Since coming out in February 2014, Ellen Page has taken her place as a major spokesperson for LGBT people. She recently played a lesbian in Freeheld, and she has a couple more projects in the pipeline where she’s playing gay. However, some have wondered whether that’s by necessity as by choice.
Talking to Elle she addresses the issue, saying, “Zachary Quinto is out, and he stars in one of the biggest blockbuster franchises. I have four projects coming up – all gay roles. People ask if I’m concerned about getting pigeonholed. No one asks: ‘Ellen, you’ve done seven straight roles in a row – shouldn’t you shake it up and do something queer? There’s still that double standard. I look at all the things I’ve done in movies: I’ve drugged a guy, tortured someone, become a roller-derby star overnight. But now I’m gay, I can’t play a straight person?”
She’s also been talking to The Guardian about why she felt compelled to come out, saying, “I felt, let’s just please be done with this chapter of discomfort and sadness and anxiety, and hurting my relationships, and all those things that come with it. I felt guilty for not being a visible person for the community, and for having the privilege that I had and not using it. I had got to the point where I was telling myself, you know, you should feel guilty about this. I was an active participant in an element of Hollywood that is gross. I would never judge somebody else for not coming out, but for me, personally, it did start to feel like a moral imperative.”
However she hopes that, “It’ll be amazing, the day when it’s not a thing, when an actress doesn’t feel like she needs to make a speech. That’s obviously the goal.”