling part of it is what’s thrilling, the fact that you’re on your feet and you’re acting all day and it’s very emotional. That’s what makes it so fun.’
‘As an actor, it’s what we dream of doing, getting to dive into the space and the story, to stay there and play and go deeper, Baack agrees. ‘It was incredibly fun, and satisfying. And exhausting, in a good way!’
At one point, everyone was sobbing and couldn’t stop
Page’s first film role since coming out as transgender in 2020, the project offered him an opportunity not only to draw on his own experiences of transitioning, but also to portray a different kind of family dynamic to the ones we’re used to seeing on the screen. Sam’s parents and siblings are broadly accepting of his identity, with tensions stemming from accidental misgenderings, general awkwardness around him, and a lack of willingness to defend him from others’ microaggressions rather than outright bigotry.
Its intelligent, nuanced portrayal of family dynamics will resonate with a lot of queer viewers, most notably during a tense showdown between Sam and his antagonistic brother-in-law. ‘It was very emotional. Everyone in the family at one point was sobbing and couldn’t stop,’ Page says. ‘And that particular scene was very personal, that experience of being like: “Oh, you actually just asked me a question, and I just answered it for you.” Shooting that was a nice opportunity to get some of that anger out,’ Page shares.
Without lines to learn or a script to read through, the process of preparing to play the two leads was an equally enjoyable challenge for Page and Baack. This was especially true when it came to fleshing out the relationship between Sam and Katherine, a married mother-of-two who has moved back to their small hometown in Ontario since the characters last saw one another. ‘Hillary and I had a Google Doc to make notes about our characters,’ Page shares. ‘We’d make up an experience that could have been one we’d had together when we were in school as teenagers, or the music we would have listened to at that time. Hillary is such a good writer, and was coming out with these lovely little moments.’
The result is a subtle portrait of a tender friendship, one devoid of the fraughtness that Sam experiences during his reunion with his family, and in which he gets to feel truly seen and accepted. ‘Sure [his family] love him and accept him, but they’re also projecting what they think he should want, or what success for him means. When you see Sam with Katherine, how she talks to him, how she looks at him, how he responds, it’s different,’ Page explains.
It’s clearly been a deeply rewarding film for both of its leads to work on. For Baack, this is in part thanks to a rare opportunity to play a character whose deafness is not central to the story. [Katherine] happens to be deaf, and that’s part of her story. Maybe part of the connection with Sam, because they both know what it’s like to feel on the outside, but it’s not everything.’
Having first befriended Page when they co-starred in 2013 thriller The East, Baack is also keen to stress how great it has been watching the actor thrive in this role. ‘It’s such a perfect first step for him in this chapter of his life, and he is so present in a way that he hasn’t been before. It was such an honour to get to be there with him for that.’
‘And obviously this film is very recognisable for so many people who feel a little outside of their families. I just hope that it feels healing for a lot of people, and that they can see that they’re not alone.’
Close To You is in US theaters now and UK cinemas Aug 30.