Inuk actress Anna Lambe says North of North role has brought so much joy into her life

Inuk actress Anna Lambe was willing to do anything to score a role, any role, on North of North. Lambe had auditioned for the lead role of Siaja but was losing sleep as time passed and she hadn’t received a call back. Lambe had previously worked with the creators, Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril on the critically acclaimed film The Grizzlies and knew from the outset that North of North was going to be great. “I didn’t expect that it was going to be this big because the writing was there, the team was there, the casting was there, everything was there to make this show a hit show,” says Lambe on the latest episode of Face to Face. “It had all of the elements to make it very, very good. So, from the moment I read the breakdown, I was like yup this is the stuff. This is what the kids call the stuff. “While we were shooting, I had no fears. I had fears about my performance, it was my first time doing comedy, so I was terrified and I would look up at the ceiling going to bed going alright that was my last day on set, I’m going to get fired tomorrow, they’re going to have a new Saija and that’s ok. “That didn’t happen but the actual content of the show, I was like people are going to love this, I love this, we all love this, we all love making it.” The first season of North of North was nominated for 20 Canadian Screen Awards. The show won nine, including Best Comedy Series and Best Lead Performer, Comedy for Lambe. The show is centered around a young Inuk mother [Lambe], who “wants to build a new future for herself after a spontaneous — and extremely public — exit from her marriage. But it won’t be easy in a place like this, where everybody knows your business,” according to a synopsis by Netflix. “This job has been a bigger gift than I can ever imagined. I feel like I was gifted a can of worms that has exploded and brought so much light and join into my life,” says Lambe who is originally from Iqaluit, Nunavut and moved back in with her parents while the show is in production in the northern community. Lambe says Nunavummiut are “very much aware of what’s happening in the rest of the world and its about time the rest of the world is aware about us.” “From an outsider’s perspective, we’re always placed within a historical context and not seen as living, breathing, human beings with communities that still exist and still live in the north and a culture that’s still very much alive and a language that’s still alive and being reclaimed amongst our younger generations.” “To be able to show Inuit as we truly are is so important and so necessary because it shows that we’re a voice in the north. I think people often talk about the Arctic and the north as if nothing is up there and we don’t exist and as if we’ve been gone for a very long time and that the arctic and the north is free game, they can do whatever they want. I know that Arctic sovereignty, the conversation is a very important one that is being had right now and it feels like a lot of these conversations are actively avoiding Inuit voices because there’s this idea that we don’t exist. So, North of North is a huge part of showing the world that we very much do and were not just a culture and a community that is surviving, we’re very much thriving.” The 26-year-old’s career has also been thriving in the past two years. In addition to North of North, she was also in True Detective: Night Country. Lambe is also one of the stars in Nyla Innuksuk’s Slash/Back follow up In the Heart of the South which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, in September. She also has roles in the Brad Pitt starring Heart of the Beast and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning. Season 2 of North of North is currently airing on APTN and debuts on Netflix on November 5. Dennis WardHost-Producer | WinnipegDennis is Métis from southern Manitoba. After spending a decade working in TV in Alberta and Ontario, Dennis returned to Manitoba to join APTN. In 2016, he won a Canadian Association of Journalists award for his story A Soldier Scorned for APTN Investigates. In 2017, he became a host/producer for APTN National News and Face to Face. Anna Lambe says North of North role has brought ‘so much joy into her life’ 29:39 Your browser does not support the audio element. Continue Reading