Julianne Moore insists it was a "joyful" experience for Ellen Page to play her "authentic self" in her first lesbian role in ‘Freeheld’.
The 55-year-old Oscar winner stars alongside the ‘Juno’ actress – who publicly revealed she is gay in 2014 – in the new movie and she thinks it was important for Ellen to be her "authentic self in a part".
In an interview on UK TV show ‘This Morning’, Julianne said: "This was the first time that Ellen’s played a gay character on screen and she was delighted. She felt that she was able to be her authentic self in a part.
"Even though the story is very sad, it was also joyful for her that she was able to participate in that way."
The film focuses on the real-life story of the battle cancer sufferer Detective Laurel Hester (Moore) had to transfer her pension to her civil partner Stacie Andree (Page).
Julianne admits she questioned Elle on her coming out for research for the film.
She said: "Ellen would answer any question that I had about what was it like to be out? What is like to feel you can’t talk about your sexuality when you’re at work? What does it do to you emotionally? She was very anxious I think to share all that."
Although the ‘Still Alice’ actress initially rejected the script she revisited it on the request of her daughter and soon realised the movie had an important message to share about gay rights and acceptance of other people’s sexuality.
She said: "It was deliberately misleading at the beginning so you thought you were going to be watching this story about a police officer but really it’s this tremendously beautiful very personal love story and that’s why I did it – I was so moved by it.
"I like a love story, just as everybody else does and I think we all build our lives around our relationships. So it was important for me as a human being and then yes the progress that we have made and continue to make in the world with gay rights."
Julianne Moore commends Ellen Page for performance in Freeheld
