'True Detective,' 'North of North' star Anna Lambe looks back at her impressive career: Eh Listers

Yahoo

25-06-2025

From staring her acting career at the just 15 years old on the film The Grizzlies, going on to work with Jodie Foster on True Detective: Night Country and Brad Pitt in the upcoming movie Heart of the Beast, Inuk actor Anna Lambe from Iqaluit is a bonafide star. With such an impressive career to date, she's absolutely a talent to watch, and her most recent APTN, CBC and Netflix TV series North of North is one of the best shows of the year.
Lambe spoke to Yahoo Canada about her work to date, from Canadian films to international productions. She also talked about authentically telling Indigenous stories with humour, including projects set in the North.Within the span of 8 years and only really actively pursuing acting for the past 5, that I get to sit here now in the Netflix building.
That's so weird.
That's so cool.
I guess the first real question here is, now that you've seen such a great response, that how does it feel that so many people have really kind of loved the show?
I mean, you know, in creating the show and and in the release in Canada and everything, I, I, you know, had a good feeling people were going to like it.
Um, but the amount of people that have loved it has been just really like humbling, overwhelming, heartwarming.
Um, I, I'm so grateful that so many people have been open and receptive to kind of seeing the story in a place they might not have seen before, um, and allowed themselves to, to kind of fall in love with these characters and, and the show that we created.
I think something that's really striking about the show is that it's like insanely funny and the writing goes to like such.
Extremely funny places, but I think when people think of stories with indigenous lead characters, um, you're not necessarily thinking like outrageously funny in the same sentence.
A lot of times things are are just a little bit more dramatic.
Was it nice to be able to say like, here's all these characters and we're gonna put them in a place where everyone gets to be funny and joyful, and we get to tell that story now.
Yeah, 100%.
I mean, in going into this production, it was so exciting to To know that it was going to be like quite a lighthearted shoot.
It was going to be hard and it was gonna be really long days and we were going to be battling the cold and that definitely posed challenges throughout filming.
But in terms of content, like it was like this is going to be fun, and there were so many times where in approaching episodes and scenes that we were filming, you know, amongst the cast and amongst the crew we'd be chatting with each other but like, oh, I can't wait to do this part.
Oh my gosh, I can't wait to do in Bridgerton, that's gonna be so beautiful.
I can't wait to do the underwater sequences.
That's gonna be really cool.
So just getting to kind of exist and play in so many different forms and and moods and and tempos uh was was really really nice because we you know can go from like really high comedy clown-esque comedy, you know, and then we go and we kind of break your heart a little bit with with some of the stuff that we that we deal with in the show and I think to have that full swing um is is.
Really fun and at a huge uh privilege as an actor.
I have to ask about this Bridgerton moment cause I think like it's such an example of how not only was it like hysterical, but the way that costumes were used in the show, I think are so great, even like when she goes to the party and she has her like outfit ready, it was so great to see such a like vibrancy.
Was it nice to be able to use costumes as like a tool for your character?
Oh my goodness, yeah, the costumes played such a huge part in how I understood CIA and You know her love of color and um you know fun cuts and fun patterns and fun prints and even more so I think what I loved was how Bunn was dressed.
She had such bold, you know, parkas and she wore whatever she wanted and these kind of cool little funky outfits and seeing, I think there was some.
Thing really interesting about um going from Ney's color palette to CIA's to buns because there is like a kind of gradual shift into into bright and bold colors and expression and fun and that to me really exemplified the intergenerational healing that um happened amongst those those three generations and that.
With each generation, people get to express themselves a little bit more that we create safer spaces for our children to grow and and be who they are and I think the costume department did such an incredible job of of representing that, um, and you know just what they were able to to gather from you know across Arctic regions and across North America and even from Greenland in terms of indigenous designers um and and parkas and.
And all of these things, it was just walking onto set or walking into the uh fitting room and seeing like what was laid out.
Oh, stars in my eyes.
I was so happy every single time.
One thing I also love is the kind of complexity that that we get to explore with your character's relationship with Ting, because I think it would be easy to be like.
She made this big declaration that she was like, done, and then she was actually done, but we got to see kind of like the pressure of like, still like the father to her child, still like have that connection.
They still are in this small community where there's like that constant pressure about what their relationship was.
