At 35, Adam Beach has had enough success to be able to relax a little. The tall, impossibly handsome Manitoba-born actor got noticed in the early '90s, mostly in Canadian films and series, such as Dance Me Outside and North of 60. After bursting on the U.S. indie scene in 1998's Smoke Signals, he started getting work in high-profile Hollywood films, usually in Native-themed projects. (In 2002, he starred in both Skinwalkers and Wind ­talkers.) Most recently, he played Iwo Jima hero Ira Hayes in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers.

For his latest starring role, Beach returned to Canada and his reservation roots in Luna: Spirit of the Whale. In the feature, which airs on CTV stations Sunday (May 13) at 7 p.m., he plays Mike Maquinna, reluctant chief of a Vancouver Island band charged with protecting a stray orca. This time around, he had the benefit of studying his real-life counterpart before shooting began. Did this hamper his creativity in any way?

"Heck, no," Beach says into a cell phone with a Los Angeles number, although he is actually dividing his time between Ottawa and New York City these days. "It never hurts to be able to draw on somebody's mannerisms and speech patterns to develop a character. Mike Maquinna is this very easygoing, thoughtful guy, and it only makes it easier to take that as an inspiration. Everything in the story really happened, and only about five years ago, so it's nice to do something so fresh."

The film, written by North of 60 creator Barbara Samuels and Falcon Beach scribe Elizabeth Stewart, also features Graham Greene and Tantoo Cardinal as locals caught up in the struggle for stewardship of a whale they view as the reincarnation of Maquinna's late father, the band's long-time leader. Jason Priestley is the government official who interferes with their approach, and Godiva's veteran Erin Karpluk is the feisty Fisheries employee with conflicting loyalties.

Beach relished the idea of shooting a goodhearted family film in B.C. sunshine, especially as a counterpoint to his ongoing work as Detective Chester Lake, an urban mantle he has worn for almost three years on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. (He also has a leading role in the Alberta-shot Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, also produced by L&O honcho Dick Wolfe and airing on U.S. TV at the end of this month.)

The actor says he enjoys the challenge of playing a character so different from himself–a guy happy to have a steady gig only a few hours' flight time from his family home in Ottawa. In fact, he's in a car, on the way back from his son's lacrosse game, when the Straight catches up with him.

"Well," he says after pulling into his driveway, "Chester Lake is really witty and fast-talking and is really good at solving crimes. I always tell people that in real life, if you need a crime solved, you're going to have to ask my wife. She takes care of things like that."