Q&A: Cara Gee plays “dream role” as gun-toting Métis cowgirl

Cara Gee calls it a "dream role": a gun-toting Métis cowgirl seeking justice on the Western frontier in 1869.

That's the premise of a new series called Strange Empire, which premieres this Monday on CBC-TV. 

Cara Gee plays a gun-toting Métis cowgirl seeking justice on the Western frontier in 1869, in the new CBC-TV series Strange Empire. (Bettina Strauss)

Landing the starring role in a Canadian TV drama is the latest in a string of accomplishments for the 31-year old Gee, whose mother's family hails from Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario.

She studied acting at the University of Windsor, and after a series of acclaimed performances in theatre, she was cast as the lead in Empire of Dirt, for which she was nominated for best lead actress at the Canadian Screen Awards.

Gee arrived in Vancouver in June, where she's been shooting Strange Empire ever since. On set at a farm in Abbotsford, she took a break from a scene she was about to shoot — where her character confronts a murderer — to talk about her latest role with CBC's Duncan McCue.

Q: You play Kat Loving, a Métis woman struggling to survive in a frontier town. She's a badass female native hero...

A: I know!

Q: What's it like for you inhabiting that character?

A: It's the dream role of a lifetime. She's very strong, much stronger than me. I find her strength really inspiring. If I had to face the things she faces throughout this series, I would be curled up in a ball in the corner (laughes). She faces everything head-on. 

Not without fear, but a lot of bravery and courage. She's fighting for justice the whole time, then that fight consumes her. It's brutal what she has to go through.

Q: She's a gunslinger. What was that like?

A: It was WAY too fun. I'm not big on guns in real life. But, oh my goodness, for pretend? It's a powerful feeling.

Q: Westerns are a genre plagued by a lot of stereotypical portrayals of Indigenous people. Does that baggage make it a challenge for you?

'We finally have this Métis hero,' says Cara Gee about her role as Kat Loving on CBC-TV series Strange Empire. (Kharen Hill/CBC)

A: I've been asked quite a few times, "You're in a Western, isn't that cool, have you always wanted to be in a Western?'"

My answer is "No!" It's not a genre I've ever gravitated toward because of those stereotypes. So, to be able to subvert the genre, and tell a side of the story that isn't told — that has been actively written over — is a huge responsibility. The genre is often nostalgic, and this isn't. This isn't an idyllic West full of the possibility of conquering. It's actually the other side of that, which we don't like to look at because it's not pretty.

Q: You've taken on lots of diverse roles in theatre, including a Japanese translator and a former porn star. But there aren't many starring roles for First Nations women in Canadian TV. How does your Anishinaabe heritage inform this part?

A: When I was working on Empire of Dirt, people were lumping us in with Rhymes With Young Ghouls, and saying 'Wow, it's a banner year for native cinema. Isn't it wild how different the two films are?' And I would say, 'Native isn't a genre.'

Those two films are vastly different and unique, as much as human beings and First Nations people are unique. The fact that I've been able to play First Nations characters is great, but Kat is completely unlike any character I've played before. I do think what I bring to it personally --- perhaps the one thing we all have in common as First Nations people --- is that we grow up knowing the history we've been taught isn't the whole story.

So, my perspective is informed by that, knowing this side of our nation's history is untold. 

Q: The heroes in Strange Empire are all women, and much of the production crew is also female, from writers to directors. It's also pretty gritty - scenes of violence, death, prostitution. 

Does this fictional show have any messages — in the context of contemporary Canada, with more and more people calling for an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women?

'To be able to portray the complexity of one Métis woman's life, maybe that's one way I can help our nation value the lives of First Nations women.'- Cara Gee

A: That has been so present in my mind as we've been making this. The way I've been thinking about it, we finally have this Métis hero.

I really hope the audience is rooting for her, and they see her as a full, real, complex human being. Where we get into problems with undervaluing the lives of First Nations women is that we as a nation don't quite recognize their humanity ... as individuals with lives and families and feelings and thoughts and hopes and dreams. And to be able to portray the complexity of one Métis woman's life, maybe that's one way I can help our nation value the lives of First Nations women.

There's lots of ways to get at that disaster that is happening, but this is my way of trying to help. It's a huge responsibility, and I'm keenly aware of it. It's enormous, isn't it?

