Ellen Page and Olivia Thirlby in Juno.   (Photo: Doane Gregory/Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)

Roger Ebert, among others, is predicting she’ll nab an Oscar nomination for Juno—regardless, Page says, she still has no plans to leave Nova Scotia for Hollywood. “I just got my own place. I was having dinner with some friends of mine in Brooklyn last night—they were like, ‘Wow, you have your own life now!’ Obviously, I’m 20, but I was like, ‘Yeah, I do.’”

The movie could very well make her a star, not just the next Molly Ringwald but the next Johnny Depp: a transgressive teen idol whose weirdo-hero crossover appeal might evolve into real staying power. But perhaps it really is best that she avoid L.A. Because right now she’s watching herself play one kind of girl yet still being pushed toward another. “It’s just freaky. Like, are we really still stuck there?” she asks, noting that a few photo shoots have already set off warning bells. “Every shoot, I don’t want to be thrown some lacy pink shirt—sometimes I would prefer to not wear a shirt at all. At least I’d be owning that moment.

“I mean, Annie Lennox used to be able to dress like a man and sell albums,” says Page, in her flannel shirt and Converse sneakers. “I don’t think a big star could do that right now.”

Related:

• Archive: “Movie Features”
• Articles by Logan Hill
• Table of Contents: Dec 3, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!