Kiwi actress Anna Paquin swings out in support of Ellen Page

New Zealand actress Anna Paquin has supported Ellen Page's account of allegedly being outed by Brett Ratner. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand actress Anna Paquin has supported Ellen Page's account of allegedly being outed by Brett Ratner.

Page accused Ratner of "outing" her by asking an older woman to sleep with her in order to help her "realise she's gay".

Anna Paquin took to social media to back up her colleague's comments, saying she was there when the comment was passed.

"If you can't think of the glaringly obvious reason I remained silent then perhaps you've forgotten that I've been in this victim grooming industry since before I hit puberty," Paquin tweeted.

I was there when that comment was made. I stand with you .@EllenPage https://t.co/DEIvKDXeEL

— Anna Paquin (@AnnaPaquin) November 10, 2017

The 30-year-old actress, Page, came out as gay in 2014, but has now accused the film producer of being "blatantly homophobic and abuse" toward her on the set of 2006 movie X-Men: The Last Stand when she was just 18, by asking a woman who was 10 years older than her to "f**k her" to prove she was a lesbian.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Page said: "'You should f**k her to make her realize she's gay.' He said this about me during a cast and crew 'meet and greet' before we began filming, X-Men: The Last Stand. I was eighteen years old. He looked at a woman standing next to me, ten years my senior, pointed to me and said: 'You should f**k her to make her realize she's gay.' He was the film's director, Brett Ratner.

"I was a young adult who had not yet come out to myself. I knew I was gay, but did not know, so to speak. I felt violated when this happened. I looked down at my feet, didn't say a word and watched as no one else did either. 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 recognise as homophobic. I proceeded to watch him on set say degrading things to women. I remember a woman walking by the monitor as he made a comment about her 'flappy p****y'. (sic)"