HBO holding First Nations casting call in North Van

HBO will be filming a miniseries based on the life of American explorers Lewis & Clark in Vancouver later this year and is looking for local First Nations actors to fill speaking parts and extra roles.

Lewis and Clark, which is being co-produced by Hollywood heavy-hitters Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton and stars Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis and Matthias Schoenaerts as William Clark, will tell the story of the explorers’ voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean in 1803.

Of course, the production detailing the great exploration of the U.S. west will be shot in Canada.

The majority of filming, June 15 to Sept. 15, will take place in southern Alberta before moving to B.C. in December.

HBO is holding a casting call for First Nations actors — men, women and children — on Saturday, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., at the Chief Joe Mathias Centre, 100 Capilano Rd., in North Vancouver.

“We need a lot of background performers plus people for some speaking parts,” said Alyson Lockwood, casting director for Lewis and Clark.

“We need people to come looking as authentic as they can with no makeup, hair down and traditional clothes, or at least dressed with traditional flair, if they can.”

Lockwood says those trying out for parts can expect the process, which includes filling out an application and posing for photos, to take at least two hours. Those considered for speaking parts are in for a longer day, as they’ll need to audition.

The series is based on Undaunted Courage, a biography of Meriwether Lewis by historian Stephen Ambrose.

Ambrose also wrote the Second World War book Band of Brothers, which was turned into a 2001 award-winning HBO mini series co-produced by Hanks and Steven Spielberg.