TORONTO - Adam Beach has had quite a Hollywood ride these past few months as the producers of Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers lobbied mightily -- and unsuccessfully -- to get him an Oscar nomination.
Beach spent four months living in the Four Seasons Hotel in Hollywood during the pre-Oscar blitz in between travelling the world to attend various film festivals and awards ceremonies -- all the while getting a first-hand look at how big Hollywood studios toil relentlessly to get their films and their actors Academy Award recognition.
"Paramount and Warner Brothers really tried to get me that Oscar nod,'' the 34-year-old Beach said with a laugh during a cellphone conversation as he drove through South Dakota en route to Winnipeg after going on a native spiritual retreat.
"It's really been more than I imagined. I know a lot of people look to Hollywood and the movies as this big glorified business, and it is, and I've just experienced the top level of chasing that golden statue.''
But typical of the good-natured Beach, he had nothing negative to say about the experience despite the fact that he failed to make the Oscar cut for his critically acclaimed turn as native soldier Ira Hayes in Flags of Our Fathers.
Except for desperately missing his two Ottawa-based boys, aged nine and 11, Beach says it was all good.
"It's been a wonderful journey. I wish a lot of people could see what I've seen,'' he said. "The best thing is I got great friends out of it -- people like Forest Whitaker and Rinko Kikuchi, people who act with their heart and soul. So it's cool.''
Beach is on the brink of becoming an even bigger star. He's joining the cast of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit later this year, portraying a Mohawk detective on the American television megahit.
"Any role that I play, I am always wanting to reflect who we are as people because we have a lot to share with the world, to express what our traditions are and how grounded we are,'' said Beach, of Saulteaux descent. He grew up with his two brothers on the Dog Creek reserve near Winnipeg.
"For them to ask me on this show as a season regular for three years -- I mean, wow, that's a big compliment, and one of the first times for Indian people on the national level.
"This is going to catapult me to a different level, and it really sends a message to native kids that one of us made it, and they can make it too.''
Beach returned to Dog Creek recently and even made an unsuccessful run to become its chief -- something documented on MTV Canada on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET, when Beach is the subject of the channel's MTV Diary series.
"People were interested in what goes on in my life and they got a brief moment of it,'' Beach said of agreeing to take part in the MTV Diary.
And though he wasn't named chief, Beach says he plans to run again in two years.
"I am definitely glad I did it and I am doing it again. For me, it was just letting people know I've come to terms with my leadership role. I just know there is something I can bring to my community. It's up to the people to come to their decision, but hopefully it works out differently next time.''
In the meantime, Beach says, he's determined to dispel, through his acting, the many misconceptions existing about aboriginals.
"I want to change those stereotypes because they're wrong,'' Beach says. "There's a lot of ignorance out there in many ways. I don't drink, I don't take drugs, I don't smoke cigarettes -- I'm out to change the way people think about natives.''
