Ellen Page Biography

With both parents working, young Ellen would spend much time entertaining herself, inventing outlandish scenarios for her Peter Pan and Batman action figures and becoming a voracious reader and film-watcher, making use of Halifax's renowned Video Difference store. She'd also turn out sporty, rugged Nova Scotia lending itself to an outdoor life, and enjoyed basketball, skiing, cycling, snowboarding, hockey, swimming, track and field and, especially, football. She'd be enrolled at Halifax Grammar School, a fee-paying institution in line with the International Baccalaureate Programme, attending its prep school on Atlantic Street and its Middle School on Tower Road. Split into four houses - Acadia, Glooscap, Privateers and Royals - the school would give its pupils a fine grounding in academics, sport, music and art.

And, of course, there'd be drama. Page would join the drama club early and, at age 10, would star as Charlie Bucket in a school production of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Amazingly, at the same age she'd score her first professional role. At prep school she'd be taught drama by Gay Hauser, a renowned Canadian actress who was currently General Manager of Halifax's Eastern Front Theatre. One friend of Hauser's was John Dunsworth, a veteran actor and former firebrand who in 1970 had founded Halifax's Pier One Theatre, the area's first successful alternative theatre company, and had appeared many, many times on radio and at the local Neptune Theatre. A few years back, Dunsworth had formed his own casting agency and had carried out local casting for Hollywood films shot in the area, including Sandra Bullock's Two If By Sea, the excellent Stephen King adaptation Dolores Claiborne and James Cameron's recording-breaking Titanic (in 1912 three ships had been sent from Halifax to recover the bodies of those drowned in the disaster - many are buried in the town under rows of black granite headstones). Now Dunsworth was looking for youngsters to appear in the Canadian TV production Pit Pony, to be based on the well-known novel by Joyce Barkhouse. He came to visit Hauser's class, looked round the circle of hopeful kids and, within seconds, pointed at Page. His choice did not surprise Hauser, Page already being described by her teachers as a "very warm, spontaneous and mature little girl".

Filmed at Cape Breton in the north of Nova Scotia, Pit Pony, also featuring Dunsworth and Gay Hauser, would be set in the early 20th Century and involve a young boy who, despite not wishing to follow his male relatives down the local mine, must do so when his brother is injured. Befriending a pit pony - who also had no real business being deep underground - the lad's story would be one of heroism, sacrifice and family values. Screened on December 14th, 1997, the film would be a big success, winning three Gemini awards (Canadian Emmys) and, two years later, being turned into a TV series. Page, who'd appeared alongside Jennie Raymond as one of the hero's sisters, would take a more prominent role in the series, being nominated for a Gemini herself. Already she was striking a chord with audiences.

You'd have thought, with its geographical location, that Halifax would be no place to build a film career, that it would be filled with young dreamers aching for the day they could take off for Montreal, Toronto or New York. Actually, it's something of an artistic hot-bed. The first permament European settlement in Canada, it was founded by the Brits in 1749, under General Cornwallis and, with its huge harbour, was the centre of the Anglo-French wars over the territories. The place was flooded with Brit loyalists after the American Revolution and was used as a base to attack the young States in 1812. Much building was carried out by the Brits during the 1800s, and Halifax's history as a naval base made it outward-looking and culturally sophisticated. It formed Canada's first democratic government, and its first university. With a population of 300,000 it's Canada's second largest coastal city and boasts seven universities, and many galleries and museums, as well as a film festival, a Shakespeare festival, a Greek festival, a jazz festival, tall ship events and even a busker festival. In terms of film, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have a base there, so do CTV and Global Television. There's even the Halifax Regional Municipality Film Office, aligned with the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation. As well as Titanic, Dolores Claiborne and Two If By Sea, When Page hit her teens The Shipping News, The Scarlet Letter and The Weight Of Water had all recently been shot in the area. An acting career here was a very real possibility.

