TONIGHT
E-mail a friendEllen Page
original airdate January 10, 2008
Prior to her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the comedy Juno, Ellen Page was already considered one of the most promising young actresses in her native Canada. She's known for diverse roles and has film credits that include X-Men: The Last Stand, Marion Bridge and the indie, Hard Candy. Page began her professional career at age 10, on the award-winning Canadian TV series Pit Pony. She has roles in four in-the-can films, including An American Crime, The Tracey Fragments and Smart People.
Juno star comments on Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears and explains how she stays levelheaded. (2:14)
Ellen Page
Tavis: Ellen Page is a talented young actress who's turned in one of the most talked-about performances of the entire film season, "Juno." She's up for a Golden Globe award this weekend in the category of best actress, and the film itself is up for best picture. Here now, a scene from "Juno."
[Clip]
Tavis: That was funny. Hi, Ellen, nice to meet you.
Ellen Page: You, too.
Tavis: Glad to have you here.
Page: Thanks for having me.
Tavis: This is, without question, the biggest indie of the year. Did you have any idea that this thing was going to hit the way it has?
Page: No, I don't think you never know or ever expect it to accomplish what it's accomplished. But in retrospect, Diablo Cody wrote one of the best screenplays I've ever read and Jason Reitman, I just adore him, and the cast I got to work with is incredible. So it makes an okay package, I guess.
Tavis: Yeah, not bad. So this script comes across your desk. What is it for you - the film obviously has resonated with so many people. What made it resonate with you to want to play the character?
Page: Well, I feel like it was just a teenage female lead that we've never seen before, which was remarkably refreshing.
Tavis: Never seen before in what way?
Page: A young woman who's articulate and witty and honest and kind of abrupt and not really apologetic.
Tavis: Right, not ditzy.
Page: Yeah, yeah. Kind of branching away from stereotype. I think we're used to seeing something so much, and that exists and that's great. But maybe we need to broaden the horizons sometime.
Tavis: How does this particular character fit into the characters that you have played in the past?
Page: I feel like I have been pretty lucky. I'm kind of, I think, patient and I've had the opportunity to read different scripts and I've been really lucky to actually play some really awesome young women.
Tavis: You have any idea, from your perspective, at least, why this thing has hit this way? I asked you earlier did you think it was going to hit this way. It's connected with young people, it's connected with viewers who've gone back to see it two and three times. For what reason, do you think?
Page: I feel like it's a really honest depiction of teenagers. And again, I feel like because it's a teenage female lead we haven't seen before, this is exciting for a lot of young women. A lot of girls are like Juno in high school, and they don't always get their due in popular media, and it's about time. It's about time that this character isn't such a surprise, or does a teenage girl like this really exist?
I get questions like that. And it's like of course. And the fact that you're asking me that question shows that more films like this need to be made. And I feel like it's an ensemble piece but each individual character has their own specific journey, and that feels really, really honest. It's something a lot of people can connect to.
Tavis: I got a few more questions to ask, but I am not going to ask do teenage girls like this really exist.
Page: Okay, thanks. Thanks.
Tavis: I'll get cussed out for asking that stupid question. How cool is it - and I say cool, but I'm making an assumption; I'm not sure you're cool with it, although you do it extremely well in "Juno." Next month, you turn 21.
Page: Twenty-one, yeah.
Tavis: On what day?
Page: The 21st.
Tavis: So you're 21 on February 21st?
Page: Yeah, yeah.
Tavis: How cool is that?
Page: It's kind of fun.
Tavis: All right, so you turn 21 next month; the character in the film is 16. I know a lot of women who would love to be five, six years older than the characters that they play. Is that a good thing for you, or do you want to grow out of this?
Page: It definitely has its pros and cons, but I think all in all it's great because people can make you look older and as an actor, it's a good quality. I'm sure I'll love it when I'm older. Right now, it can be frustrating.
Tavis: What I find fascinating is that when many of us - I can't speak for everybody, obviously - when many of us get to that age of 21 or beyond 21, this whole adult thing is so important to each of us that most of us are trying to put those teenage years behind us. We want to be grown. We want to be independent.
I know this is what you do for a living, but you have to put yourself in the mindset, when you're on the verge of being 21, of going back to being a 16-year-old to play this part.
