Ellen Page whips it (on roller skates)
Juno put Ellen Page on the map with an indie film phenomenon and Oscar nomination for the teen pregnancy comedy. Her first major film since then, Whip It, opens Friday. This wasn't her first film since Juno - that was Smart People that opened last year; but after the success of the movie that made her one of Hollywood's hottest young actors, she waited for the right film to come next. At least it seems that way from the outside.
"To be honest, there's not a whole lot of strategy really with me," Page admitted. "I just kind of do what I feel like doing and I'm really lucky that I work with great people who understand that and know what I want and are very, very supportive, if anything want me to work less than more. They want quality over quantity and if I do something I don't care about, I'm going to suck."
The release of Juno provided the right opportunity for Page to take some personal time. It also coincidentally put her in the prime position to take her pick of A-list projects when she returned.
"To be honest with you, after Juno, I'd been working so, so much leading up to that in my life, I decided to take a year off and I went backpacking through eastern Europe with my best friend and I went camping in Newfoundland. It's only because I wanted time for myself. That's why this happened."
Feeling her endorphin rush
Whip It casts Page as Bliss Cavendar, a small town girl grudgingly doing the pageant circuit at the behest of her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). She discovers roller derby after a chance encounter with some tough derby girls. She joins the crew and becomes their jammer, scoring points against brutal elbows and tackles on the track.
Page looks her happiest skating around the track. That is partly the character of Bliss coming into her own, and partly the real Page feeling her endorphin rush. "It's both. I mean, I'm playing someone who's found something that ignites a passion and fire within them. That feeling is amazing. I always played sports as a kid and loved it, played soccer really competitively and then I got to be paid to throw my body and my mind into something. I loved roller derby so I was having a blast."
Despite her petite frame, Page really soared through the blockers and around the track. It took her three months to learn to be a jammer. "Yup, that's me all right. I just had a blast. It's funny because I know I'm a tiny little thing but I've always been a tiny thing and I've always played sports. It was never anything that made me hesitate at all. If anything, it made me more aggressive. It made me faster. It made me a feisty little asshole and being able to roller derby, I mean being big obviously really helps but being tiny can be an asset as well, especially as a jammer because you can weave in and out of people."
The derby is at odds with the pageant life her mother wants Bliss to achieve. Bliss can only keep it a secret for so long before her derby stardom smacks mom in the face. The film is as much about dealing with the generational clash of values as the world of roller derby.
Felt really honest
"I mean, the roller derby aspect was incredibly enticing and the prospect of learning that sport was incredibly exciting. Then the relationships to me in this film felt incredibly sincere and talking with [director] Drew [Barrymore] and knowing what her vision was, I was really into exploring that with her and a mother/daughter story that felt like not something we'd ever really seen before. It felt really honest to me and a mother and daughter who loved each other and cared about one another and had, through the transitions that they've gone through in both of their lives, have this disconnect that causes problems between them."
Other films might simplify the teenage rebellion. Whip It made sure to portray both derby and pageantry as sincere pursuits, just not both right for Bliss.
"We really had this, for lack of a better word, 'coming of age,' story that comes along with some baggage and all the relationships, to me, took a slightly unconventional, and to me, very real sincere look at the relationships. The relationship with her mother I thought was very powerful because she wasn't just, 'F-you mom, this is what I want to do!' She adores her mother and loves her mother and is craving that connection with her mother but has found this thing she's madly passionate about and it's making her feel guilty and torn inside because she loves her mother so much.
"I think it's a really interesting time in a lot of people's lives where they start developing independence, where they start to become adults and thus the old relationships are shifting as you're developing your new ones and your new way of connecting and you being in the world is a really interesting time in everyone's life and of course the relationship progresses."
Real life relations between Page and her mom, Martha Phillpotts, are a little smoother. "My mother is someone who is so incredibly compassionate. She recently retired this year and she was always a teacher and had a full time job and managed to give me so much and so much of her time and so much support that first and foremost just cares about if I'm happy and healthy and balanced and she's just the sweetest thing.
"So I think for being so supportive in that way has been really inspiriting for me and not attaching herself into the world that I found myself in, do you know what I mean? My mom is a tough cookie and she's been through a lot in her life and is a really amazing woman."
Whip It catches Bliss at a time when her personal relationships are evolving. So too have Page's real life friendships changed over time. "I've had really close friends at different times in my life. Junior High school my best friend was a guy named Alex and we were absolutely inseparable and then in high school I had a couple of friends in high school that are two of my best friends and yeah, of course, they are the most important relationships to me.'
Maintains that irony
Bliss is only one year older than Juno was. Page can still pass for 17, and might ride that as long as Hollywood will let her. She has no agenda to graduate from teenage roles.
"Oh God, it's totally just dependent on characters to be honest with you and what I fall in love with and what I want to do."
Though Bliss let her express a more sincere character, Page maintains the sardonic irony she expressed as Juno and in her publicity for previous films. Following her costar Juliette Lewis into an interview room, Page remarked, "That was Juliette fucking Lewis."
Then she feigned indifference to the thrill of working with a legend. "Meh," she laughed. "You know, whatever. It's just what I do, you guys. It's what I do."
Perhaps that sense of humor also helps her keep her acclaim in perspective. She acknowledges the honor of her Oscar nomination without letting it go to her head.
"I mean, it changes thing. Yeah, career wise of course, it really changes things and thus for your job, it's such a huge gift because being able to just work as an actor is a gift, let alone to be able to pick and choose what you want to do. That's a really, really massive thing to happen to anyone. I mean, it's weird. It's weird to just be grateful to be in a movie and be excited to make a small movie that you believe in and for all that to happen, it's very strange."
Still, that's not what she's in this business for. "It's nice when people like things but it really doesn't affect me whether people like things or not or like me or not. I'm so grateful to be able to do what I do right now and I take every moment as it comes and I had an amazing experience on this, one of the best in my life."
At least it must be nice to know you're good. "Do I know when I'm good? Oh God, no. I do my thing and hopefully it works for people. It probably works for some people and not for everyone and it's just the way that it is."
Whip It opens Friday.