Get used to the name Ellen Page
By JANE STEVENSON, SUN MEDIA
Halifax actress Ellen Page says she coveted the role of the titular wise-cracking, pregnant teenage character she plays in the comedy Juno, which has earned her rave reviews and plenty of awards circuit honours.
The film, directed by Montreal-born, L.A.-based Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking), opens in Toronto today.
BLOWN AWAY
"I read the script awhile ago, actually, it's kind of been a couple of years ago, and I was just blown away," said Page, 20, while in T.O. for the film festival back in September. "And I'm the first to admit when I shouldn't be playing a role, you know? But I read it and I was like, 'Oh, my God, all I want is to do that role.' So I'm just really grateful."
Recently, Page, who also played Kitty Pryde, a.k.a. Shadowcast in X-Men: The Last Man Standing, was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical.
She also has best actress nods from the Critics' Choice Awards and the Film Independent Spirit Awards, won the National Board Of Review trophy for best breakthrough performance by an actress, and the Gotham Award for breakthrough actor. Page also was nominated but lost out to Julie Christie (Away From Her) for the best actress award from the New York Film Critics Circle.
Reitman was impressed by Page in 2005's tough indie drama, Hard Candy, in which she played a smart, scalpel-wielding teenager who lures a pedophile photographer to an empty house with the promise of sex. "I just thought she was brilliant in it and when I read Juno, there really wasn't anyone else I could imagine playing it," Reitman said. "And then I met Ellen and fell in love with her."
Page said Juno, a brash and sassy 16-year-old who finds herself pregnant by her softspoken friend Paulie (Brampton, Ont.'s Michael Cera of Arrested Development fame) and goes in search of the appropriate adoptive parents (Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman), is an exceptional character as penned by first-time screenwriter and former stripper Diablo Cody.
"I think it's appealing to play someone that's branching outside typical stereotypes that I think we're really stuck in," said Page. "And to be a 16 year-old girl in a film and be able to wear sweater vests was a thrill. I was like, 'I'm wearing a sweater vest!' "
LOVE SCENE
"That's the reason you did the movie," deadpanned Reitman at her side at a news conference.
"That and the love scene with Michael Cera," said Page, with a smile. "I just have to be honest."
Seriously, the two actors have a lovely scene at the end of the movie where they play acoustic guitars and sing together and Reitman said Page was instructive in letting him know what kind of music her character would listen to in the film.
"Very early on, Ellen was over at my office one day and I asked her, 'What do you think Juno would listen to?' And she jumped on my computer and said, 'The Moldy Peaches!' And she just like looked it up and started playing it for me. And thus began my love affair with Kimya Dawson and The Moldy Peaches. And I searched out Kimya, who is the lead female singer from that group, they had since disbanded but she had recorded many solo albums, and her sound became the sound of the film and it was very exciting."
Page said she researched the pregnant teen role by going "to Chapters. I bought Pregnancy For Dummies. Awkward moment because the cashier was probably suspicious considering I look 14."
Reitman also had two eight-month-pregnant bellys made for Page to wear in the film -- a heavier photo realistic version and a lighter foam version -- the latter which the director later found out she never wore due to it's foul smell. "It smelled like rotten eggs," said Page. "And that was awkward when you're waiting in a room for them to say action and there's like an A.D. next to you that's supposed to give you your cue and you're just like thinking, 'It's not me, I swear.' "