Benjamin Bratt felt ‘moral responsibility’ to act in ‘The Lesser Blessed’

TORONTO – Benjamin Bratt says he felt a “moral responsibility” to take on the role of an honourable native father figure in the Canadian film “The Lesser Blessed.”

The former “Law & Order” star says he was blown away by the script for the coming-of-age tale, set in the Northwest Territories and centred on a 16-year-old loner haunted by a painful upbringing.

“What was equally important to me as an actor was to be a part of a story that … portrayed the native community in a way that you rarely, if ever, get a chance to see in cinema, or even in mainstream media period,” Bratt said during a round of interviews at last September’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“Because we are all so familiar with that dysfunction that exists within the community, I felt it was my duty, really, as a native person, to portray a character who was in fact the opposite of what that perception is. Because we do exist.”

Adapted from the debut novel of native Canadian writer Richard Van Camp, “The Lesser Blessed” traces the story of headbanger Larry Sole, who lurks on the fringes of his high school until a cocky new kid named Johnny comes to town and takes him under his wing.

It stars rookie actor Joel Evans, who just happens to come from Van Camp’s hometown of Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories, where the story is also set.

Kiowa Gordon plays Johnny, Chloe Rose portrays their common love interest Juliet and Tamara Podemski plays Larry’s hard-working single mom, Verna.

Bratt, whose mother is South American Indian from Peru, turns up as Jed — Verna’s boyfriend and one of the few positive influences in Larry’s life.

“My whole career has been a balancing act between satisfying both those practical needs and artistic sensibility,” Bratt says of an eclectic career that includes stints on the sitcom “Modern Family” and this challenging project, which was shot in Sudbury, Ont.

“Here is a character, a man, who is quite proud of his heritage and recognizes the importance of sharing the wisdom of the elders and their traditions, the music, the language, the prayer. He recognizes the importance of imparting that wisdom to a young person and balancing it all the time with a Western sensibility.”

Anita Doron, who directs her own adapted screenplay, says she wanted Bratt for the role after seeing him in the 2001 biopic “Pinero.”

“I wanted him to play Jed for a very long time and when the script was ready we sent it to him and I met with him and he was this lovely intelligent person,” she says.

“His experience is quite different but once he met Richard and I sent him a lot of material and he soaked it in and he felt like he was ready to represent the particularities of Jed and the Slavey culture, he went for it.”

Bratt says much of his early years were steeped in aboriginal traditions. From the age of 5 he was brought up in the native American community of San Francisco, which he says was one of the larger urban native populations in the United States at the time.

“So much of my childhood was influenced by native cosmology and growing up within the community and being dragged to the northwest and southwest, going to ceremonies and powwows and protests,” he says.

“In that sense the character of Jed, the character I play, he’s very, very familiar to me. I actually really felt it a kind of moral responsibility to play a role like this.”

Doron, a Hungarian Jew who grew up in smalltown Ukraine, says she relied on Van Camp to help her get the details right. The most enlightening moments for her were spent with Van Camp in Fort Smith, where he told her about the real-life people who inspired the characters in his book.

“He could tell you stories for hours and I just soaked them up. We drove around and he’d drive in his wild ways and tell me another story and another story,” says Doron, who notes she tried to bring a “heavy operatic gothic feel” to the tale through dream sequences.

“It just made me want to capture the authenticity and specificity of the North and I was relentless in finding the right locations and finding the right set and finding the right crew who understood that.”

Unfortunately, logistical issues made it impossible to actually shoot in the Northwest Territories, she says. But she says Sudbury proved to be an excellent substitute.

In addition, several crew members were from the North and were able to offer advice on how to keep things authentic, she says.

Bratt says it’s that attention to detail that makes “The Lesser Blessed” so special.

“What I loved most was that it was from a uniquely (and) culturally and geographically specific region, in this case from a native perspective,” says Bratt.

“But it was raw and authentic and funny and really captured the essence of what it is to be a teenager who feels like an outsider longing to belong, longing to be a part of something.”

“The Lesser Blessed” opens in Toronto on Friday and heads to Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Edmonton on June 7.