Was it nice to be able to say like, listen, it's not gonna be like a complicated, like, she's just gonna cut and go.
There's a lot more that goes into that decision.
Yeah, it was so important to show that like, you know, CIA and Ting can have a complicated relationship and can fight and cannot see eye to eye on things, but what they both care most about what's always at the forefront of their minds is the the well-being of Bun and creating a safe space for her and and a happy childhood for her and by.
You know, showing kind of these moments where it's just ing and CIA and they're kind of going at it a little bit, and then how they pivot onceuns in the picture and how to, how to take care of her and put her first, um, was really important and that kind of aspect of like, you know, we can have our differences, but What we need to do is make sure that she's um she's on the right path and that she's happy.
You know, there's so much fun and there's so much great comedy in this show, but I think when you get to the end and you have a moment where like your character's mom is talking to her about what happened to her child, like that's a really serious moment and that's a moment that's obviously really important.
Um, what made you feel was effective about this set in the way that this story is being told where you felt like you could go to kind of those really emotional spaces just as much as you can go to the comedy spaces.
Yeah, you know, I think at the core of the show, like what was most important for us was the authenticity of it and the experience of of um living in the north and the complexities of our communities and our family dynamics.
And you know something that's very real is how you know our community is really really struggles with the the trauma from colonialism and and how we navigate that um but for the most part we do it through humor so that aspect of like, you know, from from really like dry humor to really like silly like fart joke humor, um, the coping exists within all of that and.
You know, those moments where you do just break open, those, those are real too.
And I think, you know, it kind of defining the show as as one thing or the other, as just a comedy or just a drama doesn't do it the service of like, it's just a human kind of experience and just a human story.
Um, so it, it was nice to kind of feel like we weren't needing to exist in one or the other, and that we can have both at different moments and they both serve the story, uh, equally importantly.
Because you got to work with the team that was behind Grizzlies as well.
What was it like to kind of come back and and work with them again?
It's been so special to work with that team again.
I love them.
So, so, so much.
I, you know, they took a chance on me when I was 15 and, and then they took a chance on me again when I was 23 and, you know, I, um.
So grateful for the way that they always lead with the community at the forefront of their minds and that it's always about how they can give back and how they can tell stories um with nuance and complexity and appropriately and authentically.
Something about grizzlies because because you were, you know, so young when you started that, and, you know, I think from my understanding it was just like a posting that this was happening and then your teachers were like.
There and you're like, OK, I'm gonna show up to this thing, I guess.
Um, when you reflect back now where you stand now, um, how do you reflect back to those kind of really pivotal decision that you ended up making at 15 to actually like just show up and audition.
Yeah, I mean, I often look back on that and every time I, I get a new job, um, it's something that my dad always makes sure to remind me of is like, can you imagine if you never went and did that audition?
Um, and it It's, it's really humbling and it just makes me to think about it in like the big picture and to think that within the span of eight years and only really actively pursuing acting for the past 5, that I get to sit here now in the Netflix building.
That's so weird.
That's so cool.
Um, I am grateful that I just took the chance.
I mean, it was a low risk, low risk chance, um.
But it has kind of led to.
To so many bigger things and I mean I've had to take risks over and over again along the way that's just how this industry rolls um and everything's a bit of a roll of the dice but I've embraced that a little bit more and um I'm really curious to see what.
What comes next?
Is there anything that you think you learned on grizzlies when you were 15 that kind of sticks with you now?
Yeah, I think going into Grizzlies, I was just excited about making something.
I had no idea what it meant or what we were doing really or what it would turn out to be.
I was just excited to connect with people and make friends and, you know, serve a story that I thought was really important.
And you know at the time I, I didn't take things super seriously like I always take work very seriously.
My dad's always made sure that, you know, you take people's time seriously, you take the work seriously, um, but in terms of the industry, it's always just been like we're making movies, we're making shows, like let's have fun and that's been my approach to to every job and and how I, how I see my work and and what I want um from the work and.
You know, just that kind of like lesson because it, it worked then and it still seems to be working now, um, that I just get to move through this industry with um a smile on my face because I'm just having the time of my life.
I we're doing grizzlies because your character was, you know, the female on the team.