Q: It's tough for me as a journalist, to cover stories of missing Indigenous women. It's a tough place to go.

A: It's devastating. It's difficult to speak about without becoming angry. And that doesn't get us anywhere. You can't just scream at people and say, 'Why don't you care?' Because that's not a way to make people care. But it is insane to me that every single person in this country is not raging at this injustice.

Q: With all that heavy stuff, how do you stay light and happy, on a working day in Vancouver?

A: I don't know if I do. It's been really heavy. I'm not sure what life will be like when it's finished. I'm going to have to work on how to get back to some regular life.

The show is very dark. Kat Loving is living an absolute nightmare, and that is a very dark place to go every day, for months and months and long hours. 

That does take a piece of my heart with it. And that's OK. It's worth it... you know, it feels a bit like having my foot on the gas and the brake at the same time. 

The show is so good, I'm so excited to see these stories being told, but at the same time, it's this dark, awful place to live. So it's like, GAHHHHH! It's been a very intense experience for me.

Miigwech! Thanks for taking time.

CG: Miigwech.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length.

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Maroon 5's 'Animals' video condemned by sex assault group

Maroon 5's new "Animals" video is being blasted by a sexual assault support group for trivializing serious crimes against women.

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine posted this photo with his wife, Behati Prinsloo, on his Instagram in September. (adamlevine/Instagram)

The video released Monday features Maroon 5​ frontman Adam Levine as an obsessed butcher.

He sings "Baby, I'm preying on you tonight/Hunt you down eat you alive/Just like animals," while stalking a young woman (played by his real-life wife Behati Prinsloo).

'No one should ever confuse the criminal act of stalking with romance.'- Katherine Hull Fliflet, RAINN's vice-president of communications

The twisted cat and mouse theme is clear when the chorus hits and a blood-covered Levine begins fondling animal carcasses in a meat locker while singing "Maybe you think that you can hide/I can smell your scent from miles."

'A dangerous depiction'

The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), a U.S. anti-sexual violence organization, slammed the video, calling it "a dangerous depiction of a stalker's fantasy."

"No one should ever confuse the criminal act of stalking with romance," said Katherine Hull Fliflet, RAINN's vice-president of communications in a statement to CBC News on Friday.

"The trivialization of these serious crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry."

The sentiment was echoed by fans who took to Twitter to express their outrage.

While some fans labelled the video "disgusting" and "appalling" and called for it to be pulled from rotation, others defended Maroon 5's use of graphic and sexually violent images as artistic expression.

WARNING: The following video contains images of a violent and sexual nature

Stalker songs

The backlash over the Maroon 5 video comes three months after Robin Thicke's "Paula" triggered similar outrage.

The video, released by the recently separated singer, depicted him stalking and then apparently drowning his estranged wife.

In the video, Thicke seems to suggest he'd kill himself if his wife refused to see him, with the text "Can I come and see you?" flashing on screen, as Thicke mimed firing a gun at his temple.

From Maroon 5's Animals and Robin Thicke's Paula, to Blondie's One Way or Another and the Police's Every Breath You Take, artists are frequently making music about obsessive, unhealthy relationships.

Sting himself admitted in an often-quoted 1983 interview with New Musical Express that the Police song he wrote is "a nasty little song, really rather evil. It's about jealousy and surveillance and ownership." 

Getting help

For more information on the crime of stalking, or to get resources on familial and relationship violence, see the RCMP's criminal harassment web page.

In Canada, women who feel they are the victims of violence, including stalking, can contact the Assaulted Women's Helpline 1-866-863-0511.

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Xavier Dolan calls Orson Welles 'a late bloomer'

It really has been Xavier Dolan's year.

Quebec's wunderkind director is riding high on a wave of success after his latest film, Mommy, premiered at Cannes to a rapturous standing ovation before snagging the festival's prestigious Jury Prize.

Not long after his victorious return to Montreal,  Mommy was selected as Canada's contender for the best foreign language film at the Academy Awards.

Not bad for a young man who turned 25 in March.

Delving ​into dysfunction

With just a quarter century behind him, Dolan already has five feature films under his belt, all of them delving into complex emotional territory.

