Since Ellen Page coming out at an event for the Human Rights Campaign(HRC) two years ago, she says she feels “like a different person.”
Explaining to HuffPost Live’s Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani, Page said she still unsure how coming out has affected her career, but she said her creative life is getting to “blossom” because she’s “actually getting to interact with it as the authentic person that I am.”
It really wasn’t until the moment that I did it and I was living even those days afterward where it was really like, ‘Wow’ like just thinking of the, maybe, the old things or the shame or all the feelings that at that point you might not even be necessarily as cognizant of, quite frankly.
And just the feeling of such a massive shift and then it makes me think of all the people who, particularly young people, who come out and don’t receive that support, [who] don’t get a standing ovation and an outpour of love… get kicked out of their homes or hurt and, you know, we need to change that. “
Page says, she felt the need to publicly address her sexuality – going so far as to say she was tired of “lying by omission” in her 2014 HRC speech – she said it’s not necessarily a blanket responsibility for every public figure.
Everyone is on their own journey or their own path and might even be navigating how they feel about their own identity.”
All I can say is I wish I’d made the decision sooner. It’s the best decision I’ve personally ever made, but everybody’s sort of on their own path, I suppose.”
Since coming out, Page has played a lesbian opposite Julianne Moore in Freeheld and co-hosted Gaycation, a 4-part docuseries that looks at what’s it like to be LGBT around the world.
Watch the full interview with Ellen Page and Ian Daniel here.
