"Whipping It Good" With Ellen Page

Witty, preggers teen Juno won our hearts and launched the career of petite, feisty 22-year-old actress Ellen Page. Now it's all over the media that she and Drew Barrymore, her co-star/director of the new gal-empowering roller derby film Whip It, are "besties" and maybe more. We just met with them on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood and we didn't get that "more" vibe but then who cares about their personal lives? They are both ultra-talented, smart, fun, independent and just plain very good in this kick butt new film that both women gave their "alls" to.

Ellen plays Bliss, a small town Texas teen who just doesn't agree with her mom that beauty pageants are the key to future success and happiness for a teen girl. She and best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) dream of getting out of their small home town but Bliss isn't sure how to escape from her boring job as a diner waitress and the endless array of pageants her mom (Marcia Gay Harden) has lined up for her until some tough, punk-ish, girls skate into her life, inspiring her to check out the fast-paced, rough and tumble world of roller derby where skaters have names like Eva Destruction, Iron Maven and Maggie Mayhem.

Ellen does most of her own, ultra-fast skating in the film and we sat down in a mod hotel suite to ask the "take no b.s." actress how she accomplished the transition from a delicate if tough-minded young actress to her role as Bliss/Babe Ruthless in Drew's directorial debut film. Paint this mental pic; Ellen doesn't "do" stylist stuff for meeting with press. She was her delightful casual self in minimal make-up, black and blue checked shirt, blue "cowboy" neckerchief, jeans and well worn-in red tennies.

TeenHollywood: So you knew how to skate before the film?

Ellen: A little, a little. I wasn't always a good skater but I could skate, yeah.

TeenHollywood: Talk about the training. It seems brutal.

Ellen: It was just fun to be honest with you. I trained for like three months and worked with a really awesome derby trainer and simultaneously worked with a physical trainer just to get stronger. Just worked hard and ate well and went to bed early.

TeenHollywood: Was it this role or Drew that made you want to do this film?

Ellen: I decided to do this way before I shot Juno. First of all I read the script and loved it and was really fascinated and excited about this resurgence of roller derby and what that represented for women and the fact the Drew Barrymore was attached to direct was really thrilling. And, when I finally met Drew, I was like 'oh wow! I definitely want to do this'. I was so lucky. Obviously, this was before Juno so she saw something in me that she liked and I'm honored to be a part of her first film.

TeenHollywood: She has a great eye for talent. I hear you all had pictures in your trailers of the worst bruises. True? And who won?

Ellen: I'd say Drew but she kind of just cheats because she bruises easily.

TeenHollywood: Do you think Whip It could have been successfully directed by a male director and what was it like working with Drew?

Ellen: I find those gender questions weird but working with Drew was amazing. That's all I know and that's who directed the movie. She was just tireless in a way that was inspiring. Here was someone who was in pre-production for their first feature film also training to be a roller derby star. And she was just always there, always available, always present and always emotionally present with the material and really guided me through the story.

TeenHollywood: We hear she gave you a roller derby name other than Babe Ruthless. Does she really call you Small Newman?

Ellen: She really does. She calls me Small way more than she calls me Ellen. I don't know if I've been called Ellen since we shot. I love it. I have a nickname from Drew Barrymore. I'll live with that and I love it. I love nicknames. It makes me feel loved. It makes me feel less alone in this world.

TeenHollywood: A lot of girls in roller derby take versions of celebrity names. If they took Ellen Page, what would they mutate that into?

Ellen: (pause while she thinks) Smellin' Rage (we crack up laughing).

TeenHollywood: That's a good one!! Was it a challenge or fun to play the two diverse worlds of pageants and roller derby? Fun to watch those worlds collide I guess?

Ellen: Yeah. And what I liked about it too is Bliss was by no means evilly forced into the pageant world. She loved that that allowed her connection with her mother and she'd like to make her mother happy. It just obviously wasn't what was igniting some sort of passionate fire within her. Then, when she discovers derby, that's the thing that she connects with and that's the thing that allows her to come out of her shell to establish a sense of confidence and to develop a sense of sexuality and really be in touch with herself in a way she'd never felt before. That was a really nice transition to explore and what I really loved about how Drew handled, for example, the pageant aspect of it. She didn't do that kind of overly tacky judgmental way of approaching it because (pageants are) what a lot of people like and probably a lot of people feel about pageants the way Bliss feels about derby. I didn't want it to seem like we were being really "judgey" about it. I wanted to show respect towards that.

TeenHollywood: That did come across in the film. You and Marcia Gay Harden had nice mother/daughter chemistry on screen. Was she great to work with?

Ellen: Yeah. It's always special as a young actor, to work with someone who's had such a career full of accolades and awards and such a diversity in their choice of roles. This is a relatively unconventional way of looking at a mother/daughter story and it felt very sincere to me and very truthful and it was just an absolute pleasure to explore that with her.

TeenHollywood: The final shot of Bliss sitting atop the giant pig sign (on the top of the diner where she works), was that a very Zen moment?

Ellen: (smiles) Yeah. Zen. It was pretty cool up there. That was special shooting that.

TeenHollywood: Did that restaurant really exist or was is just for the film?

Ellen: I feel like it was a diner but it was closed down and for sale and they bought it and we shot there. It was in a place called Frankenhaus, Michigan. It's like a little German town.

TeenHollywood: Did you do any shooting in Austin or was that just exteriors?

Ellen: Just exteriors really. We shot some exteriors but we only shot two or three days there because of taxes. It's a low budget movie so we shot in Michigan but Michigan's amazing. I fell in love with Michigan and Detroit and Ann Arbor. I loved it a lot. I would shoot back there in a millisecond and I love Austin. I do love Austin.

TeenHollywood: You and your love interest musician Landon Pigg have a flirty scene underwater. How long did it take to shoot that scene?

Ellen: It took a few hours for sure, swimming around in that pool but it was fun. It was one of those things where you're like 'well, no one would ever do this' but I trusted Drew and, ultimately, think it looks gorgeous and I love that song by Jens Lekman (that played over the scene) so I'm really, really happy with it.

TeenHollywood: How long can you hold your breath?

Ellen: I've never timed it but I'll do it later and I'll get back to you.

TeenHollywood: When Bliss finds roller derby she finds her place, her tribe. When you found acting was it like that for you?

Ellen: Humm, yeah. It was something I fell in love with and I'm still very, very in love with. I don't attach myself with it so much. I mean I adore it and I'm so grateful to do it as my job but there's other things that I really love and I don't want to become unhealthily attached to what I do. I'm grateful for what I do but I also want to be able to be okay when I'm not doing it.

TeenHollywood: This is the type of movie that could have a sequel. Like Rocky, he doesn't win, then in a sequel he does...

Ellen: Does he not win in the end? I didn't realize that.

TeenHollywood: Nope. But you've never repeated a role. Would you like to come back?

Ellen: It, of course, depends on so, so many factors. But this is one of the greatest filmmaking experiences of my life so if we could even remotely tap back into that, I'd be very excited.