Ellen Page on Her Coming Out: 'It's So Toxic to be Hiding'

Ellen Page takes the stage during a Q&A for the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue following a screening on Saturday (December 5) in Los Angeles.

The 28-year-old actress was joined on stage by Juliette Lewis.

Ellen appears on the cover of the new American Way issue, in which she opens up about her coming out.

“I was just done. It’s so toxic to just be hiding; it becomes so consuming without you even knowing it’s consuming you,” Ellen said. “You become so complacent in this reality you create. It’s like a bucket, and it’s filling up and filling up and filling up – and finally it just spills over. And I felt guilty for not being out for the LGBT community.”

She added, “I wanted to do it and not make it seem about myself. And I wanted to align particularly with something LGBT-youth-oriented. For me, it was a great opportunity to be honest, to share certain elements of the pain that I went through. Hopefully, that can connect with someone else. The reality is, there are very few young people out as actors, so I was hoping to speak to a lot of the issues so it wouldn’t just seem like, ‘Hey, look, I’m gay.’”

35+ pictures inside of Ellen Page at the Q&A event…