TORONTO — Canadian actress Ellen Page hopes talking about her battle with depression will help others.
“I was sad, honestly,” she admitted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And obviously that’s a very personal thing to say, but I say it to encourage whatever other people are feeling. Very sad, isolated, a lot of anxiety.”
Those feelings have gone away, Page said, since coming out publicly in a speech on Valentine’s Day.
Page said she was in Montreal the following day to do re-shoots for X-Men: Days of Future Past, which was shot in the city last summer.
“I can remember sitting behind monitors with Hugh Jackman, and he was like, ‘You seem so different already!’ And I was like, ‘I feel different already.'”
WATCH: Canadian actress Ellen Page reflects on coming out
The 27-year-old Halifax native told THR she thought about coming out for many years.
“For so long I just sort of thought, ‘You just can’t. I love being an actor, it’s a huge part of my life, so I’m going to keep that private.’ And, ‘Oh, I have to keep it private because my job is about creating an illusion’ and kind of all those bulls–t excuses,” she said. “Because I don’t see heterosexual actresses going to great lengths to hide their heterosexuality.”
Page said she was inspired by a segment on the CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight last summer featuring sex columnist Dan Savage.
“He was like, ‘It’s a social responsibility and a moral imperative,'” recalls Page. “And I was like, ‘You’re right. You’re really intense — but you’re right.'”
Page also weighed in on the scandal involving her X-Men director Bryan Singer, calling the allegations that Singer sexually assaulted a teen “super, super disturbing.”
She added: “I guess the truth will come out in the way that it does, but it’s hard to hear about someone being in that situation, someone you like working with. Whatever comes of it. I do think that there’s a systemic issue of people in places of power manipulating and abusing young people.”
Page told THR she doesn’t want to have a child but would love to raise one. And she reaffirmed she has no regrets about her decision to come out.
“I knew I would be happier,” she said. “But I wouldn’t have anticipated just how f—ing happy I am and how every tiny little aspect of my life feels better.”
Comments