The first season of breakout hit North of North shone a brilliant spotlight on the vibrant lives and joyful spirit of Canada’s Northern communities.
Shot in and around Iqaluit, Nunavut, North of North prioritizes relationships with local artisans and designers to source on-screen artwork, garments, and artifacts. Many locals also work on the production as background actors and crew.
In an exclusive interview with stars Anna Lambe (Siaja) and Maika Harper (Neevee), we had the opportunity to dive into the heart of what makes North of North both important television and exceptional comedy.
How did you both get involved with North of North?
Anna Lambe: The casting call came out. I saw it, and I contacted my team and was like, “I want to do this so badly! Can we get an audition?”
I auditioned for four months, I think, starting at the end of June or in July, and booked it at the end of October. November? It was a long process, but I’ve known Stacey [Aglok MacDonald] and Alethea [Arnaquq-Baril], the showrunners, and Miranda [de Pencier] since I was 15.
I’ve been dying to work with them again. I love them and adore them. They’re really legends. They are everything that you would hope they would be: community-oriented, wonderful women who put their hearts and souls into everything they create.
So I was like, “I don’t care what capacity, I just wanna do this! I want to be part of this. It’s going to be amazing.”
Maika Harper: I was in the same boat. I auditioned for quite a number of months. For a while, I was just a little too young for what they thought.
So I decided, “Why don’t I just get some weird makeup and stuff?” And then we hit the ground running from that point on. I put some white in my hair, did lines [gestures to her forehead], like fake wrinkles and stuff.
I REALLY wanted this role so badly, and I felt like it was just out of my reach. So I needed to do something a little bit bolder to be able to secure the bag. I’m so glad that I got it.
I’m so grateful to Alethea and Stacey and Miranda and everybody that’s behind the show because they really do believe in this cast. They gave me this opportunity that I don’t think I would’ve normally gotten if it wasn’t for them understanding that I wanted to do this so badly. Much like Anna.
The relationship between Siaja and Neevee is such a complex and rich and hilarious, at times, piece. How did you two connect with your characters and then with each other?
AL: I struggled connecting with Siaja at the beginning. The messiness of Siaja… I’m somebody who’s very “Keep myself together, man!” — quite strict with how I carry myself, not very impulsive. I’m very reserved, actually quite shy, very introverted.
Siaja was the opposite of so many things that I was, and I remember we had an acting coach who I love and adore. Again, I’ve known her since I was 15. She was the acting coach on The Grizzlies, Melee Hutton.
[She is] so generous with her energy and her time with us as actors, literally making me wear my shoes on the wrong feet to carry myself differently, to be more impulsive and to be really off-centre, which is what Siaja is in the first season.
When I finally had a grip on that, we were workshopping together quite a lot, building this relationship of what Neevee and Siaja… who they were. It was so much collaboration and play in the beginning.
To play with Maika and to do this day in and day out while we were figuring out what the tone of the show was and stretching so much as actors and as people, it was HARD.
MH: I like to think of it as a marathon, like the Olympics or something. We went all over the board to find that tone, whether it was BIG or small. Now that we’ve got the tone and you see it, we’ve got a mixture of everything that we explored. It’s perfect. It’s beautiful.
With both of you being from Nunavut, how did it feel to open up your community to the world with this show?
MH: I was nervous from the beginning. I was really excited about the show, but more nervous and reserved for actual filming when we got down to it.
I wanted to make sure that the crew and everybody that was coming up for the show was going to be respectful. It is a small community, and it’s our community. It’s really important to make sure that we go in with an open mind and open heart and get ready for an adventure.
AL: It was really wonderful to have the support of your community while you’re filming.
Tricky First Steps
AL: The first season was hard because, at the time, nobody really knew what we were making. It was just this Netflix show, this CBC show, APTN show, that had come up and was blocking off the roads, shutting down the stores.
I remember seeing my cousin posting about us on Facebook and being like, “Oh my god.” We’re from here, so like Maika said, people come to us when something’s wrong.
People come and talk to us because we’re the point of contact that they know or that they recognize to say, “You’re causing problems. Your production blocked the pipe where the water truck is supposed to come. We don’t have water because of you guys.”
There was a lot of responsibility in wanting to do things the right way and wanting to represent community in the right way and making people feel seen and feel heard.
