Interview: Drew Barrymore & Ellen Page
Rolling with the punches
Roller derby is a brutal sport. But Whip It’s director Drew Barrymore and star Ellen Page came fully prepared. These grrrls know that with trial and tribulation often comes liberty and joy
By Bob Strauss
Can you think of any sport with less class than roller derby?
Fake wrestling doesn’t count.
Yet to hear Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page talk about Whip It, the prospect of garishly costumed women punching, tripping and elbowing each other around a skating track sounds like a near spiritual act of sisterly bonding.
As long as you’re only doing it for a movie, anyway.
“Ellen’s just so wonderful,” Barrymore, who directed the film in addition to playing its delicately named Smashley Simpson, says of her star player during a recent interview at a Beverly Hills hotel. “She’s just an incredible person and she’s so phenomenal in the movie. People really root for her and her character in Whip It…
“I was able to step back and let it be about her,” Barrymore continues. “All of my focus, all my cameras were on her; it’s her movie, it’s her story. I just can’t believe how fortunate I was to get to do it with her.”
Barrymore’s enthusiasm for Page may have something to do with the shared sensibility of child actors who have made the rocky passage to adult careers. Otherwise, there’s not much obviously in common between fourth-generation showbiz princess Barrymore and Page, the anything-but-Hollywood girl from Nova Scotia.
But when tomboy Page speaks of choosing the crucial follow-up to Juno, her Oscar-nominated breakout role, it’s also apparent that she and Barrymore share an intoxicating love for their work. “What I look for first and foremost is honesty,” Page, 22, explains in an L.A. interview. “When a character is honest and whole and well-written, you’re going to be able to connect with that individual because we’re all made of the same stuff.
“So, even if a character is in a situation that’s easy to judge, you can’t do that,” continues Page, who has a penchant for playing people polite society wouldn’t embrace. “You just have to connect your heart and follow through with that, and that’s always really exciting. So it’s just about finding those situations and those characters I feel passionate about spending time with.”
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Drew Barrymore directing Whip It
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Apparently, Page wanted to spend time with Bliss Cavendar, Whip It’s
young heroine whom we first meet competing in a small-town Texas beauty
contest. Don’t hate her for that; she hates it, too, and only enters
pageants to please her mom (Marcia Gay Harden). But a chance encounter
with some fierce roller grrrls draws the unhappy Bliss to an Austin
skate match. Soon, she’s an aspiring jammer herself, and when she takes
the name Babe Ruthless, it’s more an act of personal empowerment than
of fashion atrocity or inline thuggery.
Looked at that way, it’s not so surprising that, despite her fondness for girly fare such as Never Been Kissed, Ever After and He’s Just Not That Into You, Barrymore would choose Whip It for her feature directing debut.
Still, everything about it was a stretch. And Barrymore had a blast.
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“It’s just fun to reinvent,” she says. “It’s fun to be unsafe and just play around. Life is so short, I want to try everything.”
She found directing to be demanding and delightful.
“I directed a documentary called The Best Place to Start about voting in 2004,” says the 34-year-old Hollywood veteran of three decades. “But doing my first feature was amazing. It was very personal. I care about every coffee cup in a shot, the production design, the cinematography, editing, casting. I do all of those things as a producer, but…”
Despite her public persona as a wacky free spirit, and her well-documented, often changing love life, Barrymore insists that art always comes first.
“People ask me about clothes and ex-boyfriends, and I spend more time talking to reporters about that than I do in my real life,” she says. “I’m so focused on work and trying to be creative. So directing is a great forum for me because I get to do all of the things that I’m passionate and serious about and are really, really real for me. So I love it.”
As she mentioned, Barrymore has produced many of her own films over the past 10 years, including the hit Charlie’s Angels pictures and the cult classic Donnie Darko. But that kind of behind-the-camera experience wasn’t the only thing that gave her an advantage on Whip It. She is, after all, the goddaughter of Steven Spielberg, who made her a star at age seven in his sci-fi masterpiece E.T.
So, did she hit the world’s most successful director up for pointers?
“I did!” Barrymore squeals. “He has a huge impact on me, subconsciously and consciously. I showed him the film during editing. Steven’s opinion is paramount to me. You know, he made a beautiful speech at the Golden Globes about mentoring, and I’m so fortunate to get any of his mentoring time.”
Of course, Barrymore’s Hollywood connections go even deeper than that. She’s a scion of what was once considered the first family of the American theatre, and says she feels a palpable connection to its greatest generation, her grandfather John Barrymore and his siblings Ethel and Lionel.
“Their pictures are everywhere in my house, so I acknowledge them, talk to them and think about them on a daily basis,” she reveals. “I always have Turner Classic Movies on in my bedroom, and when I walk in they’re often on the TV and it feels like a sign from them. Most importantly, for as long as I can remember, I have known and felt the pull of my blood, which is why I have dedicated my entire life to film. I would like to honour their name and keep it alive through the generations, and make them proud. So I do everything in my power to honour my family.”
Along with the great artistic legacy, though, came a history of addiction and dysfunction. Success skipped a generation, and Drew’s difficulties with her dissolute parents Jaid and John Drew Barrymore are well known. So are her own adolescent struggles with alcohol and drugs, chronicled in the best-selling autobiography, Little Girl Lost, she wrote at the age of 14.
She’s held it together ever since, but it hasn’t been quite as easy as the multi-tasking free spirit has made it look.
“I was sober and then I wasn’t, then I am sometimes,” she admits without a hint of shame. “I fluctuate, but I think you can have a good time. Right now, for me, work is paramount, so I’m living a very strict regime. But I think you should do what is fitting for your life, so I don’t really have a policy, except for be responsible.
“And no judgments, please!” she adds emphatically. Which certainly makes Barrymore and Page sound like true soul sisters.
In honour of that special bond, we promise not to make fun of roller derby any more. Or until we’ve seen Whip It anyway.
Bob Strauss lives in L.A. where he writes about movies and filmmakers.
Rolling
Think Roller Derby is an American obsession?
Think again. We’ve got plenty of kick-ass leagues right here in Canada. So if it’s been too long since you yanked someone’s hair or delivered a swift elbow to the ribs, get in touch with your local band of bruisers and they’ll help you out. And if you’re not interested in skates and stitches, check out the websites just for the cool retro poster art.
Victoria, B.C.
Eves of Destruction
Evesofdestruction.ca
Vancouver, B.C.
Terminal City Rollergirls
Terminalcityrollergirls.com
Calgary, Alta.
Calgary Roller Derby Association
Calgaryrollerderby.com
Edmonton, Alta.
E-Ville Roller Derby
E-villederby.com
Winnipeg, Man.
Winnipeg Roller Derby League
Winnipegrollerderby.com
Ottawa, Ont.
Ottawa Roller Derby
Ottawarollerderby.com
London, Ont.
Forest City Derby Girls
Forestcityderbygirls.com
Toronto, Ont.
Toronto Roller Derby
Torontorollerderby.com
Greater Toronto Area, Ont.
GTA Rollergirls
Gtarollergirls.com
Montreal, Que.
Montreal Roller Derby
Mtlrollerderby.com