The two biggest Ellens in the LGBT world have united. On Wednesday (April 30), Ellen Page joined Ellen DeGeneres to talk about her brave “coming out” speech at the HRC’s “Time To Thrive” conference back in February.
“I am so proud of you for coming out, and I am so happy for you,” DeGeneres said. “I know what a scary thing that is.”
Page was humbled by the compliment, and remained visually struck by her own words after a small clip of the speech was aired, saying “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 said DeGeneres was as a source of strength and inspiration, bringing up Ellen’s difficult coming out story from the ’90s.
“[I’m] grateful to you, because you did it in a time when it was much harder and much scarier,” Page said. “I knew I would be a happier person. I knew I was going to feel better … It’s really been quite extoradinary to feel the shift.”
In a recent interview with Flare magazine, the actress spoke out about pressure from Hollywood to remain hidden.
“You hear things like, ‘People shouldn’t know about your life because you’re creating an illusion on-screen.’ But I don’t see other actresses going to great lengths to hide their heterosexuality. That’s an unfair double standard.”
Overall, Page rates her coming out experience as a positive one. She’s received mountains of support from the LGBT community and beyond.
“I expected so much more hate,” she told Flare. “It was just remarkably positive, which is beautiful, because it’s indicative of the change that’s happening.”
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