As an aside, until the first testing of the atomic bomb, Halifax could lay claim to the biggest ever man-made explosion. On December 6th, 1917, the French munitions ship Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian relief ship the Imo in Halifax Harbour. The Mont Blanc was carrying 2300 tons of wet and dry picric acid used in artillery shells, 200 tons of TNT, ten tons of gun cotton, and the decks were stacked with drums of a hi-octane fuel called Bezol. The resulting detonation saw the north end of the city decimated, 2000 dead, 9000 injured, tens of thousands made homeless. Debris landed five kilmoetres away. Some might say that Ellen Page's impact on the film world has been similarly explosive, but they would be very silly, indeed.

After her Pit Pony experience, Page would concentrate on her education at Halifax Grammar, where she'd continue on through Grade 9. She would then move on to Queen Elizabeth High School on Robie Street, a well-equipped comprehensive once attended by the million-selling singer Sarah McLachlan. Already strong-minded and independent, though, Page would decide to switch to the Shambhala School on Russell Street. Shambhala is a form of Tibetan Buddhism brought to America in 1970. In 1986, its leader, Trungpa Rinpoche moved its HQ to Halifax and many disciples followed him there, making Halifax one of the biggest centres of Western Buddhism. The Shambhala School had been set up in 1993, based on the dictum "There is a natural source of radiance and brilliance in the world, which is the innate wakefulness of human beings". With only 130 students and no more eighteen to a class, no kids were lost in the system. The day would begin with meditation and yoga and emphasis was placed not only on academics but physical education, sport and martial arts. Art would be considered a part of everyday life, visuals, music and drama promoted. The "inner child" would be recognised, self-confidence boosted. Page would eventually graduate from the Shambhala School in 2005.

By the age of 14, Page was spending much of her free time filming, sometimes accompanied by her parents, sometimes by chaperones (at 15 she'd ban them all from her sets, claiming they made her uncomfortable). Earlier she'd performed several auditions of John Dunsworth's Filmworks Casting and had been mightily impressive. "She was like a stained glass window," Dunsworth would say. "You look at a stained glass window from the outside and you can't tell how wonderful it is. But when you put a camera on her it's like going inside the church and looking out and seeing the sunlight stream in . . . Right from the start she had this magic quality". Dunsworth's impression would be proved correct. Page's agent would be busy introducing her to a wider market. Already an American sitcom had been turned down; Ellen's parents felt she was too young to make the move to Los Angeles and the big time. For now she would stick to Canadian productions that would not interfere with her schooling.

2002 would thus see a string of Page releases. These would begin in January with the pilot episode of Rideau Hall where Bette MacDonald would play a one-hit disco diva made Governor General of Canada in the hope that an embarrassed nation would demand a final split from the British monarchy. Naturally, it doesn't turn out that way. Following this would come the earthy comedy Trailer Park Boys, written and directed by Mike Clattenburg (who'd earlier directed Page in the Pit Pony series) and starring John Dunsworth. Filmed as a mock documentary, this would follow the adventures of a bunch of ignorant and emotionally underdeveloped oiks as they drink, smoke, swear profusely, grow dope, steal shopping carts and plot to open a bar and casino in a trailer. The lads' natural enemy would be Dunsworth's Jim Lahey, an ex cop working as supervisor of the Sunny Vale Trailer Park and a foul-mouthed drunk. Page would appear in five episodes in July and August of 2002, playing Lahey's daughter Treena who tires of her dad's drunken antics and suffers a girlie crush on the boneheaded Ricky, giving him some much-needed sensible advice.

Following this would come The Wet Season, a 16-minute short, where she'd muse on the nature of grief while working in uncle Maury Chaykin's crying booths - private rooms people can hire to let it all out. The film would be screened at the Vancouver Film Festival the next year. More prominent would be Marion Bridge, written by Daniel MacIvor and filmed in Halifax, where an aging mother would fall ill and prodigal daughter Molly Parker would return to the fold, much to the suspicion of sisters Rebecca Jenkins and Stacy Smith. Gradually the women's shared experience of an abusive father would be revealed, with an interesting subplot where Parker begins to spy on Page, playing a brash, sullen young girl working in her adoptive mother's craft shop. Their relationship would prove moving and revelatory, affecting both audiences and Page, who'd say that this was the point where she was finally convinced she wanted to be an actress. Formerly, she's said, she simply memorized her lines and delivered them. Now she endeavoured to mean them.