The young auteur made it all the way to Cannes in 2009 with his debut feature I Killed My Mother. The tender yet dysfunctional love story depicts a single mother and her gay son as a troubled couple.

When 25-year-old Quebecois auteur Xavier Dolan unveiled his latest feature, Mommy, at Cannes this summer, it was met with deafening buzz and went on to win the prestigious Jury Prize. (Canadian Press)

​Dolan returns to loaded mother-son relationships in Mommy.

Like his first film, the visually striking and operatic new project once again stars Anne Dorval in the maternal role, this time as an outrageous single mother with a hyperactive, tyrannical teenage son (played by Antoine Olivier Pilon).

In characteristically bold style, Dolan shot Mommy in a square 1:1 aspect ratio.

Variety magazine's critic Peter Debruge called the film "a funny, heartbreaking and, above all, original work — that feels derivative of no one, not even himself."

Criticism and comparisons

It's Dolan's apparent emotional wisdom and audacious stylistic choices that have some critics drawing comparisons to Orson Welles, the legendary American writer and director who made his first film at 25.

Dolan brushed off the comparison in a feature interview with CBC's Wendy Mesley.

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"He was lazy," quipped Dolan, who made his first picture at 19. "He's a late bloomer."

"I don't create with my age you know, it's not an obstacle, it's not an asset, I don't use it, I don't think about it, I just create and do what I have to do." 

It's this unapologetic solipsism that has earned Dolan the reputation as the bad boy of Quebec cinema, with some critics dismissing him as self-indulgent and pretentious.

"There's a fair amount of people who like me and don't like me," observed Dolan. 

"I just speak my mind, for me it's absolutely normal."

Tune into the The National Friday night for Wendy Mesley's full interview with Xavier Dolan.

Watch a preview of their conversation in the video above.

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Tusk: FILM REVIEW

Tusk follows Wallace (Justin Long), an emotionally stunted podcast host, who ventures north of Winnipeg in search of stories. What he finds is Howard Howe (Michael Parks) a retired sailor with some incredible tales to tell. 

Michael Parks as the eloquently deranged recluse is almost worth the price of admission, but things go sideways quickly. Howard Howe captures Wallace and intends to turn him into a human-walrus hybrid. Instead of building up the horror, Smith bogs us down in flashbacks about how Wallace (a thoroughly unsympathetic character) became a bad boyfriend.

But what is even more fascinating is Jersey Boy Kevin Smith's ongoing obsession with Canada. Tusk is riddled with lame and lazy jokes about Canadiana, characters that say "aboot" and a convenience store chain called the "Eh 2 Zed."

There's even an inexplicable extended cameo by Johnny Depp as a ridiculous retired member of the Sûreté du Québec that makes Inspector Clouseau look like Dirty Harry.  

Adding to the strangeness is the fact that Kevin Smith actually attended film school in Vancouver before dropping out, so he knows exactly what he's mocking. 

Tusk is the first in Smith's so-called True North Trilogy. The second in the trio, Yoga Hosers, is already in production, featuring performances from Smith's and Johnny Depp's 15-year-old daughters.

That will be to be followed by Moose Jaws—about a man-eating moose.  

Oh Canada indeed. 

2 stars out of 5

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Google threatened with $100M lawsuit over nude celebrity photos

Lawyer representing hacked stars accuses tech giant of 'acting like the NFL'

CBC News Posted: Oct 02, 2014 2:19 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 02, 2014 9:53 PM ET

Marty Singer, a Los Angeles lawyer representing over a dozen female celebrities, is threatening to sue Google for $100 million US over nude photos leaked online from personal iCloud accounts.

In a letter from the law firm Lavely & Singer obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, Singer accuses the web giant of "accommodating, facilitating and perpetuating" the distribution of the photos when it failed to remove the images from its search results. 

"Like the NFL, which turned a blind eye while its players assaulted and victimized women and children, Google has turned a blind eye while its sites repeatedly exploit and victimize these women," the statement reads, likening Google's response to the nude photo leak to the football league's recent domestic abuse scandal.

The legal threat follows the leak of intimate photos of stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Selena Gomez on an image-sharing site in August. Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens and U.S. soccer star Hope Solo were among the targets of a later leak in September.

