If you like keeping your eye on stars on the rise, there’s a certain someone celebrating quite the one-two punch at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Amanda Fix. Not only does she have a key role in the warm and wildly endearing upcoming Amazon Freevee series, High School, but she also headlines an especially poignant TIFF 2022 feature, Carly Stone’s North of Normal.

The film is an adaptation of Cea Sunrise Person’s 2014 memoir and stars Fix as Cea. She’s growing up out in the wilds of Alberta and British Columbia with her teenage mother, Michelle (Sarah Gadon), Grandpa Dick (Robert Carlyle), and Grandma Jeanne (Janet Porter). It’s a free-spirited and seemingly blissful lifestyle, but then Michelle decides it’s time to leave the commune behind so she and Cea can become a more conventional family.

In celebration of North of Normal’s world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Fix and Stone swung by the Collider Supper Suite and Media Studio at Marbl to chat about their experience bringing Person’s true story to screen.

Stone was developing North of Normal for some time, but perhaps it’s better off that it was a lengthier process because during that period, a personal life event heavily impacted Stone’s approach to telling this story — Stone became a mother. How might the project have changed if it got the go-ahead before Stone had her son? Here’s what she said:

“I think that Michelle would have probably been a, I hate this word, but I'll use it anyway, a less likable character. I thought giving more empathy for the character was an interesting way to approach her character after I became a mother. I wanted to be uncomfortable with how we feel about her and not just be black and white whether she's a good mother or a bad mother. And I know there is an answer, but it's a little bit more nuanced.”

Given North of Normal is Fix’s first lead role in a feature film, she’s bound to make a big impression in High School, and has the highly anticipated spinoff series, Orphan Black: Echoes, around the corner, it’s only a matter of times until Fix amasses a slew of fans eager to know more about her. To get that ball rolling, I asked Fix for the thing that first inspired her to pursue a career in film and television. Here’s what she said:

“I grew up in a really creative household, but none of my family is in the industry at all, but I just remember being super young and watching films that I probably shouldn't have been watching that young and just being like, ‘I want to do this. I want to play.’ And I feel like it was that innocent then, and as I got older, I just knew that I wanted to tell stories that I felt needed to be told, but also experiences that I knew in my own life I could never experience. So being able to bring myself into those characters and go back in time and live in the 80s or whatever, that was something that really made me want to do, it in a simple way.”

Leading a film can be a mighty intimidating responsibility, but fortunately for Fix, it never felt like a high-pressure endeavor because she was so well-supported while on this new adventure. She explained:

“I was one of the younger people on set and I feel like having people like Carly and Sarah and Robert who were great collaborators and people to work with, that it didn't feel like pressure to lead in any way. And although being a lead of a film is a big responsibility, I didn't feel a ton of pressure, especially from Carly. She was so generous and gentle and attentive. And that was my second job I had ever done and it was Carly’s second film, so I felt really safe with her and I felt like she really understood me.”

Fix further elaborated on what she appreciated most about Stone as an actor’s director:

“I feel like the thing that comes to mind instantly when you said that was Carly was so gentle and I think that something that I really appreciated from her was, even with all the chaos going around on set, she would come up to you and make sure you [felt] comfortable. And if she had notes for you, she would come and whisper them to you and if she felt like you were in the zone, she wouldn't expect you to look her in the eyes and repeat what she said. It was almost like she was just putting her hand on your shoulder and saying, you're doing great.”

Stone got an opportunity to throw compliments back in Fix’s direction as well. Given Fix’s mighty bright future, I asked Stone what she’s most excited for other directors to get to experience when working with Fix down the road. Here’s what she said:

“She's game for absolutely anything. Firstly, so prepared! I can give you a couple of examples. One time she was in the bathroom and I went to go check on her. We were about to shoot a scene and she was very emotional and I thought something had happened. Do you remember that? I was like, ‘Oh no! What happened on set?’ But she was just preparing for her big emotional scene. It was like two scenes away, so I was not paying attention to that part yet. She's just always so prepared for the biggest emotional thing or the smallest thing, always prepared, and always game. One time at 3am we were fighting sunrise having to get a really big moment in the film, and the light was creeping in and we needed true night and something was going wrong. I had to toss out my shot list. And we didn't have Amanda's safety shoes to go in the water and I was like, ‘Okay, we have to wait for the safety shoes, we have to wait for the safety shoes,’ and Amanda's like, ‘Screw the safety shoes!’ I look at her and she's just like 10 feet already in the water. She's like, ‘Let's do it!’ As an independent filmmaker on not the biggest budget film, she's a lifesaver.”

Looking for more from Stone and Fix on the making of North of Normal? You can catch our full conversation in the video interview at the top of this article!

Special thanks to our TIFF 2022 partners A-list Communications, Belvedere Vodka, Marbl Toronto, COVERGIRL Canada, Tres Amici Wines, Toronto Star, and Blue Moon Belgian White beer.