When Ellen Page landed in Elk Falls Provincial Park two summers ago to shoot Into the Forest, her experience couldn’t have been more different than the last time she filmed on Vancouver Island.
That was in Victoria in the summer of 2005, when the Oscar-nominated star of Juno and Hard Candy brought mutant Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat to life while shooting X-Men: The Last Stand.
Her Marvel Universe superhero action filmed under the radar at Hatley Castle contrasted dramatically with the relative quietude of writer-director Patricia Rozema’s contemplative apocalyptic survival drama set in the unnamed West Coast wilderness in the near future.
Page said this week she was struck by one thing they had in common, however.
“Victoria was stunning, no question,” recalled the 29-year-old actor whose film opens today at Cineplex Odeon. “I wish I could have stayed.”
She described as “utterly breathtaking,” the old-growth forests near Campbell River that Rozema presents as an environment at once seductive, thrilling, silent and potentially dangerous.
Filming also took place in Maple Ridge, Squamish and Coquitlam’s Widgeon’s Marsh.
“I hope we were able to capture the forest and surrounding environment as a character in itself,” said Page, who plays Nell, a smart, literate young woman who lives with her sister Eva (Evan Rachel Wood), an ambitious contemporary dancer, in a beautiful home in the woods with their adoring father Robert (Calum Keith Rennie).
They find themselves struggling to survive after a mysterious, continent-wide power outage occurs. As they gradually run out of supplies and emergency power, the sisters re-evaluate their increasingly primitive existence.
“The characters have their own arc in terms of their relationship to [the forest] and how they see it,” Halifax-born Page said. “That’s what really interested me.”
Indeed, having to cope with the sudden loss of transportation, food distribution, running water and electricity because of an unexplained blackout with no end in sight can be more frightening than zombies.
“I’m attracted to the post-apocalyptic genre as are many others. But what I loved about the book [written by Jean Hegland] was how intimate it was, how truthful it felt, how plausible it felt, and that is what stuck with me,” said Page. She felt it would make an incredible film from the day a bookstore clerk suggested she read the book during a hometown visit to Nova Scotia.
Teaming with executive producer Kelly Bush Novak, Page secured the rights and persuaded Rozema to adapt the novel.
“It just started moving,” said Page, who also made her debut as a producer. “I was interested in getting into that side of things. It happened very organically.”
One of her biggest wishes was casting Wood (The Wrestler, HBO’s Mildred Pierce), an acquaintance with whom she had wanted to work since seeing her breakout performance in Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen (2003).
“I’ve long adored her as an actor and a person. I sent her the script and she said yes within hours — thank goodness,” Page said, laughing.
“There’s something special about the magic of arriving to shoot a movie with a stranger and establishing that connection,” she said. “But because Evan and I were so connected and trust each other, and were protective of each other, I think it enabled . . . us to be present with one another, and to explore more and just exist in a scene together in a way I haven’t necessarily felt before.”
Page said she considers herself lucky working with “people who are very generous and patient and kind” when she wanted to learn more about producing.
One of a new slate of projects she is involved in is Freeheld, the fact-based gay rights drama. In the film that co-stars Julianne Moore, Steve Carell and Michael Shannon, she plays Stacie Andree, the domestic partner of Det. Laurel Hester (Moore), a New Jersey cop who is being denied pension benefits after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Page, who came out as gay on Valentine’s Day in 2014 in a speech at a Las Vegas conference, said working with Moore was a dream come true.
“Julianne is lovely, so hardworking, so generous and kind and unbelievable to watch work in front of your eyes,” she said. “She’s a wonderful friend and role model quite frankly.”
While Page is “absolutely proud of who I am and couldn’t feel more happy” that she’s no longer living a lie, she looks forward to the day an actor doesn’t have to make a speech to come out. “That is the goal I suppose,” she said. “The reality is we’re not there yet, and despite the incredible progress we’ve seen, LGBTQ people still face a lot of difficulties.”
While the Los Angeles-based actor misses Canada, she still feels very attached — “Justin Trudeau becoming our prime minister made me incredibly excited” — and can’t wait to return.
You might even see Page and her girlfriend and surfing teacher, artist Samantha Thomas, catching waves in Tofino someday.
“My girlfriend would just love that.”