{"id":879553,"date":"2026-09-01T14:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/879553\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:24:09","slug":"north-of-norths-anna-lambe-is-embracing-her-big-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/879553\/","title":{"rendered":"North of North\u2019s Anna Lambe is embracing her big moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On top of the second season of North of North, actress Anna Lambe appears in two major Hollywood films scheduled for release in the next months.May Truong\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Each month, generations reporter Ann Hui takes readers along to hang out with fascinating Canadians \u2013 regular people and celebrities, teens to seniors \u2013 joining them in their favourite pastime for up-close and candid conversations.<\/p>\n

Standing under a bridge by the Don River in Toronto, a photographer is aiming her lens at Anna Lambe, when the 25-year-old actress does something unusual.<\/p>\n

She picks up a camera of her own and aims the lens back at the photographer. She presses the shutter. Click.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just thinking,\u201d she said, \u201c\u2018I want to remember this moment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And no wonder. Lambe has already achieved what many would consider huge success for a Canadian actress. But in this moment, standing under the bridge, she\u2019s poised to see her career catapult into another stratosphere entirely.<\/p>\n

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Growing up in Iqaluit, population: 7,400, Ms. Lambe\u2019s career goals were firmly grounded in the North. Her mother\u2019s family had roots in Grise Fiord \u2013 the northernmost community in Canada created out of the forced relocation of Inuit families in the 1950s.May Truong\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

She appears in not one but two major Hollywood films scheduled for release in the next months: there\u2019s Heart of the Beast, where she stars with Brad Pitt, and Aaron Sorkin\u2019s The Social Reckoning, alongside Jeremy Allen White. On top of that comes the season premiere of season two of North of North, the CBC comedy in which she plays series lead, Siaja.<\/p>\n

Not bad for an Inuk kid growing up in one of Canada\u2019s most remote, northernmost communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis,\u201d she said, gesturing around her \u2013 at the setup for this photoshoot, at the Toronto skyline behind her \u2013 \u201cwas far too big a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up in Iqaluit, population: 7,400, Lambe\u2019s career goals were firmly grounded in the North. Her mother\u2019s family had roots in Grise Fiord \u2013 the northernmost community in Canada created out of the forced relocation of Inuit families in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where she spent her first few years, before the family moved to Iqaluit. Her mom was a flight attendant and her dad an RCMP officer.<\/p>\n

She feels fortunate to have grown up in Iqaluit. There were challenges, of course. Suicide, addiction and tragedy were a part of everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much trauma, and no degree of separation,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of that is a very real part of growing up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it taught her empathy. \u201cIt\u2019s about how we come together as a community,\u201d she said. \u201cHow people support another going through difficult times.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ms. Lambe aspired as a child to attend university, then work for the Inuit Circumpolar Council, a multinational NGO.May Truong\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Her goal, as a kid, was to attend university, and then work for the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an NGO that supports Inuit communities around the world. She wanted to work on the housing crisis, which she saw as connected to so many other social challenges around her.<\/p>\n

But in high school, life took an unexpected turn. Her drama teacher saw a posting about a small indie film shooting in the area and looking for Indigenous actresses. She suggested Lambe try out. That became The Grizzlies, a 2018 film about teen suicide in Nunavut that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

From there, there was Trickster, the CBC series based on the Eden Robinson novel, in which she played Sarah. And in 2024, she played Kayla in the fourth season of True Detective.<\/p>\n

She kept up her schooling throughout, studying international development at the University of Ottawa, where she\u2019s based in now. But over the past year \u2013 with her busy work schedule, and much to her father\u2019s dismay \u2013 she\u2019s had to put a pause on her studies.<\/p>\n

Even with her career appearing poised to take off, she\u2019s trying to manage her own expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to think too far ahead of anything,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to practise being present, and allowing life to happen with the belief it\u2019s happening as it\u2019s supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019d chosen Toronto\u2019s recently opened Biidaasige Park for this rare break in her schedule. Biidaasige, Anishinaabemowin for \u201csunlight shining toward us,\u201d was built by the city in collaboration with Indigenous leaders, with Indigenous design and values in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy identity, my culture, it informs everything that I do,\u201d she said. In a country where, only decades ago, entire systems were set up to eradicate the culture of Indigenous Peoples, she said, \u201cmy existence is inherently political.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even within Indigenous communities, she tries to think deeply about her identity, and is careful about how she shares her spotlight. She understands that relative to many others in her community, she\u2019s privileged \u2013 being half-white, speaking English with no identifiable accent, and having grown up in a stable, two-parent household.<\/p>\n

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As an introvert, Ms. Lambe has had to find techniques to overcome her embarrassment in front of the camera. One of the methods is photography.May Truong\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to really think about how I take up space in this industry, and what that means,\u201d she said. \u201cAm I doing enough to empower and improve other community members? Am I speaking too loudly?\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of loudly. Sitting on a bench at Biidaasige on a weekday afternoon, there\u2019s barely anyone else around. There\u2019s only light wind, and the low din of traffic.<\/p>\n

Even so, Lambe\u2019s careful, quiet voice is often hard to make out. She\u2019s not at all an extrovert, not someone who naturally seeks attention or the spotlight.<\/p>\n

So as an actress, she\u2019s had to learn techniques to overcome this.<\/p>\n

For one, she tries to remember that it\u2019s far more embarrassing to hold back. It\u2019s better to fully commit.<\/p>\n

And when she\u2019s being interviewed, or photographed, or sent to promote a film or a show, she tries to remember that each project is the collaboration of hundreds of people \u2013 not just her. That it\u2019s their time and energy on the line too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really cool to care,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sick of this rejection of caring, of trying. Sick of this nonchalant culture.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another solution she\u2019s found for getting over embarrassment? She gestures at her camera, still slung around her shoulder.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a hobby she took up a couple years ago. These days, she brings her film camera along with her everywhere. She\u2019ll take pictures during breaks from shooting. She\u2019ll go for walks in parks just like this one and take photos of everything around her.<\/p>\n

When she\u2019s the one taking the picture, she said, she\u2019s not judging the people she\u2019s photographing. \u201cI just want to capture them as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a freeing thought on the other side of the camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily a reclamation, but it is a way of taking control,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me feel powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: On top of the second season of North of North, actress Anna Lambe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,45877,2922],"class_list":["post-879553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-lc-g","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}