Singer did not name the stars involved in his law firm's action, but he alleges many of their photos still exist on Google sites like BlogSpot and YouTube four weeks after his firm demanded that they be taken down.

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Movie Review: Gone Girl will 'rattle your rib cage'

Rosamund Pike's performance in David Fincher's new move will 'rattle your rib cage' says CBC's film critic

CBC News Posted: Oct 03, 2014 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Oct 03, 2014 9:07 AM ET

Gone Girl director David Fincher takes on murder, the media and marriage in his highly-anticipated big screen adaptation of Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel.

The thriller stars Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne, a seemingly-hapless husband accused in the murder of his rich and beautiful wife Amy, played by former Bond girl Rosamund Pike.

Like the book, the narrative dares the audience to choose sides with either the sympathetic husband or his enigmatic wife.

"Like a dangerous cross breed between War of the Roses and Fatal Attraction this is a film that engages with its audience," says CBC film reviewer Eli Glasner.

"Affleck is amazing but it's Pike's performance that will rattle your rib cage."

Watch Eli's full review in the attached video.

Girl Gone opens in theatres Friday.

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

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Kenojuak Ashevak gets posthumous birthday Google doodle

Kenojuak Ashevak, the famed Canadian and Inuit art pioneer, is getting a tribute in pixels today courtesy of the Google doodle.

The search engine's daily design is a brown and ochre owl with proudly splayed feathers. It's an obvious homage to Ashevak's most famous work The Enchanted Owl on what would have been the artist's 87th birthday.

She died in her home in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, in 2013 after a long battle with cancer.

Kenojuak Ashevak's The Enchanted Owl, created in 1960, was featured on a Canadian stamp and has permeated Canadian culture. (West Baffin Eskimo Co-Operative Ltd./National Gallery of Canada)

Ashevak created the iconic stone carving in 1960. The red, black and blue print was featured on a Canadian stamp in 1970, and quickly became an enduring symbol of art in the North.

The original The Enchanted Owl is currently housed in the National Gallery of Canada.

Ashevak was born in 1927 in a camp on Baffin Island and lived the traditional nomadic life on the land before settling in Cape Dorset.

Kenojuak Ashevak is one of the most acclaimed Inuit artists to emerge from Cape Dorset, Nunavut. She died in 2013.

Despite being known as one Canada's greatest artists, Ashevak ​is also remembered for her modesty.

Okpik Pitseolak, an artist from Cape Dorset who knew Ashevak, told CBC News shortly after the artist's death that she was "very humble about her work."

Pitseolak said that when she appeared on the radio to talk about her art, she didn't want to come across "as someone who brags" about it. But she was "thankful for the fact that she was given this gift."

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Taylor Hatala, Edmonton's viral video star, wows Ellen show audience

It's doubtful that 11-year-old Taylor Hatala knew she'd be dancing for an international audience of millions when she and her choreographer were filmed dancing along to Nicki Minaj's hit song Anaconda last week.

In the video, Taylor and Laurence Kaiwai ooze attitude as they perform for a crowd at Edmonton's KORE dance studio.

Since the video was posted to YouTube, it has been viewed nearly eight million times and counting — but Taylor's rising star didn't stop there.

After the video went viral, she and Kaiwai were invited to Los Angeles to perform their moves on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The studio audience went wild as the pair repeated their sassy performance — and they weren't the only ones. Television host and radio personality Ryan Seacrest tweeted out his compliments after the show.

Minaj herself shared Taylor's video on her own Facebook page last week.

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Tiziana La Melia wins 2014 RBC Canadian Painting Competition

Tiziana La Melia of Vancouver has won this year's RBC Canadian Painting Competition, which recognizes artists in the early stages of their careers.

Vancouver's Tiziana La Melia stands in front of her grand prize-winning painting, Hanging on to the part, at Wednesday night's gala announcement at the the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts . (RBC )

She took the $25,000 honour Wednesday night in Montreal for her work Hanging on to the part.

Jury members said they liked that the piece "combined abstraction and figuration to portray both mythological female archetypes and personal narratives."

La Melia is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design and the University of Guelph.

She beat out 14 other finalists for the prize, which is into its 16th year.

