Actress Ellen Page says that she was
inspired to come out gay by the prospect of making the upcoming film
Freeheld.
In Freeheld, Page plays Stacie
Andree, whose domestic partner Lieutenant Laurel Hester (played by
Julianne Moore) is fighting for the right to leave her Ocean County,
New Jersey police pension to Andree as she faces a diagnosis of
terminal lung cancer.
Page, 28, who came out gay last year
during a speech at an HRC-sponsored LGBT youth conference, told
BuzzFeed
News that she was inspired by the real-life people portrayed in
the film.
“First of all, I didn't want to be a
closeted person anymore,” she said. “But then also: 'What, are
you going to not be an out gay actor when you shoot a movie like
that?' Of course not. And it is people like Stacie and Laurel that
inspire you.”
Filming the movie “was a special
experience for me personally: What it represented in my life. It was
nice to play a gay person. I'm gay! It was nice to fall in love
with a person onscreen who is the kind of person that you'd fall in
love with.”