![]() "I know a lot of people who have gone that way," she says. Tantoo's personal connection to Annie, an offbeat character "dancing to her swan song," is cancer. "I think about all the things that happen to young aboriginals, and I'm speaking about the men here, who don't have the role models," says Clifford, who was nominated for a Jessie award in Vancouver last year for his role in Green Thumb Theatre's production of Three Little Birds, Troy's father is also absent, in jail, something that gives Clifford a personal hook into the character. "I've only had one phone conversation with him. "My father lives on in South Dakota on Pine Ridge, a very poor reserve, and has a lot of personal demons," Clifford explains, diplomatically. "Cliff is an immaculate conception," deadpans Tantoo, showing where her son got his wicked sense of humour. How does Clifford's father fit into the picture? There's a pause. "I hope that I'm not tampering with whatever decisions their souls want to take." "I figure they have to follow what their passions are," Tantoo says. "He's the black sheep of the family," Clifford jokes. Oldest child Cheyenne is the odd Cardinal out, currently studying for his MBA. Lawrence University in upstate New York, also has the acting bug, and Clifford has written a one-woman play called But for me, it's not a totally foreign concept that someone could make a living as an artist." "For most people, acting is an impossible dream. "I remember being on some film set with my mom dressed up like a real, live Indian - pretty exciting stuff," he recalls. Street Legal and her Gemini-winning work onĬlifford found much of what he saw of his mother's career appealing. ![]() "In this world of being an artist, you've got to be a nomad and go where the berries are," explains Tantoo, whose appearances on the small screen include memorable stints on They didn't stay there long, as Tantoo's career took her to California, Vermont and then Toronto (with many other stops along the way). Tantoo is originally from Alberta, but Clifford was born when she was living in South Dakota in the 1980s. "That was a bold parental decision and the best one ever," says Clifford, who went back to school the next semester and later went on to act in Hollingsworth's At the age of 15, when Clifford was going through a difficult time ("I was angry and had blue hair"), Tantoo let him miss a semester of school to sit in on rehearsals of one of Michael Hollingsworth's Canadian history plays at Toronto's VideoCabaret. The Cardinal clan can relate to unorthodox approaches to parental discipline. In return, she gets to partly fulfill her dream of being a Kokum (grandmother). Rather than turning Troy into the police, Annie sets him to work helping around the house - for instance, rolling her medical marijuana into joints. Troy, a troubled 17-year-old father played by Clifford, enters her life unexpectedly - breaking into her house on the reserve, his baby girl in a sling on his back. One of the last times Tantoo was on an Edmonton stage, she won a Sterling award for best actress in Floyd Favel'sĪll My Relations.Tantoo plays Annie, a strong-willed Bob Marley fan in her 50s, dying of cancer and disappointed that she probably will not live to see her unmarried 30-year-old daughter, Kerry (played by the unrelated Michaela Washburn), have a grandchild. Williams that is both funny and sad, and launched Workshop West Theatre's 30th season last week in Edmonton. Three Little Birds, a new play by Kenneth T. The Cardinals are acting opposite one another in ![]() "Oh God." And the two dissolve into hearty laughter, a sound that regularly punctuates the interview. "My mom's like Sarah Palin - she's a real maverick." "I would never be as outspoken as my mom," Clifford says of his mother's noted activism. ![]() If this all sounds a bit formal, however, the conversation soon gets sillier. "It's so much fun to work and play with my mom," replies Clifford, 23, the second of Tantoo's three children. ![]()
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