She’s
been described as “the next Jodie Foster”. But as soon as
you see the 20-year-old Canadian actress Ellen Page on screen, the comparisons
go out of the window. Page is very much her own woman: such assured
presence radiates from her tiny frame, frank, intelligent eyes and kooky,
lopsided smile that we don’t have time to wonder who she reminds
us of – we’re too busy being absorbed by who she is.
Page has already made a splash in tough art house films like Hard
Candy – where she played a not-so-innocent young girl who
lays a trap for a sexual predator – and The Tracey Fragments,
in which she was a disturbed, deluded, self-hating teenager. Now, though,
her career is about to move into overdrive.
In Juno, which premiered to rave reviews at Toronto and went
on to pick up the Best Film prize at the Rome Film Fest, Page plays
a cocky, articulate, independent sixteen-year-old girl living somewhere
in small-town America, who suddenly finds herself pregnant. But rather
than play the victim, Juno decides to deal with the crisis in her own,
peculiarly upfront way.
Directed by Jason Reitman, who debuted in 2006 with the breakout indie
comedy Thank You For Smoking, and scripted with astonishing
panache by first-timer Diablo Cody, Juno avoids the twin traps
of the usual Sundance-style US teen movie – which usually veers
either towards excessive Catcher-In-The-Rye earnestness or
out-and-out weirdo quirkiness. Sure, Juno and her friends talk in an
oddly stylised (and frequently hilarious) version of American youth
speak, and there’s a cool indie rock soundtrack, but this is a
film with the heart (and the head) to back up its style and attitude.
Much of the credit here has to go to Page’s feisty performance:
her Juno is so uncompromising, and so dynamic, that she practically
gives off sparks.
Page was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia – and with no
particular desire to join the Hollywood rat-race, she still lives there.
Her first acting role came at the age of ten, when she starred in a
made-for-TV film called Pit Pony. She continued acting, mostly
in TV, all through her years at Halifax’s independent Buddhist-inspired
high school, Shambhala – but she also found time to play football
(mostly on the right wing), strum the guitar, and do a lot of hiking.
After a role in an ultra low-budget European film called Mouth to
Mouth, Page landed the role – as Hayley in Hard Candy
– that made international audiences sit up and take notice. Presented
at Sundance in January 2005, the micro-budget thriller sold to Lionsgate
on the back of strong audience reactions, and Page was suddenly hot
property. A few weeks later, Brett Ratner cast her as teen super girl
Kitty Pryde in the third part of the X-Men franchise, X-Men:
The Last Stand.
Since then, Page has been working more or less constantly, alternating
small projects like An American Crime – in which she
stars alongside Christine Keener as a teenage girl who was abused and
tortured by her stepmother – with more commercial films like the
upcoming dramatic rom-com Smart People, where Page is the ‘faculty
brat’ daughter of Dennis Quaid’s widowed English professor.
When I talked to her at the Rome Film Fest, Page had just jetted in
from L.A., where she’d been named as the Hollywood Breakthrough
Actress of the Year. But she wasn’t letting fame go to her head.
Her old jeans and hooded top declared that she preferred to play things
casual for the time being, and keep her feet – clad in well-worn
Converse sneakers - firmly on the ground.
How
did you get involved with Juno?
I was sent the script a couple of years ago and I fell head over heels,
obsessively in love with the character. This was one of those scripts
where I felt: ‘I need to play this person!’ It was just
one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. I love the witty, intelligent
dialogue, and I was so thrilled that a character had been written like
this for a teenage girl... she’s unique, honest, sincere, but
unapologetic, and unbelievably refreshing. And completely necessary
for right now. I just feel so grateful that I was given the chance to
play her. I don’t think we’ve ever really had a teenage
female lead like Juno in a film that looks like it’s going to
be seen by a lot of people. It really excites me that that girl’s
out there for a lot of girls who aren’t like what the popular
media portrays. That’s really exciting.
What
did you like so much about the script?
One of the most exhilarating things about it is that, even though it’s
a dark comedy, it’s also delicate. It would have been easy to
force it and make it annoying and contrived. But luckily I was working
with Jason Reitman, who I think is incredible at creating tones, and
he created an excellent balance, and just guided me through it.
What
attracted you to the character of Juno? Did you like the fact that she’s
old beyond her years, that she’s operating “beyond her maturity
level”, as she says at one point in the film?
Yes. She’s extremely independent, and intelligent, and so genuine,
so herself... and I love her abruptness. But she’s still very
naive, especially in the relationship with the Jason Bateman character.
Do
you have much in common with Juno?
I feel like whenever I play a character I have lots of things in common
with them, because we’re all made of the same stuff. It’s
always a really interesting experience when you enter a film to know
what a character’s like on a surface level and then realise as
you’re shooting how much you’re like them. It happens with
every character I play.
Would
your parents be as supportive as Juno’s if you got pregnant?
