admin Elliot Page recently visited the American Museum of Natural History to check out one of its newest exhibitions: an insectarium featuring a half-million leafcutter ants. “Have you gone to that yet?” he asked me over Zoom from his apartment in New York City. I told him that while I haven’t made it that far uptown lately, I did hear that there are apparently 2.5 million ants for every living human on Earth.
“Oh my god. We’re so delightfully insignificant,” he laughs. “Such a good reminder.”
The Canadian actor has had some free time on his hands during the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, so he’s been filling his days with reading, hiking in his native Nova Scotia, and walking around New York with his dog Mo, a Chihuahua-poodle mix whom Page described as “more social than me. He’d be thrilled if I had a party every night.” He also recently starred in a campaign for Gucci Guilty, the Italian luxury house’s flagship fragrance, alongside actor Julia Garner and rapper A$AP Rocky. (For his part, self-proclaimed Juno fan Rocky described shooting with Page and Garner as “a crazy experience. Man, they cool as a fan. Cool as an AC in the summertime.”) The line’s newest scent, Gucci Guilty Elixir de Parfum Pour Homme, is one of the many things Elliot Page Strongly Endorses these days.
Elliot Page, Julia Garner, and A$AP Rocky star in a recent Gucci Guilty campaign.Courtesy of Gucci
Good reads
“I’ve read so many awesome books lately. Travis Alabanza’s new book, None of the Above, is phenomenal. I also just read Harry Nicholas’s memoir, A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar, which is brilliant and so funny. I’ve been reading Octavia Butler—I just read Wild Seed, and now I’m reading Kindred.
“I like to read in the morning with coffee. In the evening, if I stay in, I’ll just read for a few hours. It’s so relaxing for me. I find watching things can be less relaxing than reading because (when I’m reading,) my brain has to fully focus, whereas if I’m watching something, I can wander a bit.”
“If I’m wearing a scent, it tends to be more (at) nighttime, whether it’s going to dinner, or an event, or maybe a date. There’s also a subtlety and kind of a sensuality to it that helps make me feel this bold and confident. I really like the balance (in this scent) of that patchouli element mixed with the more leathery, smoky sort of aspects.”
IYKYK Halifax merch
“I have a sweatshirt someone gave to me as a gift that I have a very hard time taking off. They had worked in a video store called Video Difference in Halifax, where I’m from. It’s closed now, but it was incredible. It was multiple stories, it had a foreign independent collection, a Canadian independent film collection, foreign documentaries. It was a big part of what informed me as an actor. I was so sad when it closed. (My) friend who worked there, I almost couldn’t accept (the gift), and they were like, ‘Don’t worry, I have another.’ It’s just a Video Difference sweatshirt, but I’m obsessed with it. I walk around Halifax and people will be like, ‘Where the fuck did you get that?’ People probably want to rip this off, because it was just such a special place. I really miss video stores.”
Vibey tunes
“Up in Nova Scotia, I was listening to a lot of records. I’m always listening to Brian Eno, ambient Brian Eno from the ’70s. And then in terms of super new stuff, I’m loving this new Vagabon record (titled Sorry I Haven’t Called.) I do love record players in the sense that you put on the record, I’ll sometimes just lay on the couch and listen to the whole record straight through. It’s so tempting when you’re on your phone to change to another song or go to this, go to that. I love listening to an entire album, (which is) presumably how the musician curated it for you to listen to.”
Virtual workouts
“(When I travel,) I like to bring my Quest VR, because that’s how I work out. I bring that with me so then when I’m in a hotel, I can do it pretty much anywhere as long as there’s WiFi. The fitness program (I use) is called Supernatural; there’s something called Flow, and then there’s also boxing on it. I do both depending on my mood. It’s so fun.
“I’m not really a gym guy—if I was doing what I do for even just half an hour in my apartment, outside I wouldn’t last five minutes. But I think because it’s almost like a game, you kind of disappear into it. It’s good for stress, it’s good for all kinds of things. I’m telling you, it’s a game changer. I can’t stress it enough. I’ve gotten so many people hooked on this. I don’t know what I was doing before without it.”
