FIRST LOOK

First Look: Ellen Page as Babe Ruthless in Drew Barrymore's Whip It!

by Alex Billington
July 8, 2009
Source: USA Today

I'm not trying to over-hype this, the title is actually Whip It! with the excalamation point, just like Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!. Our friends at USA Today have debuted a very badass batch of photos from Whip It!, the roller derby movie starring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig, and Zoe Bell that is directed by Barrymore as well. I've been waiting to see something from this! "Ellen Page plays a 17-year-old Texas girl named Bliss Cavendar, who hates the beauty pageants her mother makes her compete in and finds a release for her secret aggressive side by joining the underground world of roller derby."

"Everything I've learned throughout my whole life has been going into this piggy bank, and I just smashed it all over the floor for this one," Barrymore explains about her experiences starring in movies like E.T. and producing other movies before making her directorial debut on Whip It!. Take a look at the gallery below and click any of them to see more photos. First up, the girls from the good team aka the "Hurl Scouts."

Juliette Lewis, whose nickname is Dinah Might, as the leader of the rival team aka the "Holy Rollers."

On the left, Ellen Page as Babe Ruthless. On the right, badass stuntwoman Zoe Bell as Bloody Holly.

And lastly, Drew Barrymore as Smashley Simpson, who I assume is the leader of the Hurl Scouts team.

"You leave behind whatever sweet librarian you are in the day," screenwriter Shauna Cross explains about choosing skater names. "It's kind of like being a superhero. You get a new name, and then you get to be a whole different person. Clark Kent can't run around saving people in a cape. It's got to be Superman." I love the badass attitude even the screenwriter has. Kristen Wiig's character's nickname is Maggie Mayhem.

As for the title of this movie, no it's not a reference to that Devo song, it's actually a tactical roller derby move. "Whip It actually refers to a teammate move, grabbing someone by the arm and swinging her around the bend in the track to maximize speed and break ahead of the pack. It's also something that's a little aggressive and sounds painful, but is pretty fun," Cross says. "It's not a Devo musical biopic on skates. Though that would be a genius movie." I'm not sure I'd agree. Fox Searchlight will be bringing us Drew Barrymore's Whip It! on October 9th this fall. We expect this to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

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