You know what I think? I feel like they would … I mean, it’s
obviously a difficult situation but I feel like they would be open and
want to support me. I actually have a pretty honest, trusting relationship
with them. I actually can pretty much talk to them about anything. But
I’m going to practice safe sex because that’s not something
I really want to deal with right now.
Did
you identify with Juno’s independence and refusal to conform?
I do think there’s this hypersexualised energy that happens with
young girls, especially because so much is projected on you. You’re
told what you’re supposed to find sexy, what to listen to, how
to dress, it just goes on and on. I get pretty frustrated with how young
females are commonly portrayed in popular media, but maybe with a film
like Juno that will slowly start changing and people will be less narrow-minded
and less judgmental. Because it is hard when you’re in junior
high and you don’t dress like everyone else. Things get projected
on you about lots of different things. It’s too bad that it has
to be that way. It’s a drag.
I
heard you introduced the director, Jason Reitman, to the music of the
Moldy Peaches, which features prominently in the film. Did you have
any other input – for example on the way that Juno looks?
Yes... I was very specific, I was like: “This girl’s wearing
a sweater-vest!” I knew how I wanted her to look. I wanted her
to wear a sweater-vest, or wear baggy pants or wear a flannel shirt
and be unapologetic for it. Like: that’s okay, that doesn’t
mean anything, you know what I’m saying? People get judged for
the way they dress, especially in junior high or high school, and it’s,
like, really childish.
How
was it working with Jason Reitman? Do you tend to lean heavily on a
director, or do you just get on with it?
It depends on the director, how much leaning you can do – if they’re
going to stay there for you. Jason’s fantastic. I would work with
him again in less than a second. I adore him. He is extremely assured,
he knows what he wants, but he was completely open to whatever I had
to say and we had a great relationship. We could totally communicate
with each other, and he is such a great collaborator and I just think
he’s perfect for this film, because I think the script could have
been taken and forced and become knowing and contrived – but I
think he established a tone, and a sense of balance, that I personally
think is fantastic.
Is
acting what you always wanted to do?
I love doing this more than anything. And right now I’m in a position
where I get to make decisions and have choice and as an actor of any
age that’s a profound gift. Hopefully that’ll continue.
And if it doesn’t and if I don’t feel that passion any more
I’ll stop. But it feels like for some reason acting is something
I can do and people are responding to and it’s very bizarre and
surreal. I just feel unbelievably grateful.
How
do you get into a role?
I’m not a big back-story person. It’s more like I pretty
much just try to connect my heart to their heart, if that makes sense.
And just try and follow through. I don’t like getting very analytical...
though with some roles you have to. If you’re playing a torture
victim in the sixties [as she did in An American Crime] you
obviously have a lot of research to do, but for a film like Juno,
other than making sure I know what’s going on in the bodily transitions,
it’s really about just connecting to her heart and making it as
genuine and as honest as possible.
How
did it feel to win the 2007 Hollywood Breakthrough Actress of the Year
award?
Oh I mean it’s interesting, I mean this is what I love to do and
I’m getting to do it and I can pay my rent and that’s already
extremely exciting. And having something like that… I don’t
do it obviously for those reasons... but receiving something like that
just makes me think ‘Oh, wow! I might have a future, or someone
might stick me in a couple more movies!’. And that’s exciting
for me. I think it represents control.
Are
you worried about getting sucked into that whole media circus, with
talk of Oscars and people suddenly getting interested in who you’re
dating?
I think that, like a lot of people, I don’t really understand
why actors are treated the way they’re treated. I just try not
to take it too too seriously. This is what I love to do, but I’m
not going to attach my happiness to it because it’s remarkably
fragile and there are a lot of other things going on in the world. And
I feel like if you really want that media attention you can have it,
and if you really genuinely don’t want it, it’s something
that can be avoided: I think there is an element of personal choice.
Things are getting a little crazy right now and I feel it, but I think
it’s about using it to your advantage, and also being able to
step away from it. Clearly you need an element of that to be an actor
these days, that’s just the way it is. But no, I will never submit
to my privacy being completely invaded – and I think you can avoid
it.
You know, I still live in Nova Scotia in a small apartment with used
furniture and that’s just genuinely who I am. It’s not to
make some judgment or statement against Hollywood. I keep my feet on
the ground and just try to be as sincere as… you know, as honest
as possible. And anyway I’m pretty boring. I mean, I’m an
active person, I love camping, I love hiking, and I love to travel,
and I love to read, and I play the guitar, and that’s about it.
I don’t go out a lot. I’ll never receive that kind of Lindsay
Lohan attention because people will be like: “Here’s Ellen
Page with her tent going camping!” I don’t really think
they’ll do a story about Ellen Page eating a mooseburger in Newfoundland.
So,
no plans to move to Hollywood?
Everyone kind of tells you that you have to live in L.A., but I’ve
noticed that I haven’t been, and I’ve still been working
a lot. I just love where I’m from, and I don’t have to own
a car.