2003 would be an even more prolific year. It would begin with Mrs Ashboro's Cat, written by Heather Conkie who'd earlier penned the screenplay for the Pit Pony movie. Here recently widowed Michael Ontkean, along with daughter Page, would move to his dead wife's hometown and try to buy the house of the old lady of the title. She refuses to sell, saying that her dodgy nephew had no right to put the house on the market, but then she dies and Ontkean and Page move in. Now the action starts as the nephew, an embezzler involved in antisocial development plans, seeks to shut down the local animal shelter and get hold of the old lady's hidden loot, money intended to secure the shelter's future. Page is visited by the ghost of the old lady's dead cat and receives spectral feline warnings of the wicked business afoot, and so joins the kids working at the shelter in thwarting the evil nephew's plans. Though an out-and-out kids' movie, the film would see Page recognised as a serious new talent, winning her her first Gemini.

Page's next appearance would be in Touch & Go, again filmed in Halifax, where Jeffrey Douglas would fail to outgrow his youth, still living for skateboarding and keg parties as he nears 30. As his friends begin to concentrate on marriage and their careers, he's lost and, his relationships getting messy, is forced to reconsider his life, Page playing a 13-year-old skate punk to whom he turns for advice. The film would be reasonably engaging, a quirky and original look at Halifax's underbelly. The city is, after all, not just about fishing and funky culture; it also has its street gangs and a huge market for locally sourced marijuana.

Next up for Page would be Homeless To Harvard: The Liz Murray Story where she'd play the sister of Thora Birch's titular Murray. The pair would be raised by a tremendously unsuitable Kelly Lynch and Michael Riley, Lynch putting in a tremendous performance as a near-blind schizophrenic addicted to alcohol and heroin, eventually dying from AIDS related illness. Riley would be a junkie, too, totally detached from his family. Thus Birch and Page would be filthy urchins, absolute no-hopers, the story following Birch as she breaks the cycle, puts herself through school and wins a scholarship to Harvard.

There'd be more fraught emotion in Going For Broke where Delta Burke would play a normal loving mum, dedicated to her family, who goes off the rails when they move to Reno so she can take an excellent job as a charity fund raiser. Hooked on gambling at the city's casinos, Burke embezzles $100,000 from the charity to pay for her addiction and her life collapses, Page playing her daughter who, left to her own devices, turns trashy. The movie was based on a true story that apparently resulted in all Nevada casinos having to post the phone number of Gamblers Anonymous. That should do the trick. Page's final release of 2003 would be Andrea Dorfman's Love That Boy, once again filmed in Halifax. This would see Nadia Litz as a pompous, over-achieving college student who plans her life to the tiniest detail. When her room-mate can no longer tolerate her geeky ways, she adds "get boyfriend" to her To Do list and embarks on a series of disastrous dates. But her problems really begin when she begins to fall for a boy across the street. He's tall, he's good-looking, he's thoughtful and creative, but he's only 14. He in turn ignores the attentions of his own neighbour Page. She has a major crush on him but, hypocritically perhaps, he thinks her too young.

Thus far, Page's CV was split between kids' fare and harsher material dealing with addiction, loss and longing. 2004 would see her drop the kids' stuff for good. Her final contribution to the genre would be I Downloaded A Ghost where wannabe comedian Carlos Alazraqui would be run down by a car, a frustrated pre-teen Page then downloading his spectre while messing about on the 'Net. Together the unlikely pair try to outwit a gang of robbers, return a stolen artifact and clear Alazraqui's name, while also saving Page's dad's job and allowing her to win a haunted house competition, thereby getting one over on her rich bitch school rival. Page's character in the film, an MTI home video for kids, for be just 12 years old. These young looks would serve her well over the next couple of years, audiences being shocked by the maturity exhibited by one apparently so youthful.

