{"id":144542,"date":"2026-07-26T17:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T17:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/144542\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T17:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T17:49:09","slug":"undertone-the-handmaids-tale-star-nina-kiri-hopes-canadas-film-and-tv-industry-leans-into-originality-not-imitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/144542\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Undertone, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ star Nina Kiri hopes Canada’s film and TV industry leans into originality, not imitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nina Kiri brought us on an emotional and terrifying journey in Undertone<\/a>, played one of the most impactful characters in The Handmaid’s Tale, Alma, and embodied Sandra Perron, the first woman infantry officer in the Canadian Army, in the film Out Standing. Now Kiri is receiving the Rising Star Award at the 2026 Future of Film Showcase<\/a> in Toronto.<\/p>\n

“It’s a nice support system to have when you feel validated or recognized in that way, because so much of your job, especially as an actor, but I think a lot of people who work in film, is very solitary,” Kiri told Yahoo Canada. “You go from place to place, and you’re kind of just alone, hoping you’ll get another job.”<\/p>\n

“I think there’s something about validation that puts wind in your sails to keep going because so much of it is just you. You have to keep going. And it feels really nice to have that type of validation or support as you’re on your endless journey that you’re trying to move forward on.”<\/p>\n

‘People watching it, I think that’s the big difficulty’<\/p>\n

Particularly being praised for her work in Undertone this year, where, for much of the film, we only see Kiri’s character, Evy, who is recording a podcast with her friend Justin (Adam DiMarco), the true depth of Kiri’s talent is on full display. The Toronto-filmed movie, actually shot in writer-director Ian Tuason’s home, was a box office success, grossing more than $21 million on a $500,000 budget.<\/p>\n

“There are some things that you work on, and you’re hoping \u2026 that people see it, but for a really low-budget horror that you make at someone’s house, you put in your work to the best of your ability, but you’re not expecting anything,” Kiri said. “It’s probably the best feeling ever because it sucks to expect and then nothing happens. But then the opposite of that, when you don’t expect and something big happens, it was so cool and so exciting.”<\/p>\n

“People watching it, I think that’s the big difficulty with filmmaking, or even with shows now, is you wonder if anyone’s going to see it. If there’s going to be any type of response. If people are going to feel any type of way. And I think with Undertone, \u2026 people love it, or they hate it, which I actually love, because it’s nice to have a response.”<\/p>\n

With so much of the film resting on Kiri’s shoulders, she became “obsessed” with learning the dialogue. But she also recognized that pulled her attention away from the nerves of much of the film relying on her performance. And it was a moment in a class, collaborating on improv scenes, when Kiri had her “lightbulb” moment about Evy.<\/p>\n

“I became pathologically obsessed with my line learning in a way that I think I was blocking my other fear, which was, this movie rests a lot on my performance,” Kiri said.<\/p>\n

“But there was something that happened where about a week and a half into prepping, and I was about to do two days on Handmaid’s and then start this movie on the Wednesday, and I was at this Sunday night class collective. \u2026 We just do improv-based scenes on Sunday nights in Toronto. And so much of those scenes are based on a character’s point of view. \u2026 And suddenly I was like, oh my god, I know exactly who Evy is. \u2026 And once I realized how she operates, I was like, I fully understand this person, and then I wasn’t scared.”<\/p>\n

Kiri also highlighted that every actor needs to continue to evolve in their craft and be able to work in a rehearsal-type environment.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes when you’re on job after job, so much of it is showing up, being in hair and makeup for a long time, saying lines out loud, and then going home. And so getting to be in a rehearsal-type space, \u2026 that type of rehearsal space has been lost in film due to time constraints, budget. Same with TV. You just don’t have that,” Kiri said. “I think we all need to continue growing and learning, and taking classes that fit with us.”<\/p>\n

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: ‘It really felt like being around true artists’<\/p>\n

A role that has really stayed with Kiri is Alma in The Handmaid’s Tale, both for the richness of the role and the “collaboration” on set, as well as the friendships she made on the series.<\/p>\n

“I always remember, the end of Season 1, there’s the stoning scene that felt like a play. \u2026 Ann Dowd<\/a> is such a theatre actor too, so there’s so much depth to everything that she does, and it was shot in a way that felt like a play,” Kiri said. “One of my first episodes on that show, Reed Morano was like, ‘Hey, Nina, I’m going to be behind that camera. Don’t worry about it.’ \u2026 And then she just grabs a camera. \u2026. I was just like, ‘This is so cool.’ Because this is a massive studio show, but it’s being shot in this guerrilla way for the scene, and it just felt like a mixture of independent filmmaking with a studio budget and backing.”<\/p>\n

“So I think that aspect of Handmaid’s was so phenomenal. \u2026 But then probably the best part was everybody who worked on it was a really cool person, and it really felt like being around true artists.”<\/p>\n

\"TORONTO,<\/p>\n

TORONTO, ONTARIO – MAY 31: Nina Kiri attends the 2026 Canadian Screen Awards at CBC Broadcast Centre on May 31, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Jeremychanphotography\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

‘There’s the ability to do something that a studio might not back’<\/p>\n

As Kiri is recognized with the Rising Star Award, it comes at a time when there have been more wide-reaching conversations about Canadian projects and Canadian talent, many crediting the success of Heated Rivalry<\/a>, followed by projects like Off Campus<\/a> and Undertone. As we see how that interest in Canadian work shifts and evolves, ultimately predicting success is next to impossible, but Kiri believes Canada’s entertainment landscape can really make waves by leaning into original storytelling.<\/p>\n

“It is out of your control. And I think so much of, at least my perspective, \u2026 [there are] so many ups and downs that suddenly there’s a lot of attention, and then there’s fatigue, and then there’s attention on something else,” Kiri said. “And for me, I’m just happy that Canada is getting attention for especially original content that we make because we have funding, government funding. We kind of occupy a different space in North American film and TV, so there’s the ability to do something that a studio might not back.”<\/p>\n

“And for those things to get attention, I think it’s really satisfying. And I hope that it leads to people taking bigger chances, and not just like, ‘Oh, this worked, so let’s do it again.’ But, ‘This was something that worked because no one else did it in that way.’ And I think that’s a really nice thing for Canada to have as a calling card of, oh, you can get funding for something that people wouldn’t give funding to in other countries.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nina Kiri brought us on an emotional and terrifying journey in Undertone, played one of the most impactful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,19234,47268,47267,47270,48,47269],"class_list":["post-144542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-canadian-army","tag-handmaid39s-tale","tag-nina-kiri","tag-rising-star-award","tag-toronto","tag-undertone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}