Is
there anything you like about Hollywood?
The sushi’s great.
Did
you identify with Michael Moore’s praise of Canada in Sicko?
No, actually. I love Canada. And I’m proud to be Canadian. But
Canadians are imperialistic as well. We’re still a huge mining
presence in South America and, you know, Canadians need to wake up and
realise that, because we think we’re really super-peaceful –
and I think the government’s done a good job at creating that
image – but we’re still a big Western power.
How
did you start acting?
Oh, I fell into it actually. I was like 10 and I was at school and a
local casting director came looking for kids the right age to audition
for something and I was short and had brown hair so I got picked. So
I was in that movie, and that movie turned into a TV show, and then
that TV show led to something else, and here I am! But I was a child
actor in Nova Scotia, which is a very different place, believe it or
not, from Los Angeles. So as much as I was working when I was a kid,
I still went to a normal school and played soccer really competitively
and climbed trees and whatever.
What
other actors do you admire?
I’m a huge Sissy Spacek fan. I love her. I like all of her work
but I really love her work in the seventies – I love Badlands,
and I really love Carrie. I’m also a big Kate Winslet
fan, I think she’s fantastic, and I think Laura Linney’s
great too, and Catherine Keener. You know, there are so many really
awesome, really strong women out there, who clearly act because they
love it.
You’ve
done one big commercial film, X-Men: The Last Stand. How was
that experience?
It was interesting, obviously, though they were shooting the film for
five months and I was sitting around a lot. But it was pretty surreal
to be wearing a leather suit and running through fire or dropping 70
feet into the ground, just extremely surreal.
Would
you do such a commercial film again?
It’s completely situational. It depends on the film and the role.
Playing Kitty Pride was awesome because I’m five foot one and
I got to be a superhero and portray this young, very intelligent woman,
and that’s kind of cool. So yeah, if the right thing comes up,
and if doing the big movies lets you shoot the smaller ones. Kate Winslet
has that figured out.
But
if it were up to you you’d be more inclined to choose the indie
movies?
You know, it depends on the script. Yeah, the last four or five movies
I’ve shot have been relatively low-budget, but that’s just
been the scripts that I responded to.
You’ve
been cast in some pretty extreme roles in the last couple of years:
a teenage torturer in Hard Candy, a teenage torture victim
in An American Crime... is it you, or is it just the scripts?
I don’t know. I think they’re just two separate scripts
that at different times I responded to. I mean, Hard Candy
was one of the best scripts I ever read, and a character that I madly
wanted to play. And An American Crime was a film that I thought
was telling a story that really needed to be told, and it just kind
of happened. I always want to challenge myself, and those roles were
very challenging. But being in a film like Juno about a lighter human
side of life was really good too because I’d been shooting a lot
of darker, edgy material, and it felt wonderful to do a film that was
honest, but had an element of lightness to it.
What
do you think you would you be doing if you weren’t acting?
I’d probably be in school and traveling. I’ve always been
interested in studying psychology because you have to be rich to talk
about your problems, and I always thought it would be really nice to
be a psychologist for young kids or teenagers or whoever can’t
afford $140 an hour to talk about things.
I
heard you write your own songs. Do you have any plans to record any
of them?
No, I’m not good enough.
What
are the songs like?
Some of them are folk, some of them are weird and sexually intense,
but super-cute. Like Peaches meets Kimya Dawson.
You’ve
described yourself as a feminist...
All I mean by that is that I would like women to be equal to men, so
I’d probably hope that everyone’s a feminist. Women still
get paid less than men, and women’s bodies are still treated like
ornaments, and young girls are being hypersexualised, and it’s
really unfortunate. I hope that most people would be feminists, whether
male or female.
Another
obvious imbalance is the lack of female film directors. Do you have
any ambitions to direct?
Oh yes, I would love to direct. And I’d love to see more female
directors. Actually, one of my favourite films is Ratcatcher
by Lynne Ramsay, she’s incredible. To me she’s like a modern
female Truffaut. I know that’s like a BIG statement to make but
I just think Ratcatcher’s brilliant.
Are
you a romantic person?
I do think I’m totally romantic, it’s disgusting. But I
think that’s good. I think love’s a really exciting thing
that we can hopefully all identify with, but I’m not, like, a
diamonds are a girl’s best friend kind of girl. Anyone who gets
me is really lucky because I’m not really crazy about jewelry
or flowers.
What
advice would you give to a ten-year-old actress starting out today?
It sounds remarkably cheesy and corny but, like, “Be yourself,
and be 100% honest and sincere. People will abuse you and mistreat you,
and you have to be aware of that. It’s easy to be young and naïve
and think that everyone cares about you. They don’t”.
Juno
Diablo Cody interview - Screenwriter
Alison Janney interview - Juno's stepmother
Bren
Juno
Review
