Not every actress would do a nude scene in her first major motion picture role.

Then again, not every actress is named Bif Naked.

Since this is The Edmonton Sun and not the Snooty Cinephile Gazette, it is my duty to report that the Canadian rock singer lives up to her name in Lunch With Charles.

It's just a few seconds in a creek frolicking with tree planters, but before you can say, "Hey, Bif is naked," the flick gets a 14-A rating. Michael Parker's romantic comedy/road movie plays tonight at 7 at the Princess Theatre as part of the Local Heroes International Film Festival.

It was a cold day when the scene was shot, Naked recalls ... er, perhaps it's best not to go there.

"I don't think that it's gratuitous," she says. "I think it's appropriate for the character and I also don't think there's anything wrong with nudity in movies. I have more of an issue with violence."

Naked plays Natasha, a dippy hippie chick who's stuck in a stalled relationship with a bungling bed-and-breakfast owner played by Nicholas Lea (Vertical Limit, X-Files). Her character is pretty much the opposite of how people perceive her.

"She believes in fairies," Naked says. "I don't even know how to spell it. It was exciting and fun to work every day and play somebody who believes in fairies and unicorns. It was a nice vacation from myself."

Lunch With Charles follows a frustrated Hong Kong musician named Tong (Sean Lau), who comes to Canada determined to reunite with his upwardly mobile wife, April (Theresa Lee). With culture clashes aplenty, the lives of the characters become tangled in a comedy of errors that takes them across the wilds of Western Canada. Love vs. career is the main theme - a dilemma Bif is familiar with.

"Ever since I started playing in bands," she says. "But I think it can apply to anyone."

Parker's script is what attracted Naked to the film.

"I really liked the story," she says. "People from Kato Kaelin to Joan Collins to Bif Naked to Gwen Stefani, if you've been famous for 15 minutes, you're going to get a movie script. There was something about Michael's writing and characters. I really wanted to be part of it."

Naked won't neglect her rock 'n' roll duty for a full-time career in films. She's put the finishing touches on a new record due out in August and is grooming a band of 15-year-old girls called Liveonrelease for her own record label, Her Royal Majesty's. She'll be launching another tour of Canada this spring.

Still, with TV and film credits mounting, working on a project like this was "an amazing experience," she says.

"I cried my head off the day I wrapped. I'd developed such a good feeling for everyone I had worked with. For me and my life experience, it'll be up there in the top 10." (More on: Bif Naked).