At 75, Tantoo Cardinal is gearing up for her biggest stage role in years: 'It's really joyful'

But no matter how small the part, Cardinal built out the worlds of each of her characters. Even for those unnamed roles, she gave each a history, a world view, an intelligence about the society around them. She could wear her characters’ stories on her face, with a mere shift of her gaze, a flash of her bright, wide grin. 

“I might be just standing there and I might not be doing much, but I wanted people to understand that we have big lives as women, big lives,” she said. “These women were not club wielders. They were human beings, massive human beings.”

It was these early roles that taught Cardinal an important lesson: of empathy, particularly for her ancestors and her maternal grandmother, who raised her. It’s also a lesson that she’s carried with her throughout her career, onto each of the characters that she’s been tapped to play. 

And it’s one that’s served her well. 

Over the past five decades, Cardinal has established herself as one of the most pre-eminent Canadian actors of her generation, whose work has helped grow Indigenous storytelling and representation across the arts.

In a multi-faceted career that’s spanned both stage and screen, she’s appeared in some of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters, including the Oscar-winning Western film “Dances With Wolves” in 1990 and director Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” in 2023. And with her recent turn in “Echo,” streaming on Disney Plus, she can also add starring in a Marvel superhero miniseries to her list of achievements. 

But now Cardinal is returning to the Toronto stage for the first time in eight years, leading an ensemble cast at Soulpepper in Jen Silverman’s “Witch,” a modern retelling of the Jacobean drama “The Witch of Edmonton,” about a sly devil who descends upon a quiet town and, in an almost Faust-like bargain, offers to grant the residents of this community their darkest wishes in exchange for their souls.

In this dark satire, whose Toronto premiere is being directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster, Cardinal plays Elizabeth, a woman shunned by her neighbours and labelled as a “witch.” But when the devil comes knocking, she refuses to sell out. 

“She stands defiant,” Cardinal describes of the role. “She has to stand for herself when nobody is standing for her, and she has this view of the world from an isolated position. That’s very interesting to explore.”

Lancaster said Cardinal was the first person who came to mind when she was casting the role. “She has a mysterious quality to her, along with a gravitas as well, and I knew Elizabeth needs that quality,” said Lancaster. “And in the rehearsal room, Tantoo is just terrifically humble to the point of being a bit self-effacing.”

For Cardinal, 75, being back onstage marks a return to her artistic roots. She grew up in northern Alberta in the small hamlet of Anzac, home to fewer than 100 residents at the time.

Her first taste of acting came in elementary school, when she was cast in Christmas shows. “I was the one with the loud voice,” she recalled with a chuckle. “So I had a comfort onstage.”

But it wasn’t until junior high that Cardinal knew she wanted to pursue acting as a career. And she can pinpoint the exact moment that set her on the path she’s on today.

One year, her teacher, Mr. Walter, had written an original play about Artaban, a supposed fourth wise man who was delayed in his journey to meet the newborn Christ because he was completing acts of charity on his journey. When Mr. Walter released the cast lists, Cardinal remembers carefully reading through all the girls’ roles. But she wasn’t on that list. And it left her devastated. 

She barely paid any attention as she skimmed over the casting list for the male characters. “I was just imagining taking off into the wilderness and never begin seen again,” she recounted. But then, next to the role of Artaban, she saw her name written on the sheet of paper. Her teacher had cast Cardinal in the lead role. It was then that she realized just how much she cared about acting. 

Speaking to Cardinal, it’s evident how much her teacher means to her. But so too her grandmother, Maria, who raised Cardinal as a child. Though she could read and write Cree, Maria was not educated. She taught herself to read English comics. The only thing she could write in English was her name, though even that was a struggle. 

“But her intelligence was outside of that,” said Cardinal. “She had wisdom that people who didn’t know who we were — people who were quite smug in their book education — didn’t understand.” 

In addition to English, Maria also spoke Cree, Dene and Michif, fostering a vibrant, multilingual household for Cardinal. Visitors often came and went. And when Cardinal would return from school each day, she’d never know what language she’d be listening to. 

“She means everything to me,” Cardinal said of her grandmother. “When I was looking for my own personal strength and my own pride, I often looked at her.” 

But Cardinal’s upbringing was still challenging. She came from a fractured family. Her mother lived in poverty, and left Cardinal and her two siblings to be raised by Maria. Later, Cardinal’s sister was taken in the Sixties Scoop. 

Cardinal herself moved out of her grandmother’s home in her mid-teens. Because the local school in Anzac cut off at Grade 9, she needed to relocate to Edmonton to continue her high school education and ended up billeted with a Mennonite family.

Living in the big city, and going to a school whose population trumped the size of her hometown, was a culture shock for Cardinal. She felt disconnected from her own community. She barely made it through high school. It wasn’t until after graduating that she discovered the burgeoning network of Indigenous friendship centres, where she got involved with Indigenous activism. 

When Cardinal speaks about the early roles she performed onscreen, however, there’s a hint of frustration in her voice. She recalled, as a young actor, being pushed to assimilate into white culture in order to succeed. “I was defiant, and it just pushed me further and further away, until I was completely on the outskirts.”

For some time, Cardinal played only background parts. Then, for decades, she made a career picking up supporting roles. It wasn’t 2018 when Cardinal got to step into her first leading role with “Falls Around Her,” in which she played a famous Indigenous musician who returns to her community. 

The journey to that point was slow and gradual for Cardinal. She’s seen that evolution firsthand. “I’ve been in this world over 50 years and society has learned a lot about who we are,” she said. “And it’s really joyful to see the rush of Indigenous people succeeding everywhere. Because for decades, I’d been saying, ‘Just wait, just wait, just wait.’ Now, I think the future’s bright for the ones coming behind us.”

“Witch” begins performances Jan. 29 and runs until March 1 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane. Visit soulpepper.ca for tickets and more information.