Ellen Page spoke to Time magazine about her role in the upcoming movie Freeheld, being an LGBT advocate, and why you should NEVER call her brave.
“When people are called brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that’s borderline offensive,” she said. “I’m never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be.” PREACH, HONEY.
In fact, she doesn’t think actors should be called brave, period. “Maybe this is a bad thing to say, but I have a hard time when people call actors brave. I don’t really get that, because our job is to read something on a page.”
RIGHT? RIGHT? It’s called ACTING. People do it every day! By the same token, let’s stop commending gay actors for being convincing when the play it straight (*cough. NPH. cough*).
Unfortunately, we need to brace ourselves for a whole new round of this “offensive” practice because this fall we have Eddie Redmayne playing transgender pioneer Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara falling in love in Carol, James Franco in I Am Michael, and then of course there’s Stonewall…. I feel like we’re going to be subjected to MONTHS of hearing how brave they all were…. And nominating them for taking on such daring projects…. GROAN.
Anyway, Ellen went on to talk about needing diversity in films –
“That’s obviously the huge issue, particularly for the LGBT community, but any minority. Native American and Native Canadian people: Where are these stories? I want to see these stories! And I’m hoping the shift is going to come really quick now. It’s evident from what people are watching on television that people want diversity. They want it. Whether they consciously know it or not, I’m not sure, but look at Orange is the New Black. You’re seeing actors that, if that show didn’t exist, we might not have ever seen—that are extraordinary. It makes me excited because the whole reason to go to a film is to disappear into another world, and to have your humanity connect with someone else’s, who you might not ever meet in your life! To be moved and have more compassion, that’s the wonderful thing all art can do, and particularly film! I want to see gay stories, of course, because I’m gay, and I want to connect to a reflection of my life on film. But I also want to see what it’s like to be a young Native person, African-American, African-Canadian. Hopefully that will keep changing.”
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