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Ellen Page Says Sexism In Hollywood Is 'Constant'
Ellen Page at SXSW 2013. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
Juno star Ellen Page says she's constantly encountering sexism in Hollywood, and that women are "expected to shut up and not have an opinion."
Talking to The Guardian about her new movie, The East, she replied, "Oh my God, yeah! [Sexism] is constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion."
The 26-year-old actress adds, "If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss."
Page, whose films include Inception and Whip It, also wishes that there were better roles for women. "Only 23 percent of speaking roles in films today are for women," she said. "It feels we've gone backwards."
She also wondered why so many female celebrities, including Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, have said they don't want to be called feminists. "I don't know why people are so reluctant to say they're feminists. Maybe some women just don't care. But how could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word?...Feminism always gets associated with being a radical movement—good. It should be."
The Guardian asked if she was surprised that her breakout film, Juno, was so controversial and she answered, "No, I know what people are like in America about women's ability to make choices for themselves in regards to their bodies. The only thing that was annoying was people taking it as a pro-life movie because she had the baby... if she'd had the abortion it would be a short movie."
Page is also in the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past.
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