Page: Yeah. I think it's - I feel like teenagers are human beings too, and she's pretty -
Tavis: They are?
Page: Yeah.
Tavis: I'm just teasing.
Page: And she's a pretty kind of whole, honest individual and she definitely has an element of arrogance which comes with, I think, being 16, and naive to a lot of aspects. But that's just a part of our growth which I could definitely connect to in how I guess I probably acted and was like when I was 16.
Tavis: So are you being asked by people to give advice now to teenagers and talk to teenagers a lot more frequently and make appearances and that kind of stuff?
Page: I haven't approached that. No, not a lot.
Tavis: This weekend, as I mentioned earlier, the Golden Globe awards, and I don't know how you feel, but it's my show, I can tell you how I feel.
Page: Okay.
Tavis: Here's how I felt. I see the movie, you do a remarkable job, it's a wonderful honor to be up for best actress for the Golden Globes, and it just happens to come for you, as we all know, in the year where there's a writer's strike. And if I read the press release right, the Golden Globes is going to have a press conference because of the writer's strike. They're not doing the show; they have a press conference, announce the winners, and send you your trophy in the mail somewhere. That angers you? Does that make you feel - this is your moment and you're, like, not getting to go on stage and give a speech, should you win, and all that good stuff.
Page: Right. Of course it's like, oh, well - what do you do? Worse things have happened in the world, and a lot of people are being hurt a lot more than I am because of the strike. So you just kind of roll with it. It is what it is, and I support the writers, obviously, so yeah.
Tavis: For those who have come to know you through this particular project - it's not the first thing you've done, obviously; you've been out there for a while acting. Tell me about your back story, how you got into this acting business, and particularly being from Nova Scotia.
Page: Nova Scotia, yeah. Yeah, I'm from Nova Scotia.
Tavis: A long away from Hollywood.
Page: Yeah. It's pretty much, yeah, the opposite on the continent. I just fell into it, I guess, when I was 10. I was asked by a local casting director to audition for something and I did, and I was short and had brown hair so I got the role. A lot's changed since then.
Tavis: You're still short and you still got brown hair.
Page: I'm still short and I still have brown hair, so it's working for me.
Tavis: Yeah, it's working for you. (Laughter)
Page: It's really working for me well. And then it was just supposed to be a neat little experience, but then that turned into a television show which turned into something else and so on and so forth until I was about 15 or 16 and I just started really falling in love with it, yeah.
Tavis: As you well know, a lot of young persons who start acting 10, younger, end up having a hard way to go. Ass a matter of fact I just read in the "New York Post" that Jamie Lynn Spears actually loves "Juno," which I find interesting, given what she's going through, but that's another commentary for another time, for all you Jamie Lynn Spears fans out there.
Page: Well, thank you to the Spears sisters.
Tavis: We'll send the tape in case they don't see that.
Page: Because they get a lot of publicity, so.
Tavis: They get a lot of publicity. She said today that she loves "Juno," so maybe that'll drive some ticket sales for your show. That said, though, a lot of kids who start acting really young end up having difficulty along the way. You've chosen to stay in Nova Scotia, and did I read somewhere that you don't even have a car?
Page: Yeah, I don't, but I can also be really annoying to friends, get them to drive me somewhere on cold days.
Tavis: How do you get around, like, bicycle or something?
Page: In the summer, yeah. In the winter, it's a littlie more difficult. But it's a small city and I live in an area where I can walk to -
Tavis: I only ask that because it seems to me that that must have something to do with the way that you are so levelheaded and just cool about what's happening for you right now.
Page: I feel like I'm really lucky. I have really great parents that were never weirdoes and never forced me into anything. (Laughter) Because I have worked with some kids and younger actors who have really crazy parents. And I just never had that at all.
Tavis: The movie is "Juno" and I'm glad that her - we can't choose our family; we can choose our friends, not our family, so I'm glad your parents weren't weirdoes. They did a good job with Ellen Page, and she does a great job in the movie "Juno." Up for a Golden Globe, she is, for best actress this weekend. Good luck to you.
Page: Thank you very much, yeah.
Tavis: Nice to have you here.
Page: Thank you.
Back to January 10, 2008