HOLLYWOOD -- The first time I interviewed Adam Beach was back in 1994 for the Disney family film Squanto: A Warrior's Tale.

"Whoa! That wasn't me. That was a whole different person you talked to back then, dude," insists Beach.

He's not talking about the close-cropped hair or extra pounds he needed to play a Navajo code talker in John Woo's powerful Second World War drama Windtalkers.

"I was 21 and still dealing with a lot of residual things. I was still really in the process of growing into who I am now."

Beach's youth is fraught with tragedy. He was born on the Dog Creek reservation near Ashern, Man.

"When I was eight, I lost both my parents.

"My mom was eight months pregnant when she was killed by a drunk driver. Two months later, my dad was drowned."

Before the year was out, Beach was adopted by an aunt and uncle in Winnipeg.

Six years later he would be adopted a second time by another aunt.

"I was left to carry my own weight. I became my own parents and I was a parent to my brothers.

"I tried to deal with my grief in my own way, but it wasn't a very constructive way. I was really rebellious.

"I lashed out in the only ways I knew how. I'd steal things, but not for myself. If a friend needed a jacket, I steal him one.

When he was 14, Beach joined a local gang in Winnipeg.

"Our gang would go to parties just to pick fights. We called ourselves the Web. All the football players at the other schools wanted to fight us. I didn't mind because something inside of me wanted to fight."

Beach found a surrogate family but it still dealt him some painful emotional blows.

"I was the only Indian in the gang. There were a couple of Greeks, Spaniards and Italians. We considered ourselves outsiders from the white kids at school, but I was the outsider even in their communities."

Beach recalls when he visited the home of one of his Greek friends, the boy's mother demanded "the Indian get out of their house.

"I got tossed out of a lot of houses in Winnipeg."

In Grade 10, Beach joined a theatre group and he recalls: "that was the first time I could express myself in a safe way."

His motivation for joining the drama club was seeing Johnny Depp in 21 Jump Street.

"I wanted to be like Johnny. I wanted to act too. I owe a lot to Johnny. He was my mentor."

Beach's first screen role was in the 1990 Graham Greene movie Lost in the Barrens.

"I was 16 and I was paddling a canoe with Graham Greene and I got paid $300. I didn't think things could get much better."

They did.

In quick succession, Beach had small roles in North of 60 and Cadillac Girls and then his starring role in Squanto.

With his flowing locks, chiselled body and charismatic smile, Beach quickly became one of Canada's most sought-after Native actors.

He starred in the movies Dance Me Outside and Smoke Signals and on such TV series as The Rez, Madison and North of 60.

It was Beach's performance in Smoke Signals that convinced Woo to consider him for the central role in Windtalkers.

Beach plays Ben Yahzee a Navajo code talker and Nicolas Cage is Joe Enders, the Marine assigned to protect the code at all costs even if that means killing Yahzee rather than have him captured.

"I was pretty excited to meet John Woo. I figured I got the part at our first meeting because he asked me out for Chinese food that same day.

"I've done a lot of eating with John since that day. We'd have most of our meetings about the script and my character over dinner."

The release of Windtalkers has been delayed for almost a year, but many of Hollywood's movers and shakers have seen it. There's a buzz Beach is a hot property and they want him in their movies.

He's already signed to play a biker in the drama Chains and is meeting for several other projects.

"I have to move down to Los Angeles. I've been living in Ottawa for years now and love it, but I need to be where the meetings are."

Beach's sons Noah and Luke live with their mother Meredith Porter. The couple is separated and Beach is dating Tera Mason, an Ottawa civil servant he calls 'my girl'.

"I hope my girl will be able to join me in L.A. but right now it's all about the acting not my personal life."

The Beach who is waxing eloquently and enthusiastically about Windtalkers insists he is no longer an angry young man.

"I guess almost everyone needs an anger management course and acting was mine. I learned about rage and sorrow on stage. It was like a sweat lodge for me.

"I let things go. I calmed down. I found myself and I'm happy with what I found and who I'm becoming."


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