Actress Ellen Page visited Ellen DeGeneres on Wednesday to discuss her recent speech at an HRC event that included the unexpected words, “I am gay.” Page, whose illustrious film career includes starring roles in Inception, Juno, and X-Men, has often played “outsider” roles. Her conversation with DeGeneres about what it felt like to be closeted seemed to mirror her professional roles.Â
Page shared with DeGeneres that telling the audience at HRC’s “Time To Thrive†youth conference in February she is a lesbian that “for sure” made her “the most nervous” she’s “ever been” in her life.
WATCH: ‘Juno’ And ‘Inception’ Star Ellen Page Announces ‘I Am Gay’ (Full Video)
“I think my biggest fear of doing it was having a panic attack, quite frankly. I was just so ready to do it, and so excited to do it,†Page, who is 27, said.
She also told DeGeneres, whose groundbreaking coming out decades ago paved the way for Page and millions of others, how “grateful” she is to her, “because you did it in a time when it was much harder and much scarier.”
Page calls the change in her life an “extraordinary shift,” and the two Ellens discussed that shame can literally make people ill. “I knew I would be a happier person,” peg said, adding that she “did not anticipate” just how happy she would feel after coming out. She says that it has given every aspect of her life more ease and comfort.
DeGeneres said she is “so proud” of page for coming out, called her coming out speech “incredible,” and “brilliantly-written.”
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