Fiennes launches Nunavut search for Inuk leading lady

Last Updated: Saturday, April 21, 2007 | 9:25 PM ET

CBC News

British actor Ralph Fiennes arrived in Nunavut this week to start his search for an Inuk woman to star in his first feature film.

Fiennes, best known for his Oscar-nominated performances in front of the cameras in The English Patient and Schindler's List, is making his directing debut with Snow Country.

British actor and first-time director Ralph Fiennes, who stopped in Iqaluit on Tuesday, hopes to start filming Snow Country as early as this fall.
(CBC)

The film, based on an original screenplay, is a love story set in the 1950s involving a young Inuk woman who returns to the Arctic from a Winnipeg convent, having lost her original language and cultural identity. Pre-production work has begun and Fiennes and his crew hope to start shooting parts of the film this fall or next spring near Rankin Inlet.

Stopping in Iqaluit on Tuesday en route to Igloolik, Fiennes told reporters that he's looking across the territory for an Inuk to play Alma, the lead character.

"She's 17, 18 [years old] in the story, but she could be played by someone a bit older," he said. "It's a question of, obviously, how they look, what their qualities [are]. So I'm really open."

Fiennes noted that while the aspiring actresses don't need to have a lot of acting experience, he cautioned candidates that the role is demanding.

"It will be a big commitment for whoever plays Alma because it would be a 10-week photographic period, principal photography," he said. "So it's a big commitment because it's the leading part, the leading lady in the film. It's in virtually every scene of the film."

In his search across Nunavut, Fiennes has teamed up with the Ajjiit Nunavut Media Association, which will begin an official pre-casting call for Alma with a booth at the Nunavut Trade Show on May 3.

"We will have a video camera set up where young female Inuks can come and do a brief video interview as sort of the pre-casting for Alma," Ajjiit executive director Charlotte DeWolff said.

Fiennes said those in other Nunavut communities can submit a photo or video clip to Ajjiit Media's office in Iqaluit. The entries will be screened there, with the best ones forwarded to Fiennes and his producer in preparation for an actual casting call.

Fiennes said he is also in the process of finding a well-known male actor to play the film's romantic lead.