Ellen Page

Interview By: Dan Portnoy
DanielPortnoy@TheCinemaSource.com

What better way to welcome the transition into adulthood than to have a starring role in one of this year's most talked about films' All I did on my eighteenth birthday was buy a few lottery tickets that ended up costing more than they made me, but you can't win if you don't play right' For young actress Ellen Page, rather than scratching off a few winless lottery tickets, she's beginning a career that demands a different kind of ticket all together. While with one lucky ticket you can make it big, when it comes to Ellen the box office quantity is the winning number. But Ellen is optimistic, and rightfully so because with Hard Candy, a film containing subject matter already generating quite a stir, there probably won't be any need for luck.

Hard Candy is powerful and disturbing, you may love it or hate it but no matter which way you feel you will be profoundly affected. Page plays Hayley, an insightful, proactive fourteen year old girl who sees a problem within her community. The problem lies within Jeff (Patrick Wilson) a middle aged man with a 'thing' for teenagers. Hayley, who by no coincidence meets Jeff on the internet and eventually winds up at his home. With the wheels in motion, Hayley prepares to un-hatch a scheme she has concocted to force Jeff to come clean about his lifestyle and the disappearance of a little girl named Donna Mauer. But what if Jeff doesn't want to reveal his secrets' Clever little Hayley has a way to get him talking'

Ellen was immediately attracted to the role of Hayley and the film which brought her to life. A once and a lifetime chance and besides, how many more years does Ellen have to be able to play a fourteen year old' And according to Ellen, 'how often do you read a script and have the opportunity to play a character like that. It just astounded me'I can't tell you how ecstatic I was and how grateful I was to have that script in my lap.' Hayley, unique and exciting but human and real, is what makes the character so effective. 'I just let my heart connect to it'I really was interested in her not being a superhero and establishing a sense of vulnerability.' To see this young girl step into this grown up world and take it upon herself to try and make a difference, is remarkably heroic but at the same time she is still only fourteen, and it's because of that contrast that the film is able to achieve its goal.

So what kind of person is Hayley' Aside from my brief characterization, I'll let Ellen give you the run down. 'Hayley is an extremely intelligent, passionate fourteen year old girl who basically sees something wrong with society and she's decided she's going to do something about it. Other than that you pretty much know nothing.' What I do know is that Hayley was placed in some pretty volatile situations which produced some troubling images as a result. Ellen wasn't concerned about acting in these situations because she believed in the character, and she believed in the film. She didn't feel the need to contest what she was doing. 'I don't think I wanted to debate the issues at all because if I took any kind of moralistic approach on it then... [pause] I believed one hundred percent in what I was doing and there was no point in me debating anything. I had an agenda and I was going to accomplish it.'

Yet another thing that helped the film along was the flexibility and guidance of the film's director, David Slade. And although they were shooting with an extremely limited amount of time, if the actors had any suggestions he was open to them. For Ellen in particular, this was very refreshing. 'He was always so open he gave me so much room to just experiment and flail my body around; you know really kind of express myself in ways that weren't on the page.' Then was improvisation an essential part of this film' 'There wasn't an extensive amount of improv but at the same time if I felt something, like if I really felt something, I could go to David.' Sometimes those impulses or feelings to change something or do it a different way really adds to a film. But once you have the final product your left with all the stuff that worked no matter how it evolved.

'I just started this thing, I'm just learning, I'm just trying to figure it out,' is what Ellen told me referring to her budding film career. No stranger to the entertainment industry, Ellen Page has been on screen since 1997, the television screen that is, in the series Pit Pony. Since then she has taken on a number of projects and has just begun inching her way into cinema. But when it comes to working in film, or any high stress job for that matter, there're always ups and downs. 'It can be really exhilarating and it can be really, really draining'I'm learning to establish a balance.' There's plenty of time for that in the upcoming years, and just like in any other job, you get used to it.

With a film as controversial as Hard Candy, one wonders how family and friends of the film's stars react seeing their sibling or friend, namely Ellen, placed into the types of situations she experiences in the film. 'My father saw it, he loved the film, he said 'I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach' and I said 'good.'' Her father wasn't the only one who was strongly impacted; two of Ellen's close friends enjoyed the film on a similar level. And according to Ellen they couldn't stop talking about it. 'When you shoot something it's all about the experience and the moment, but as a human being you want something you do to be successful and to touch people and provoke people and that's what's art and that's what film should do.'

Coming up for Ellen is the release of X-Men: The Last Stand, hitting theaters this summer where she joins the mutant squad as Shadowcat. Aside from other upcoming projects brewing Ellen has also already given some thought to writing and directing. 'For sure, but it seems very intimidating, very intimidating thing to do. But I would love to learn more and do that at some point, there's ideas running around in here.' So until the credits bear written by and directed by followed by Ellen Page, audiences have the chance to get to know her acting, particularly in this year's unconventional drama Hard Candy. 'It's a risky one. It's really not very formulaic and cut and dry and here's your hero and here's your bad guy, enjoy, here's your popcorn.'