Blind Plea - Listen Now: The Pink House with Sam Smith

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

We’re excited to drop in your feed today to tell you about a new Lemonada Media series called The Pink House with Sam Smith. Hosted by five-time Grammy winner Sam Smith, The Pink House is about the people and places that make us who we are. One of those places was Sam’s childhood home in the English village of Great Chishill, literally called The Pink House. It was a space of total warmth and love where Sam felt safe enough to find their voice. Each week, join Sam in conversation with icons and friends like Trixie Mattel, Gloria Estefan, Elliot Page, Joel Kim Booster, Ben Platt, Rebecca Sugar and Michelle Visage as they explore their own “Pink Houses” and how they navigated early struggles and ultimately found their place in the world.    You’re about to hear a preview of the first episode of The Pink House, where Sam chats with Elliot Page about his upbringing in Canada, his breakout role in the film Juno, and how seeking time away from it all has helped him embrace a whole new, exhilarating life.    To hear more of The Pink House head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/thepinkhousefdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi, listeners. We're dropping into your feed today to play you a clip of The Pink House, a new podcast by Sam Smith and Lemonada Media. Sam Smith wants to welcome you to The Pink House, a podcast about the people and places that make us who we are. It's inspired by their childhood home in England, literally called the Pink House, which was a space of such warmth and love that it allowed enough safety for Sam to find their voice. Now they're sitting down with friends and queer icons

to talk about their guests' unique ideas of home, identity, and how they found their own place in the world. From Elliot Page's childhood bedroom to Gloria Stefan's kitchen table to Laverne Cox's first NYC apartment and Sam's own pink house. Each safe place holds stories Sam's excited to share of belonging, chosen families, and the journeys we take to become who we're destined to be. After you listen to this preview featuring Elliot Page, search for the pink house in your podcast app to hear the rest of the episode. You can also find a link in the show notes to take you there. It's a common theme, you know, when you say this episode's about the bedroom, you know, it's really just about a place

that you can go to. It sounds like you have constantly gone back to that place, a private place throughout your life. Many years later, you went to a cabin and you lived there for a bit. And this cabin in Nova Scotia sounds like it was the most, one of the most important moments of private time and play for you as a person. Yeah, this time in particular was during the pandemic and I drove up to Nova Scotia and I went to this cabin and it feels so awkward to talk about because obviously there was such brutal pain and hardship during the pandemic.

People who could not go drive up to Nova Scotia and sit in a cabin, who had to work, who, you know, and dealt with, you know, the consequences of that. But the truth is, yes, that period gave me time and a certain amount of time that quite frankly I couldn't recall the last time I had. And this actually even also timed with two to call a filmmaker and drop out of a film that, you know, I loved the script and I remember I was in such distress thinking, I can't do this anymore. Like I actually can't go play that character. I can't play the clothes that that character has to wear. Like in such, such extreme turmoil about it, I just was like, Elliot, like, okay, we really

need to figure out what's going on here. Because this is just, it was just getting... Unbearable. Unbearable, unavoidable. My like nifty tactics that I'd used to distract myself, you know, emotionally or what have you, they were growing old. Yeah. And in moments it was really painful and difficult and extremely uncomfortable.

But I really sat with what I was feeling. I really think there was a couple really pivotal moments. One moment where it did feel so torturous. So am I trans? And then I stopped myself and sat up and relaxed my shoulders and thought, wait, why do I have to approach it this way? Why am I so tortured by this question? Why can't I actually just sit and breathe and go, huh, am I? And that was massive. I was like, now is actually my, is the time in my life where I'm really going to see myself,

love myself wholeheartedly for it and make the choices and the decisions that I need to make and that I want to make for my life. And that period did allow me for that and the quiet and the isolation. And I think when you are known, a known person known to people, it's like people are projecting a lot on you consciously or not, you know, and I think I did need to be like very alone, not looked at, no camera on me, not in hair and makeup trailer every morning to play that role. I was done. I was just done. It makes me emotional hearing you talk because you talk about when you're a kid and having those, saying, your mom, I need my space. And it's, and you did that. And it's almost like those times through your life where you took yourself away. It's almost like it was all preparation for that, that

big time. And you have other times, I bet, where you take yourself away and you have words with yourself. But that time, it's like all of, all of your life led to that moment. And it sounds to me that your inner, your voice, your adult voice, served you very well in that moment. Even though it was painful, it's just beautiful that you had you to guide you, if you know what I mean. So when you left that cabin and came back to life, there was a part of you, the decision was made? Oh, I drove from that cabin to Toronto and got top surgery. Wow.

Yeah. Wow. I remember the moment I made the decision and I remember then starting to figure out if basically I was going to be able to get it done before going back to the next season of Umbrella Academy, which I didn't know what that response was gonna be. Like Steve, the showrunner of Umbrella, is one of the first people I came out to, because I was like, how the heck is this gonna work?