Ufuk Gueray of Winnipeg and Nicolas Lachance of Montreal received $15,000 honourable mention prizes at Wednesday's event.

All three works of art will be added to the expansive RBC corporate art collection.

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Residential school ballet, Going Home Star, opens in Winnipeg

One of the most European forms of dance will tackle Canada's fraught colonial history when performers with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet take to the stage Wednesday for the world premiere of a ballet about Indian residential schools.

The ballet, entitled Going Home Star — Truth and Reconciliation, follows the journey of a young, urban First Nations woman who discovers her ancestors and finds meaning in her own life with the help of a homeless residential school survivor.

Based on a story by novelist Joseph Boyden, it includes appearances by Polaris prize winner and Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq along with other aboriginal vocalists.

'This is a story that Canadian society needs to be able to communicate to itself in a way that they can appreciate.'- Truth and Reconciliation Commission head Murray Sinclair on telling this story through dance

The ballet, sponsored by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, of Canada, is an attempt to capture the emotions and experiences of residential school survivors by a company that doesn't have an aboriginal dancer.

But commission head Murray Sinclair said it's a way to bring a dark chapter of Canadian history to a different audience.

"We know that people will say this is not their story to tell us," Sinclair said in an interview. "That's true, but what we say to survivors who wonder why this is being done is: 'This is a story that they're telling themselves. This is a story that Canadian society needs to be able to communicate to itself in a way that they can appreciate.'

"This is one way of doing that."

Canada's painful past

About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were taken from their families and forced to attend government schools over much of the last century to "take the Indian out of the child." The last school closed outside Regina in 1996.

The $60-million truth and reconciliation commission is part of a landmark compensation deal between the federal government, the Crown and residential school survivors. It has visited hundreds of communities and has heard graphic details of rampant sexual and physical abuse.

Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancers Sophie Lee and Liang Xing from Going Home Star - Truth And Reconciliation (The Canadian Press)

Learning about the issue through dance can reach those who would not necessarily attend a lecture or a speech on the topic, Sinclair said. Dance and music have also been shown scientifically to stimulate a separate part of the brain, so the ballet has the potential to reach people on a different level, he said.

"This is not an aboriginal story. This is not only about the experience of those who were students in the school. This is also the story about Canada's experience," Sinclair said.

"While they were indoctrinating aboriginal people into believing that their people were inferior, their languages were irrelevant, their cultures were not worth protecting, the very same message was being given to students in public schools in this country."

The performance was spearheaded by aboriginal actress and former MP Tina Keeper, who sits on the ballet's board of directors. The history of residential schools in Canada lends itself well to the ballet stage, she said.

"At the heart of every ballet is a great story and that's what we have here," she said. "It is a great tragic tale and a love story, so in that sense, it fits perfectly."

Hope out of a heart-wrenching history

Choreographer Mark Godden said the aim was to reflect the heart-wrenching stories coming out of the truth and reconciliation commission. But the experience also needed to be positive.

"It's to not deny the past but to say that, in many ways, First Nations and aboriginal people are stronger than they are before. Many of them aren't victims," he said. "That was the desire — to build a story that was more uplifting."

Going Home Star — Truth and Reconciliation is based on a story by novelist Joseph Boyden

Godden said he started by watching streaming testimony given at the commission. With two kids of his own, he was an "emotional wreck" absorbing the raw, emotional testimony, he said. But he also saw the courage and strength of survivors who relived their abuse by talking about it publicly.

"That's something I wanted to put into the ballet," he said. "If everybody picks up the burden of this story, then we lighten the load for everybody. It's a sense of social responsibility there."

The ballet is careful to avoid cultural appropriation, Godden said. There is no attempt to integrate traditional aboriginal dance or costume. The music, performed by aboriginal artists, provides a bridge between the European tradition of ballet and the aboriginal experience, he suggested.

Commissioners and survivors met with those involved with the ballet throughout the creative process.

"The process itself has been reconciling," said commissioner Marie Wilson. "The process of having dancers and creative people learn about this history while they are practising their own art form has allowed for growth. Those who come as audience members will be witness to that."

The ballet is giving away free tickets to residential school survivors and is setting aside a batch of "pay-what-you-can" tickets for one performance.

It's hoped the ballet will tour across the country following its premiere in Winnipeg.

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