Actress in a Leading Role: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Julie Christie (Away from Her), Marion Cotillard (La vie en rose), Laura Linney (The Savages), Ellen Page (Juno)

Twenty-year-old Ellen Page has waited a decade to jump from Halifax to Hollywood as an overnight success.

The Hollywood studios have swept up the break-out star of Jason Reitman’s Juno, rewarding her turn as smart-alecky pregnant high-schooler Juno MacGuff with a best actress nomination.

‘The IT GIRL has made it BIG,’ Page’s publicity machine at Fox Searchlight e-mailed back in a statement in response to an interview request. No luck for said interview, as Page was being borne on a studio chariot to a BAFTA event in London, followed by a Juno premier in Paris during a whirlwind publicity tour.

But Hollywood’s latest bright new star is far from unknown in Canada, especially among Atlantic Canadian producers. 

Page’s slow ascent began at age 10, as she performed in Canadian TV series and telefilms including Pit Pony, Rideau Hall, Trailer Park Boys, and, most recently, ReGenesis.

ACTRA Maritimes gave Page a trophy for her 2002 supporting turn as Joanie in the Canadian feature Marion Bridge, directed by Wiebke von Carolsfeld.

That attention convinced Page to leave Halifax for Toronto when she turned 16, so she could audition for parts in person.

Her star was already rising enough for her to be recognized in 2003 by Playback as one of its 10 to Watch.

Page’s upcoming projects at that time included Wilby Wonderful, on which she would work with Marion Bridge writer Daniel MacIvor. She won a 2004 Gemini Award for performance in a kids series for Mrs. Ashboro’s Cat, followed the next year by a prize for supporting actress for ReGenesis.

Then came roles with a darker texture, from Kitty Pryde in the blockbuster X-Men: The Last Stand to a man-eating seductress in the indie hit Hard Candy – a role that caught Reitman’s eye and led him to Page’s Los Angeles trailer to convince her to take the Juno role. 

This reporter caught up with Page last September at TIFF, where she was promoting two films: Bruce McDonald’s The Tracey Fragments and Juno, which had just played to rave reviews both in Telluride and Toronto. (And she now finds herself up for a Genie Award for her work in Fragments as a 15-year-old searching for her missing little brother.)

Whisked into the interview room, I expected Page to be decked out like a rising star. Instead, she wore her usual jeans-and-sneakers ensemble, and talked incessantly about the need to remain grounded as her career lifted off.

‘It’s exciting. I’m really grateful for it. Since Hard Candy, I’ve been working,’ she said, oblivious to the flood of awards and adulation that would come her way in the coming months.

Page’s upcoming films include Bradley Rust Gray’s Jack and Diane, in which she will costar with Olivia Thirlby in a portrait of two teenage girls dealing with awakened sexual desire, and Drew Barrymore’s feature directorial debut Whip It, set to shoot in March.