Ellen Page Blasts ‘Homophobic’ Brett Ratner For Outing Her As A Teen, Calls ‘X-Men’ Director Abusive
Ellen Page wrote a powerful post on her Facebook account telling her story of emotional abuse she experienced from her X-Men: The Last Stand director, Brett Ratner. Page accused Ratner of being homophobic and for subjecting women to sexual and verbal abuse.
Page was only 18 years old when she was cast as Kitty Pryde for the X-Men franchise. Before they started filming, the 48-year-old Ratner gathered the cast and crew for a “meet and greet.” Page claims this is when she first experienced Ratner’s abusive behavior, as Vanity Fair reported.
“You should [expletive] her to make her realize she’s gay,” Ratner apparently said during the meeting. Ratner was supposedly talking to a female member of the group, who was standing right next to Page.
Page said that, as a young adult at the time, she hasn’t come out to herself yet. The now 30-year-old star said that she had an inkling of what her sexual identity was back then but “did not know, so to speak.” Page said that she felt violated when Ratner outed her as gay “with no regard for [her] well-being.” She also said that what Ratner did is recognized as homophobic.
“I looked down at my feet, didn’t say a word and watched as no one else did either,” Page said. “This man, who had cast me in the film, started our months of filming at a work event with this horrific, unchallenged plea.”
“He ‘outed’ me with no regard for my well-being, an act we all recognize as homophobic,” Page said. https://t.co/OWbkjKxgzO
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) November 10, 2017
Anna Paquin, who played Rogue in the film X-Men franchise, confirmed what Page claims.
“I was there when that comment was made, Paquin said through Twitter. “I stand with you.”
The supposed incident with Page was not the only controversial incident involving Ratner on the set. According to Page, Ratner also said “degrading things” to other women.
“I remember a woman walking by the monitor as he made a comment about her ‘flappy p@ssy,'” Page said in her post.
Ellen Page, thank you. https://t.co/wpT7I9vFsL pic.twitter.com/cHdDCe4QDj
— Melissa Gira Grant is on book leave ?? (@melissagira) November 10, 2017
Page was recently cast in the Netflix live action adaptation of the popular Gerard Way graphic novel, Umbrella Academy, Variety reported. Page will play the role of Vanya, the only powerless member of a family with supernatural abilities out to solve the death of their father. Page also starred in Juno, Flatliners, and the Gaycation, a documentary series about the LGBTQ culture.
Page is not the first person to accuse Ratner of sexual misbehavior. A total of eight women have already accused Ratner of sexual harassment and rape.
In 2001, Ratner and music mogul Russell Simmons were the subject of an investigation for sexual battery. Ratner and Simmons were questioned by members of the Beverly Hills Police Department after a woman filed a complaint against the two for unlawfully touching her. However, the criminal charges were declined by the Los Angeles County district attorney because of lack of evidence.
Ratner also faced a sexual harassment complaint in 2005 after a former New Line Cinema employee accused the director of “ogling the assistants, invading their space, and making them uncomfortable.” It was only after Terri Goddard and other female New Line employees complained to the HR department that Ratner allegedly stopped objectifying and humiliating them.
Actresses Olivia Munn, Natasha Henstridge, Jaime Ray Newman, and Katharine Towne have also spoken out about Ratner’s alleged misbehavior. Munn said Ratner masturbated in front of her in 2004 and then told her, after a chance meeting six years later, that he ejaculated over magazines with her on the cover. Henstridge, 43, accused Ratner of forcing her to do a sexual act on him in 1993, when she was only 19 years old and he was in his early 20s.
Ratner has been released by Warner Bros. after the sexual misconduct allegations first surfaced via a Los Angeles Times report.
As for Page, she was inspired by the other supposed victims of Ratner to speak out about the “public, aggressive outing” that she experienced with the filmmaker. Page also said that the incident left her “with long standing feelings of shame, which she described as “one of the most destructive results of homophobia.”
Page is also not the only Hollywood personality to speak out or be involved in sexual harassment and abuse claims in the past few days. Veteran actor Anthony Edwards of ER and Top Gun fame revealed that producer Gary Goddard molested him when he was only 12 years old. Comedian Louis C.K., meanwhile, admitted to the sexual misconduct allegations thrown at him by five women.
[Featured Image by Jordan Strauss/AP Images]
