On Apr. 23, two-and-a-half months after Ellen Page publicly announced she was gay, The Hollywood Reporter photographed the self-proclaimed tomboy actress at the Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles for its annual Cannes issue.
“We wanted [the photo shoot] to be something that could tie into her personality, her news about coming out and the fact that it’s our glamorous Cannes cover,” said THR‘s photo and video director, Jennifer Laski. The inspiration behind the shoot was the 67th Cannes International Film Festival poster, which features a photo of Marcello Mastroianni from Federico Fellini’s 1963 film 8½.
“I thought it would be interesting to see two different sides of Ellen Page: one as a very chic Italian movie director, and the other as an homage to the French and Italian ingenues of that time.”
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Page, who plays Kitty Pride in X-Men: Days of Future Past (out May 23), donned an array of clothes for the shoot reflecting both men’s and women’s wear that were inspired by Jane Seberg‘s character in Jean-Luc Godard‘s Breathless.
The actress, however, was candid in her interview with THR senior writer Seth Abramovitch and did not hold back about her hatred of dresses: “I would rather be in boy underwear with my hands on my tits,” she confessed.
Watch video from the shoot below:
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Photographer Olivia Malone captured the actress in three pockets of the Ace: the 1927 United Artists Theater, the cafe and a hotel suite. When asked why THR chose the cover shot, Laski commented that the photo embodied glamor (hair and makeup), a Parisian feel (striped T-shirt) and risk (Page looking away from the camera). “I think there’s something about this pensive moment of Ellen in this very pivotal stage of her life — she just looks beautiful,” Laski said, adding, “It was a very quiet shoot…this is just her. We weren’t making her do anything.”
VIDEO: Ellen Page: Coming Out Gave Me ‘Freedom’ to Wear Jeans, T-Shirt
In the May 16 issue feature, Page opens up about battling depression, her X-Men director Bryan Singer’s alleged under-age sex scandal and life since coming out. The actress made her public declaration on Valentine’s Day in Las Vegas at the Time to Thrive social-welfare seminar for LGBT youth, where five minutes into her speech she announced: “I am here today because I am gay.”
“I knew I would be happier,” Page told THR. “But I wouldn’t have anticipated just how f—ing happy I am and how every tiny little aspect of my life feels better.”
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