Tom Long

Whip It's Barrymore and Page love the mitten

TORONTO

Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page agree: Michigan is a cool place.

The reason they know is they spent a good chunk of 2008 shooting Barrymore's directorial debut, "Whip It," starring Page, here.

The film's production headquarters was in Saline, and the cameras and crew traveled all over the Detroit area filming the roller derby story in which Page plays a small-town beauty pageant contestant who finds freedom smacking into other women while skating.

"I saw a lot of the state. I actually know it quite well," Barrymore said while at the Toronto International Film Festival for the film's premiere. "On Saturday nights, I would go to the 8 Ball in Ann Arbor and have a cold PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and I loved that. I loved the Majestic in Detroit.

"It was great for me because I really found locations that would work. I found wonderful places," Barrymore said. "I felt like it was a blessing we got to shoot there."

At the festival Page was, if anything, even more enthusiastic about the state.

"From the bottom of my heart, I absolutely loved it, and I say this all the time. I loved Detroit... I love Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti," she said. "On Labor Day, I went up to northern Michigan to go hiking. All over Detroit, you drive 15-20 minutes and there's some awesome place to hike.

"I'd live there in a second," Page said. "I'd go shoot there in a second; I'd encourage a film to go shoot there."

Neither actress is under apparent contract with a local tourist board, they just seem to genuinely like the state. And then they spoke about their careers and "Whip It" in the interviews that follow.

tlong@detnews.com (313) 222-8879 Come back Friday for Tom Long's review of "Whip It."