Grace Dove was ready for the part.
The part was ready for Grace Dove.
The Secwepemc actor from Prince George will soon be seen around the world in the upcoming action-adventure film How It Ends performing alongside Theo James (the Underworld film series, the Divergent franchise) and Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels' The Butler, Good Morning Vietnam, Star Wars: Rogue One and Academy Award winner for The Last King of Scotland).
The film was directed by David M. Rosenthal who was also the quarterback for such movies as Janie Jones, The Perfect Guy, and the upcoming remake of Jacob's Ladder. Since his debut film See This Movie starring Seth Meyers, Jessica Pare and John Cho, Rosenthal has managed to support his auteur work with substantial cast names.
Which is why the selection of Dove to one of the main supporting roles in his latest project was so unexpected. How It Ends is a thriller, but a good ol' road movie. It follows Whitaker and James as they speed across post-apocalyptic America to rescue a character played by another hot name in Hollywood these days, Kat Graham (Addicted, Honey 2, All Eyez On Me, The Vampire Diaries television series).
It's not that Dove isn't a known presence in the film industry. She wowed the world as Leonardo DiCaprio's wife in The Revenant. She also had a leading role in the short-films These Walls, O For A Thousand Tongues, and Mino Bimaadiziwin, as well as co-hosting the adventure sport documentary series UnderEXPOSED TV.
In each of these projects, she portrayed an Aboriginal character, if not herself. As a descendent of the Tsq'escen' First Nation based near 100 Mile House, that was important to her and a creative streak that has not been afforded to many Indigenous actors in past generations - to accrue a body of Aboriginal work.
When the open auditions were held for How It Ends she felt a burst of excitement around another Aboriginal character, the part of Ricki, one of the main supporting roles. She earnestly submitted a video application for the part and was quickly informed she got the part.
What she was not informed of was how she crossed a rare Hollywood line in getting the green light to be Ricki. She only spotted it incidentally, as she read through various versions of the script. The pronouns in reference to Ricki were sometimes "he" and "him."
Another hint was the absence of the usual female tropes when male screenwriters depict females in film. Ricki was all business, no romance. Ricki had a story arch. Ricki came into conflict. Ricki was tough.
Yes, Dove was told by the production staff the part of Ricki was originally written to be a male, but her audition changed their minds.
"I knew this was a huge opportunity for me," she said, now on the eve of the film's worldwide release. "Obviously I'm fighting for so much more than my own career. I'm fighting for the proper representation of Indigenous peoples, I'm fighting for visibility, there are so many more layers to my career that goes beyond just being an actor."
Her version of fighting looks less like antagonistic argument than calm dissertation of information. She has become a leader by example, and a teller of raw Indigenous story.
Some of that comes out in her art, by virtue of acting being a form of creative expression that requires, when done by masters, a personal authenticity.
"I embody other people (as a profession), but unless I know my identity I wouldn't have the strength that I do now," she explained. "I believe that no matter what role you play, you have to bring your own truth and a piece of you, because if you don't then it's surface level. So the stronger that my identity is, and the stronger I stand in my own identity, then I can play and create on different levels."
Some of that advocacy comes out by using her voice to talk about her own lived experience. She has accepted a growing number of calls to be a keynote speaker or guest panelist on the subject of Indigenous experience.
This is why an ally of Dove's recently offered her a high-profile role of a different kind. She will soon deliver a TEDx talk, and it will be a monologue on the racism she endured growing up in Prince George and how it is to be a modern Aboriginal young woman in a culture starting to apply some action to the concept of reconciliation.
"I'll be presenting on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish," she said. "I am working on a very personal narrative of my journey navigating adversity and finding my identity as a Secwepemc woman."
The speech is still under construction. She said it was challenging because past addresses have been for specific audiences - schools, conferences, associations - but a TED Talk is for the world. She knows her thematic word is "identity" but she is still composing the body of the message.
For those who live in Prince George, the speech may feel uncomfortable. Dove said she was compelled to tell the truth about how she evolved from rural Salmon Valley kid to the star of the silver screen, and that evolution contained some hometown pain inflicted by this city's overall society.
"I think, growing up, I was just trying to survive and find ways to be creative and express myself, and I was not able to stand within my identity as an Indigenous person. I think that was taken from me," she said. "Now that I've been able to grow up, and step away, and explore more culture, and be surrounded by other strong Indigenous people, and find the space to be who I am, now I am able to realize I can be proud of who I am and where I came from. I can heal.
"I was forced to conform and to just get through with less conflict. The truth is, there was and still is a lot of racism today. A lot of people act like the past is the past and we should move on from it. They don't want to hear why Indigenous peoples are struggling. The genocide of First Nations people in Canada still affects me, it affects everything that I do, my everyday. And it's OK for me to talk about that and express that, because the best way we are going to move forward is for Canadians and people in Prince George to be an ally with us, to educate themselves, and try to understand what we're going through as a people. Because up until this point it wasn't talked about in school, it was pushed under the rug. But it's still relevant today. We're still fighting. That's where a lot of my drive and my passion comes from, is that I have a responsibility to lift my people up and to help us rise, and the best way I know how to do that is through my craft."
Her craft is the ultimate in collaborative arts. Making a film requires a galaxy of different people and different disciplines coming together to present a dynamic expression. In The Revenant, director Alejandro Irritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (both won Oscars for their efforts) used all natural light in the outdoor wilderness to tell the story. This time, most of the filming was done in all-night marathons under intense lights, in complex vehicle rigs.
Dove was especially appreciative of director Rosenthal allowing her to research the Aboriginal background of Ricki and take on the physical traits that were true to that particular First Nation.
"Indigenous people aren't generic in any sense," said Dove.
To see How It Ends for Ricki, and how the next phase begins for Dove, catch the movie on Netflix starting Friday.
Dove's TEDx Talk will happen Sept. 8 live at the Chan Centre For The Performing Arts in Vancouver along with other speakers, including former prime minister Kim Campbell, Theo Fleury, Moses Znaimer and many others.