Page's next release, directed by Marion Bridge writer Daniel MacIvor and featuring former co-stars Maury Chaykin and Rebecca Jenkins, as well as many other top Canadian thesps, would be Wilby Wonderful. This was a Short Cuts-style piece following many different characters over a 24-hour period. James Allodi would consider suicide, perturbing shy wannabe lover Callum Keith Rennie: mayor Chaykin would plan a golf course on a nature reserve: estate agent Sandra Oh would dream of the big time, her workaholic nature driving scruffy cop hubby Paul Gross into a budding relationship with sexy single mum Jenkins. Page, meanwhile, would be Jenkins' rebellious daughter, dismayed by her mum entering yet another doomed relationship and suffering heartbreak of her own when she discovers her first love is only after his oats. Having witnessed Page's work on Marion Bridge, MacIvor had written this part specifically for her, and she'd play a full part in his bittersweet effort.

The year would end with a part in the first eight episodes of ReGenesis, a future-set Canadian sci-fi series concerning NorBAC, an organisation dealing with unusual bio-tech cases. There'd be deadly viruses, dying clones, renegade priests, bioterrorism, genetically altered foods, plastic-eating bacteria and possible cures for leukaemia, each episode dealing with the dark side of science. Peter Outerbridge would play David Sandstrom, NorBAC's chief scientist, who must deal with each of these outlandish propositions as well as the arrival of his belligerent daughter Lilith, played by Page, who befriends the clone Mick and helps steal documents that might save his life. The role would win her her second Gemini.

2005 would see the results of a challenging new phase in her career. In David Slade's Hard Candy she'd play Hayley Stark, a bright and methodical 14-year-old who suspects photographer Patrick Wilson of being a paedophile involved in the death of a local youngster. She allows him to chat her up and take her home, then turns the tables by drugging him and threatening him with emasculation, the action and mind games twisting intriguingly towards an incredibly tense climax. It was a great film, a fascinating thriller, with Wilson painfully human as the tortured pervert and Page amazing as the wilful, vengeful, relentless Stark. Former co-star Sandra Oh would also feature. There'd be more mind games and suffering in her next release, Mouth To Mouth, written and directed by Alison Murray and based on her own experiences as a cult member. Here Page would play a young teen drifting through Berlin, utterly lost till she comes upon a band of misfits calling themselves Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge. Impressed by their efforts to save kids from the streets, their inclusive nature and their penchant for fun, she joins them on a journey to Portugal. Gradually, though, having given herself to the group's older leader, Erci Thal, she begins to see how damaged each kid is, and how aggressively Thal rules over them. Worse, her New Ager mother, Natasha Wightman, tracks her down, joins the group and forms a relationship with Thal, events remorselessly moving toward tragedy. Especially at the beginning, Mouth To Mouth was raw and authentic, but many critics complained about Murray's indulgent use of choreography. Mouth To Mouth had actually been filmed before Hard Candy, indeed Page had been afraid she'd miss out on the latter when she sent an audition tape in which she was still bald after Mouth To Mouth. After Hard Candy had wrapped she'd return to Halifax, graduate from Shambhala School and take the best part of the year off.

Page's performance in Hard Candy would impress Hollywood to such an extent that she'd be called into the ranks of mutants in Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand. Here the government would find a cure for mutation/mutancy/whatever, causing yet more strife between the good and bad guys led by Magneto and Xavier. Amidst all the stars, Page would play Kitty Pride, a mutant student capable of passing through solid objects, who complicates the romance between Iceman and Anna Paquin's Rogue and stars in an enjoyable sequence where she passes through the walls of a pharmaceutical company while Vinnie Jones's Juggernaut smashes big holes in them.