Was it interesting to be able to say like, I'm also making a mark to say like, this is what this girl looked like in this kind of male dominated space that she was operating.
Absolutely I think for you know in playing spring and taking up space and you know she really goes through this arc where she finds her strength after after such significant loss and trauma, um, and how she as a as a young woman was like, I'm not going to, I'm not going to be scared out of things that I want to do and that I think I make sense for and that I um see myself in.
And so I, I, yeah, I think there's like a great um example in that of, of taking up space and and not, you know, we're so often encouraged to make ourselves smaller for for other people um and recognizing that your story and your strength and your resilience, um, is valid and is important is, um, I think something that we all deserve to to see in here.
By the time you get to 3 pines, I mean a very different story than we're getting in North and North and a very different character, um.
And in that show, you definitely had to go in and tackle subjects that are harder and very um connected to trauma.
What made that set in particular um effective for you to be able to to play that role that I think was, you know, difficult for people to watch, but I can imagine also to kind of have to go into that headspace yourself for the character.
Yeah, Three Pines was was a heavy project, and I think there was a lot happening at the time that was quite Um, that, that made it that much harder and um it's like a deeply personal um thing to me and and something that I was struggling with at the time and um trying to kind of deal with all of these different feelings that that I was having, um, but you know, the, the very real issue of missing a murdered indigenous woman is something that, you know, I think we can never stop talking about and something that I think deserves that space and and that platform.
Um, and so it it was very much like a, a difficult one and um one that.
I really also struggled to watch um violence against indigenous women is is a very real threat and also something that um many of us have experienced or have loved ones who have experienced.
So it, yeah, Three Pines was so different.
From anything else that I had done up until that point and continues to be different from anything else I've done since, um, and I, I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know if I, um.
Because of how uh.
How difficult it was for me.
Um, I don't know if I would choose to do that kind of thing again, but I, you know, those kinds of stories are so important and continuing to highlight that that crisis that very much is still happening within our communities, um.
It's very important to me.
When you get to 2 Detective, um, and you're on a show with Jodie Foster and you're on a show where like things are particularly like Hollywood amplified, I'll call them it's like very like um how did it feel to kind of step into a role that did have so much attention and for that show True Detective in particular, had the history of the show being so popular before?
I mean, stepping into True Detective was was such a dream, the the cast on that.
Um, show was, was so incredible.
I mean Jodie Foster, of course, but like Kyle Reese, Finn Bennett, John Hawks, Chris Eccleston, Isabella LeBlanc, like just what, what an incredible cast and like lovely people, really, really such a great group of people to to work with, um, and you know Issa Lopez, I adore her with my whole heart and she put so much attention to detail into everything that she did, everything, everything she wrote, everything she directed.
Um, she was such a powerhouse and you know, I admire her work so dearly and as well as the Alaskan producers, um, Cathy Dugnock Wexford and Princess Johnson.
Those women wa wa adore, love, and of course Nutok uh Simmons, who is now Elisa in in north of North.
I remember finding out that she got cast and I was jumping up and down so excited um because she's just the best but stepping into True Detective was just I think it gave me a taste of what could be and um something to chase for the rest of my career and then hope to kind of get to that point again or do something similar.
Um, it allowed me the time and the space, you know, with the acting coaches and the dialect coaches and everything to, to try and do my best to level myself up, um, and yeah, I mean that shoot was just such a, a privilege and getting to meet everyone on it was such a privilege.
And the story that we told, um, one that was deeply important again about missing and murdered indigenous women but also about empowerment and and reclamation and taking back and um and justice, whatever that may look like or whatever that might mean and whether you agree with that or not um is always something that can be debated.
Um, was just really, really exciting and empowering, and it's a point of my career that I often look on and I'm like, I can't believe that happened.
That's so cool.
I mean, the announcement came out very recently about Heart of the Beast, which is, you know, massive.
How does it feel to have that announcement, be out and to have people know and to be on such a project that does have so many eyeballs and people are so excited about.
I mean it's it's pretty surreal it's it's really really cool um you know I every, every new project just feels so so exciting but I mean the the caliber and the size of of Heart of the Beast is just, um, I feel very honored to have the the trust of of the team to to hop in and and do my thing so you know I'm just, uh, I don't know, just always excited to be here everything is just.
I, I want to do it all.