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We saw Ellen Page in Hard Candy but obviously it was Juno that made her famous. Even after X-Men, Juno was her lead role and was nominated for Oscars, including her. She took some time off and now she’s back in Whip It, a roller derby movie directed by Drew Barrymore. Page plays Bliss, a small town girl whose mom wants her in beauty pageants, but she discovers the cool tough girls on the rink.
Crave Online: What has life been like post Oscar nomination?
Ellen Page: Just how was it being nominated? 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.
Crave Online: You look so happy skating around in this. Was that the character or did skating bring that out in you?
Ellen Page: 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.
Crave Online: Is this the last teenager you’ll play or will you ride that as long as you can?
Ellen Page: 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.
Crave Online: Was there a strategy in taking time before doing another leading role?
Ellen Page: No, to be honest, there’s not a whole lot of strategy really with me. 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. 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.
Crave Online: Was it the Southern values or the roller derby that appealed to you about Whip It?
Ellen Page: All things. 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 Drew 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 just, through the transitions that they’ve gone through in both of their lives have just, this disconnect’s been created and caused problems between the two.
Crave Online: What was it like getting your little body prepared to be a jammer?
Ellen Page: 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 *sshole 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.
Crave Online: Do you miss skating now?
Ellen Page: Yeah, but I still make sure I do it. My derby trainer, I mean we trained together for like three months so we became friends. So I called her the other day and we went for a little skate. I can’t really derby right now obviously because I’m shooting a movie, but we just kind of do much mellower skating.
Crave Online: What caught you about that? What inspired you to get so good?
Ellen Page: Oh, well, I always grew up playing sports so I’m already attracted to anything that allows me to use my body and my mind and just throw it into something. It was exciting to learn something new. I know this sounds weird because I’m so young and I know I’m so young and I’m 22 but still it’s like there’s not a lot of stuff that you’re just learning like that anymore, do you know what I mean? To be able to be just completely humbled by not being able to do something at all and to work really hard to figure out how to perform well at this and to be able to do all the stunts was exciting.
Crave Online: Did you do any adjunct like strength training or orbit training?
Ellen Page: Yeah, I worked with a great trainer named Harley Pasternak and other people that work with Harley. This awesome guy named Andre. They just whipped my butt into shape. I was working with them five days a week and then training for derby three days a week, so that’s all I did.
Crave Online: Will we see you in Venice on the boardwalk?
Ellen Page: Yeah, on Sundays I was going to Silverlake with my derby trainers.