Unsurprisingly, X-Men did not lead Page into the mainstream. Still she dealt in the quirky, the challenging and the downright shocking. Her next release would be An American Crime, based on the true story of Sylvia Likens. Set in 1965 Indianapolis, this would see Catherine Keener as a desperate, medication-addled mother of 7 who, in need of extra cash, agrees to look after the two daughters of carnival workers, 16-year-old Page and her polio-afflicted sister. Keener's having a hard time, drinking too much, and begins to lose it when her eldest daughter gets pregnant by a married man. Taking her frustration out on Page, she locks her in the cellar and subjects her to terrible abuse, Page's suffering increasing horribly when Keener's other kids join in the so-called punishment. This dreadful cruelty made for tough viewing - at Sundance the screening had to halted when a viewer fainted - but this did not disguise the excellence of Page and Keener's work.

Page would return to Canada to film her next outing, The Tracey Fragments. Here she'd play a kid bullied at school and finding no solace at home from her angry dad and drunken mum. She indulges in glam fantasies about the new kid in class and claims she's hypnotized her little brother into believing he's a dog. Now the kid's missing and Page must find him, and herself. It was an interesting piece and another fine performance, but many viewers would find themselves distracted by director Bruce McDonald's purposeful use of split-screen. Page had actually been offered the part when she was 16 but turned it down on the grounds that it was too emotionally intense. Offered it again at 18, after Hard Candy and Mouth To Mouth, she was ready.

Page's next release would be the one that catapulted her into the public eye. This was Juno, a charming tale of unwanted pregnancy. Here Page would star as the titular teen, a headstrong, wisecracking girl, keen on Iggy Pop and Dario Argento and expert in teen argot, who enlists her nerdy best friend to pop her cherry. Soon heavy with child, she decides against abortion and seeks adoptive parents, picking yuppie couple Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. The film would follow Juno through the nine months up to the birth, her witty front gradually disintegrating, and would be one of the surprise hits of the year, coasting past the $100 million mark at the US box office. Roger Ebert would ask if anyone had matched Page's performance in 2007 and she'd be rewarded with nominations both for a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Initially, having turned up to audition while still cadaverous from the American Crime shoot, she'd wondered if she'd get the part at all.

2007 would end with The Stone Angel, based on the novel by Margaret Lawrence. Once more set in Canada (the book's widely studied in Canadian universities), this would see Ellen Burstyn as a cantankerous 90-year-old travelling back to a cabin in Manitoba and seeking memories from her youth and marriage - the lust, the love, the whimsy and the pain. In flashback, we see her son falling for Page, the daughter of her best friend, with Burstyn's character, feeling Page to be low-class and also suffering terrible jealousy at the couple's sexual abandon, plotting to split them up - with disastrous consequences. Very different would be Smart People, a big hit at Sundance in 2008. Here Dennis Quaid would play a widowed professor, insufferably arrogant and unable to relate to others. His life would be massively complicated by a relationship with doctor Sarah Jessica Parker and the arrival of his easy-going freeloader brother, played by Thomas Haden Church. Many of the film's most entertaining moments would see Church taking on Page, as Quaid's sarcastic, uptight and staunchly Republican daughter, trying to introduce her to drink and drugs, the couple forming an odd and painfully confused relationship.

A true Haligonian, by now Page was living back in Halifax, sharing a place that used to be a brothel run by infamous madam Ada McCallum. She'd still eat at the Wooden Monkey restaurant, still drink coffee at Trident Booksellers. She'd go backpacking in Romania and camping in Newfoundland. A proud Canadian, she'd wear a badge saying "Nova Scotia: Canada's Ocean Playground" during the many, many interviews she conducted with the American press on the release of Juno.

Her next project would be Whip It, the directorial debut of another actress who hit big young - Drew Barrymore. Here she'd play a Texas girl who, rebelling against parents who force her into beauty pageants, runs off to join a roller derby team.

Over the first ten years of her career, Ellen Page has proven herself to be one of the finest actresses of a new generation. Seemingly uninterested in wealth and fame, she's sure to surprise, shock and delight us for many years to come.

Dominic Wills