In a new interview with Time, actress and LGBTQ activist Ellen Page talked about playing a lesbian character as an openly-gay actress -- though she did have some shit to call out in the process.
Because while the whole experience did give her a "deep sense of peace," Page mentioned that there was something incredibly off-putting about Hollywood's self-congratulatory penchant for lauding straight actors as "brave" for playing non-heterosexual characters. "When people are [called] brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that's borderline offensive," she says. "I'm never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be."
Page is currently in the middle of promoting Freeheld, in which she plays gay rights hero Stacie Andree alongside Julianne Moore as her partner Laurel Hester. The pair campaigned to have a dying Hester's pension transferred to her life partner Andree and succeeded -- setting an important precedent for the New Jersey LGBTQ community.
However, she did acknowledge that LGBTQ stories aren't the only underrepresented ones in media today, saying "I want to see gay stories, of course, because I'm gay, and I want to connect to a reflection of my life on film," before adding, "But I also want to see what it's like to be a young Native person, African-American, African-Canadian. Hopefully that will keep changing."
Preach Ms. Page, preach.
[h/ti-D]