Ellen Page: ‘Don’t tell straight actors they’re brave for playing gay’
By Will Stroude
Ellen Page has revealed she doesn’t have time for people who tell straight actors and actresses that they’re brave for playing gay, saying she find it “borderline offensive”.
The 28-year-old, who came out publicly last year and will soon star opposite Julianne Moore in Freeheld as one half of a lesbian couple fighting for legal rights, took issue when an interviewer for Time said it was “brave” to sign up to the LGBT drama film.
“Maybe this is a bad thing to say, but I have a hard time when people call actors brave,” Page replied.
“I don’t really get that, because our job is to read something on a page.”
The X-Men star – who was recently filmed confronting anti-gay Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz about LGBT issues at a state fair – added: “When people are [called] brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that’s borderline offensive.”
“I’m never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be.”
Page will also soon star as a lesbian marine serving in Iraq in new true story drama Lioness – click here to find out more.
Freeheld will be released to selected US cinemas on October 2, while a UK release date has yet to be confirmed. Watch the trailer below:
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