“For so long I thought, ‘Oh, I have to keep it private because my job is about creating an illusion’ and all those bullshit excuses,” says Page of being closeted. She was photographed April 23 at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles.
Styling by Samantha McMillen; On Page: Saint Laurent blouse and pants.
Ellen Page’s Decision
Although no single incident led to her decision, she does reference a DanSavage appearance in July 2013 on the Canadian talk show George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight as having had a profound effect on her. Savage, the in-your-face columnist behind the “It Gets Better” campaign, laid out his argument for coming out in very plain terms. “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.’ ” By early fall, her mind was made up.
Ellen Page
“Sometimes I think when you’re like, ‘Hey, I don’t give a shit,’ that’s the moment where people don’t give a shit.”
Ellen Page’s Coming-Out Speech
Six years after her pseudo-coming-out on SNL, on Feb. 14, 2014, Page stood at the precipice of the real thing. Or lay, rather, on a bed in one of the lower-brow properties on the Vegas Strip, waiting out the several torturous hours before she was scheduled to take the stage. The speech was written, its words having flowed from her as naturally as “breathing” — particularly the most personal passages, in which she decried the “crushing standards” of the media machine. “I had to read it to a lot — like, a lot — of family members and friends to get to a place where I didn’t cry the whole time,” she says.
Ellen Page on Fashion
Says Page, “I get more hate, honestly, about dressing androgynously than about being gay.”
On Page: Prada sweater.
Page on Early Dating Experiences
“I sort of was like, ‘What? This is what the whole world freaks out about? And every poem is about? I don’t get it at all,” says Page on her early experiences dating men.
Ellen Page on Dresses
“I used to say in photo shoots, ‘I would rather be in boy underwear with my hands on my tits than put that thing on.’”
Ellen Page Today
“I knew I would be happier,” she says. “But I wouldn’t have anticipated just how f—ing happy I am and how every tiny little aspect of my life feels better.”