The Pay-Off
AL: It was such a massive joy when the show was finished and it had come out because so many people had contributed to it, whether they lent something to production, or they came and they were part of the crew, or they did background, or they were one of our supporting cast.
It really took a community to make it. And it was really wonderful when it was also our cousins and our family members. There is so much community involved in it. To celebrate it — not just as a cast and a crew — but as an entire community when the show was finished was so exciting.
Also, Stacey and Alethea, the way that they navigated being responsible for the show and making sure things were done right. When problems came up, they were taken care of immediately.
They steered the ship with so much grace, doing something that has never been done before, and we’re so grateful for the grace that our community gave us to figure it out the first time and the excitement that they came into Season 2 with because people were SO excited; it made me so happy how much people wanted to be part of the show.
The Season 1 finale blew our minds with the reveal about Neevee’s first daughter and sparked conversations about the “Why” and “How” something like that could happen. Did you expect it to provoke such a strong response from audiences?
MH: It’s really important because the reality for many Indigenous people is the reality that Neevee’s living. She’s gone through so much. And she’s really trying to give her daughter everything that she couldn’t have. [The chance] to be messy. To make mistakes. Because she couldn’t make mistakes. And when she did, it was horrible.
It’s really important to have these conversations because it is a very important part of our history. It’s not even that long ago, and it’s a reality that many people are living, so it’s important to showcase that.
Siaja’s Take
AL: Siaja has a lot of compassion for her mother and understood that there were a lot of things that her mother didn’t talk about and that maybe she would talk about it one day, but it’s also okay if she didn’t.
With this reveal and knowing that these are things that really do happen in our communities — this, and even harsher, even scarier, even worse do really happen — I had hoped one of the conversations would be that young people consider that there are a lot of things that our parents, who are dealing with colonial trauma, who have dealt with so much hardship, have things that they don’t talk about.
To hold space for that and how people in your community have lived lives that you don’t understand, or you don’t know. Maybe some things that you perceive as cold or you perceive as harsh or hard are protection for themselves.
I had hoped that it would open up more conversations about compassion and understanding and that there are things that you don’t know. Sometimes, you’ll never know. And to still be able to navigate the world through that with an open heart and mind.
North of North hits the humour of discomfort and awkwardness squarely every time, but can you speak to the creative process behind the scenes that makes it work so well on-screen?
AL: The scripts are really great. We’re really fortunate to have such a wonderful cast and supporting cast that just wants to come in and play, that really respect the show, respect Inuit, respect Nunavut, respect our communities and our culture. They are very receptive and want to learn as people, as themselves, and to come in to North of North with an open and generous spirit.
And then when it comes to the characters, they are so willing to dive into the awkwardness and the cringe and the lack of self-awareness that does really exist in our communities. Sometimes, there’s elements of some of these characters that are influencer types. It’s wild because this isn’t as egregious as some influencer types can be up here. They really capture that cringey awkwardness so well.
It’s so funny to see it on screen and to see them performing, knowing what wonderful people they are in real life. Every single scene is just PLAYING because you feel so safe, so comfortable with everyone. It’s just “Let’s lean into the cringe. Let’s be awkward. Let’s make this weird!” Because it comes across really great.
What is the one sparkling scene you can’t wait for people to see in Season 2 of North of North?
AL: What I’m most looking forward to -— and what I’m most scared to watch — is a really important conversation between Siaja and Neevee.
MH: I was thinking that! Stop it! You’re in my brain!
AL: It’s truly one of my favourite things to film. It was one of the scariest things, I think, leading up to it. I remember reading it and being, “Oh my god, and now we have to film it. Now, we have to get out and do it.” And I was so scared but excited, and I’m scared and excited to watch it. It was such a joy to do it with Maika. Even in the heaviest of scenes, we have so much fun.
MH: Yeah, somehow we are able to … right when we say, “Cut!” we’re kind of just back to us again, which is really important because we have so many heavy scenes. To be able to do that is really an honour, and I’m glad that I can do it with you.
AL: Love you!
MH: That’s definitely the scene I was thinking of. It’s going to be interesting for everybody to get a glimpse into why they’re so troubled. There’s underlying love in all of this, but you have to watch Season 2 to be able to figure it out.
