The last time the story of Native American Ira Hayes was told by Hollywood, it starred a Jewish boy from the Bronx named Bernie Schwartz, who had changed his name to Tony Curtis. In Flags of Our Fathers (which opens next Friday, October 20, in Vancouver), Hayes, one of the Marines photographed raising an American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II, is played by Adam Beach, an Ojibwa from Ashern, Manitoba.

In a Los Angeles hotel interview room, Beach says that he's proud to play Hayes, but doesn't feel any animosity toward films like Curtis's The Outsider. “There is a history of the Hollywood Indian and you have to accept it because it's done already. Now it is our time to step forward to really make accurate representations of what an Indian is. We have to help retell history because the books that children are reading in American schools are still not accurate in terms of who we really are. The image of the status Indian hasn't changed yet.”

The buzz in Los Angeles is that Beach's performance could lead to an Oscar nomination. If it does, it would make him the fourth Canadian male actor to win a nomination in the last 50 years. Interestingly, two of the other three nominees have been First Nations people. (Chief Dan George was nominated in 1970 for Little Big Man and Graham Greene, for 1990's Dances With Wolves. The third, Dan Aykroyd, was nominated for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.)

Beach has been called on to play Native Americans in Hollywood movies before, including a costarring role with Nicolas Cage in another World War II film, Windtalkers. He says that although he regrets that the change toward hiring Native actors to play Natives in movies came a little late in the day for the careers of veteran actors like Wes Studi and Greene, it has had a positive effect on younger actors like himself.

“I know how fortunate I am to have opportunities that weren't available to some actors when they were my age,” he says. “Now, when I make a choice I don't just take a job because I have to. I have said no to a lot of things where people have said, 'It will open things up for you.' I have said, 'Why would I do that movie? It sucks.' I won't do them [bad movies] just to break barriers. And if someone offers me a role that was written for a white guy, I will say, 'Great, but now he is going to have a Native American heritage.' I will tell them, 'I am sorry, but it's important to me to represent my people.' In fact, I don't really have to take it that far. If you see me in an astronaut's suit, you are going to think 'Look at that Native American who is going to the moon.' So there is no way that I can say to myself, 'My heritage is limiting my success.' I won't let that happen.”