By Cara McKenna
Vancouver-based actor Sam Bob has done a lot in the name of good entertainment.

During his career spanning more than two decades, there have been a lot of high points: he’s acted alongside Anthony Hopkins in the movie Go With Me, been nominated for film and theatre awards and travelled from coast to coast.

But Bob almost seems more excited to talk about the less glamorous aspects of his job, like the time he played a character that was thrown off a bridge during an icy Alberta winter for the TV series North of 60. He had to lie in some rocks next to a river for about an hour and, because it was so cold, he couldn’t breathe while the cameras were rolling because of condensation.

“It was so funny,” he said over coffee in late March, laughing heartily as he described that day.

“I had to listen to the dialogue and sometimes it seemed like they were just talking and talking, and my lungs were exploding.”

But Bob is used to facing whatever might come on any given day, and prides himself on seeing the best in any role while prompting his audience to think and learn.

During his career as an actor, he estimates he’s appeared in 53 TV and film strips, about 24 mainstage theatre productions, and eight radio plays.

“I’ve played inmates, and hoodlums, and homeless men, and I’ve always tried, when I do a script, to look at turning the negative into a positive,” he said.

“That’s something I kind of instinctively know. I think from residential school and whatnot. Survivor skills.”

Sam was born in Snaw-naw-as First Nation on Vancouver Island (his traditional name is Tulkweemult), but taken from his family and put into residential school at Kuper Island as a young boy.

It wasn’t until Grade 3 that Bob was able to leave – and was immediately put on a plane to move to Los Angeles, where he went to school until Grade 10. Then he moved to Vancouver, where he lives today.

“To go from the residential school to a plane to Los Angeles, it was crazy,” he said. “I think that’s a script in itself.”

It took some time for Bob to deal with the trauma he faced as a child, but now that he’s gone through healing—and has four children and two grandchildren of his own—he’s aiming to help others to understand through his craft.

Earlier in 2017, he acted in a Theatre For Living production called šxwʔam’ət (Home), that encouraged audiences to “participate” in reconciliation by creating dysfunctional situations, then having people in the crowd suggest solutions.

“Everything is wrong in the play, but the audience gets to come in and do interventions, and take the place of someone they can help,” he said.

For his role, Bob had to draw a lot on his own pain, but said he can now recognize the difference between his own trauma and a character’s trauma, for the most part.

“I wanted to show that’s out there but we can overcome it,” he said.

“Every night I had to revisit historical traumas in my life, but because I’d done enough work on myself I realized it was the character; it wasn’t me. But I know what that character is going through, so I push it right to the nth degree to make sure it’s an honest portrayal. I don’t hold back.”

He began pursuing acting as a career when he was in his late 20s because he always felt like it was in his blood.

When he began studying at the now-defunct Spirit Song Native Acting School in Vancouver, it was for an eight-week summer program.

He had no idea what he was doing. But the next summer he was teaching that same program.

Now, a couple decades later, he’s working on a semi-autobiographical feature film, that’s currently in production, along with other acting gigs that pop up.

From his success, it comes as no surprise that he learned to tell a good yarn from the best storytellers: other Indigenous people.

He recalls sitting in the longhouse as a young child and as a teen, listening in awe to traditional oral storytellers. He sees them as actors, too, because of the training they go through.

“I really love them and admire them so much. I think I carried some of the spirit of them inside of me,” he said.

“Because they’re so loud,” he added, grinning. “That’s something I like. I like to be heard.”