Not the Girl Next Door: Ellen Page Meets a Wicked Cool Match in 'Juno'

By Lisa Collins , Hollywood.com Staff | Thursday, December 06, 2007

Ellen Page

She really digs the toughie teen girl '70s film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane--how appropriate for someone who’s clearly not "the girl next door."

There’s a certain muscularity to her petite frame and an unspoken swagger to her utterly casual aura. Both intelligent and dead-pan at once, boyishly cute alterna-girl Ellen Page is the 20-year-old Nova Scotian actress whose name has been recently bantered about--for buzz studio indie Juno--in all sorts of critics' circles that are predicting everything from a Best Actress Indie Spirit award to an Oscar nom. She’s the one to watch.

Yet you get the feeling she'd more rather disappear into the fabric of her acting work--precisely what she achieved in her deft portrayal of Juno, a curiously glib, musically-inclined teen, who discovers she's pregnant with her best bud’s baby--and subsequently embarks on a daunting mission to set-up her unborn child with loving, secure adoptive parents--who have some 'edge.'

Costarring Michael Cera as her subdued, runner boyfriend Bleeker, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Allison Janney to name a few, Juno has been the It film of the season; perhaps making Page--who first garnered critical attention in 2005's Hard Candy--the It star of this awards-films season.

Then again, don’t bother assigning any clichés or labels to this sharp starlet as she’s one-of-a-kind. On that note, in strolls vested, hoodied-up Ellen...

Juno Movie Still
Hollywood.com: Are you as witty and on your feet as the character you play?
Ellen Page: Well … hmm … probably not as consistently. I’m more of a "Milk Dud" as my friend and I would call it. Milk Duds to us are one of those candies that are like, "Who eats Milk Duds?" Sorry if you really like Milk Duds. So when someone tries to be funny and it doesn’t work we go, "Millllk Duuuud!!"

HW: You have a great guitar duet with your onscreen bandmate 'boyfriend' Bleeker; how did the musical aspect come about?
EP: The whole '70s punk aspect is in the script which was great because I like that kind of music. It’s not crazy that Juno was into it. One of the first times I met Jason Reitman [director] he asked what kind of music I thought Juno listened to and I said The Moldy Peaches and he hadn’t heard of them so I played them for him and he fell in love and next thing I knew that song was going to be in the movie.

HW: Are you musically inclined?
EP: Oh yeah, I play the guitar.

HW: What other musicians have inspired you as an artist?
EP: I’m a massive Patty Smyth fan. I love Radiohead, love their new album … I could go on, and on--and on.

Michael Cera at the Los Angeles Premiere of 'Juno' at the Mann's Village Theatre. Westwood, CA - 12-03-07
HW: Did you have to audition for this role?
EP: Umm well, no. Basically Jason Reitman was really interested. I did a screen test with him and Michael Cera. We just filmed a bunch of the movie, literally 45 pages I had to learn, basically half of the movie. That’s on the DVD actually.

HW: How did you get into acting?
EP: I fell into it when I was ten. I was asked to audition for something by a local casting director just because I was short and had brown hair basically ... It was for a CBC [Canadian Broadcast Corporation] movie-of-the-week entitled Pit Pony.

HW: For an awkward teen couple, your characters Juno and Bleeker have such an organic chemistry. What do you attribute that to?
EP: I think it’s just the genuine admiration. I think they just really do love each other. There’s nothing contrived about it. They have a really beautiful connection and it’s such a wonderful thing. My best friend in junior high school was a boy and he was extremely sweet and sensitive and kind of a nerd--well, he was like fourth in his age group in the National Canadian Chess competition … so fill in the blank. And I can actually recall people would be like, "Why do you hang out with him?!" He was truly my absolute best friend, and we did absolutely everything together.

Juno
HW: Did your relationship on-screen with Michael Cera spill into real life?
EP: Yeah, I adore Michael. We get along great. He is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. I really, yeah, I love spending time with Michael. He is just a tremendously genuine, honest, lovely guy.

HW: Have you seen Arrested Development? And what about Cera on the cult show?
EP: Huge fan. I’d seen every episode … Working with him and Jason [Bateman] was wonderful.

HW: Do you appreciate giving a certain fresh voice to female teens in your role?
EP: Especially, Diablo talks about this a lot, how teenage girls are misrepresented often, and so are boys. It’s definitely some of them but it’s nice that it gets represented here.

Diablo Cody
HW: It seems like things just fell together. Was that the case?
EP: This was one of those rare filming experiences where everything felt pretty wonderful all the time. I feel like everyone read Diablo Cody’s script and fell in love with it. Everyone was coming together because everyone was so excited about the project and being involved. So there wasn’t any ego attached.

HW: What did you love with about the script?
EP: Although it was unique and witty and all those things, it was unbelievably genuine and honest. I felt that it was devoid of stereotype. Whenever you think you know where it’s going to go, or you think you know what a character is going to do, it doesn’t do that. It had a teenage female lead that we’ve never seen before--so I was pretty stoked.

HW: Can you expand on how teenagers are misrepresented?
EP: I’ve been really lucky and I’ve gotten to play some really great young women. I always get this label that I play such "strong, feminist roles." If I was a guy no one would ever say, "Emile Hirsch? He plays such strong, young men." The fact that question would even be asked to me is insulting and I get it a lot. It clearly shows that we [as a society] have a lot of work to do. I just feel like teenagers for instance aren’t really treated like human beings. I don’t know. It’s a drag.

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