A page from Ellen
Actress supports green living, picks bike-rack design
IN HER hit comedy Juno, Ellen Page's character Juno MacGuff loves to ride her red 10-speed.
But if the film had been set in the Halifax actress's birthplace, she would have had a hard time finding a proper place to park her bike downtown.
The dearth of bicycle racks in the city's core also had restaurateur Lil MacPherson of the Wooden Monkey grinding her gears, so she asked the Academy Award-nominated performer to take part in judging a contest to design some sharp-looking new bike stands for the eatery, known for its focus on local and organic foods.
Gathering at the Wooden Monkey on Wednesday afternoon, the eve of today's Earth Day celebration, the five-person panel studied a series of in-house designs from WHW Architects.
The winning creation will be unveiled at city hall during HRM Bike Week, which runs from May 28 to June 6, and contest organizers hope its popularity will spread beyond the corner of Prince and Grafton streets.
"It's exciting, and we're in a time when we really need to start thinking outside of the box," said the 23-year-old actress after looking over a variety of drawings and models ranging from a blue metal nose-shaped tube — yes, a "bluenose" — that holds a bike vertically, to bike racks in the shape of a ship's sail and even a metal and wooden primate appropriate for the business.
"Here's a perfect example of how human ingenuity can exist to make really cool, functional objects that perform a very noble task," Page said. "Something like this gets people talking, and we learn by example."
For her part, Page has been talking a lot lately about environmental issues and promoting sustainability in her own backyard.
"That's something I'm excited to talk about and share my thoughts on."
After spending time in cities like Amsterdam and Berlin, where biking is an accepted part of daily travel and not "some radical new subculture," Page is keen to see urban design become increasingly bike-friendly in Halifax and surrounding areas.
"To be completely and utterly honest, I don't get to bike as much as I used to," she sighs. "I own a bike, and I enjoy biking, but basically I never used to own a vehicle. I've lived in Toronto, I've lived in Brooklyn and I've lived here, and I never needed a car.
"Then I got dogs, and when I lived in L.A., having a car became more a part of my life, but it also started making me cranky and angry and road rage became part of my day. It made me think more about the way we consume oil blindly, and the decline of the oil supply by seven per cent a year. By 2030, we'll need 10 new Saudi Arabias. It's just illogical to keep going this way."
HRM by Design's Andy Fillmore agreed, and praised the way the bike rack challenge came from within the community and addresses a broader issue with humour and ingenuity.
"The world is changing; we're in the middle of this global, financial, environmental shift," said Fillmore, eyeing one simple dome-shaped design inspired by Star Trek's furry pests, the Tribbles.
"The realities of that are starting to become visible all around us, and one of those is that people are starting to find alternate modes of transport."
Taking part in an event that symbolically encourages the use of greener transportation in Halifax is just the start of Page's interest in promoting a more sustainable lifestyle.
Having downtime between movie projects, including director Christopher Nolan's mind-bending thriller Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio, has allowed her to pursue her interest in the subject even further.
Last year, she spent a month in Oregon studying permaculture, which uses personal living spaces and even entire communities to their fullest advantage, producing food locally in an ecologically sound system.
"I work in an industry that can be miserably wasteful and can definitely be its own virtual reality, but it can also generate stories that promote a sense of empathy and compassion," said Page. "I guess because I've been in some movies, people will listen to me, and that's very bizarre to me."
Source:
The Chronicle Herald
By STEPHEN COOKE Entertainment Reporter
