Sailing under the moonlight in the backwaters near Alleppey, strolling among tombs in the Lodi Gardens, busting moves with Bharata Natyam dancers at the Golden Temple — if you have been following Lisa Ray’s Twitter feed over the past few months, you certainly have a sense of the exotic lifestyle the Toronto actress is living these days.
Ray, known for her work in the Oscar-nominated Deepa Mehta film Water, has been adventuring in India for the past four months as part of a new travel series set to debut on The Learning Channel (TLC) this year.
The show explores the culture and beauty of various locales in India with Ray serving as host and tour guide.
“It’s wild, fun, colourful,” Ray says about the show. But while filming has been an adventure for Ray, she admits the pace of the shoot was exhausting. “It’s been a long haul,” she says. “I thought TV would be less work than a movie — but it turns out … NOT!”
Although Ray has strong ties to India — her father was born there, and it’s where she began her modelling and acting career — she says Canada feels like home. The 38-year-old Etobicoke native of Bengali and Polish descent left Toronto when she was 16. While travelling in India, Ray says she fell into acting.
“I call myself the accidental actress,” she says. “It was pure serendipity, which has moulded my life both professionally and personally.”
While she may not have predicted her career, decisions she’s made to hone her craft, including turning down commercial roles to enrol in acting school in London, England, have contributed to her success.
Since finding early fame in Bollywood, Ray starred in the courtroom thriller Kasoor (2001) and in Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s romantic comedy Bollywood/Hollywood (2002). The stunning actress has since taken on a string of provocative parts.
In 2005’s Water — nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film — Ray played a Hindu widow forced into prostitution in 1938 India.
Following this she took on the role of a housewife in 1950s apartheid South Africa in filmmaker Shamim Sarif’s historical drama The World Unseen.
She also acted in Sarif’s romance I Can’t Think Straight, playing a Jordanian woman about to marry who realizes she’s a lesbian.
“I’ve followed my heart,” Ray says. “I’ve never abided by commercial forces.”
Ray, who now has a home in the Beach neighbourhood, calls Toronto her “base camp.” “I love the neighbourhoods,” Ray says. “I love the food, the variety of life. I love my ’hood in particular — it’s got great people and great dog watching.”
The self-described nomad says putting down roots in the city has given her a sense of place. “Though I’m still re-acquainting myself,” she says, “Toronto is like an old high school boyfriend. I remember it when it was still a little awkward and insecure, but now the boy’s blossomed into a suaver, more mature version.”
The city is also where Ray was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare, incurable cancer of the blood in June 2009.
While training to become a yoga teacher in India, Ray says she realized “something was wrong” and flew back to Toronto for testing. Her battle with the aggressive cancer became public soon after her treatment began.
Ray — her angular face and petite figure swollen from her medication — was due to walk the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival to promote her film Cooking with Stella, in which she co-stars with Canadian actor and filmmaker Don McKellar.
“I had to make a choice,” Ray says. “Either to hide, as my appearance had drastically changed due to steroids, or to come clean.”
Ray used the opportunity to raise awareness about her cancer, which afflicts about 6,000 Canadians, the majority over the age of 70 when they are diagnosed (Ray was 37). She also created her widely read blog The Yellow Diaries, documenting her battle with the disease through witty, poetic entries.
Ray lays it all out: from enduring chemotherapy, to shaving her dark curls with an electric razor before losing her hair, to undergoing a stem cell transplant.
In one blog entry, Ray describes her “relief” at finally receiving her diagnosis. “I was tired of being tired all the time,” Ray wrote.
The Yellow Diaries also details her passion and drive to promote cancer education. “Only with an ever-expanding tool box of treatments and awareness can this cancer be beat. So I’m going to do everything I can to wrench the spotlight onto myeloma and cancer awareness.” Her hair back to their lush curls and her cancer now in remission, Ray says the blog has inspired her to continue writing.
“It kick-started my one true passion,” Ray says, adding she plans to write a book in the near future.
She also credits Moksha yoga, which she has practised diligently for four years, for giving her strength during her treatments.
Ray, who is co-opening a Moksha studio in the area, says the discipline, which involves a series of postures practised in a hot room, has helped her to heal. “I firmly believe it was my practice which supported me on my cancer journey,” Ray says.
The actress also received support from her family and friends, including Brett Wilson, formerly of CBC-TV’s Dragons’ Den.
“His [Wilson’s] philanthropic spirit and homegrown chutzpah are an inspiration,” Ray says about the Canadian entrepreneur.
The actress continues to be a motivational force in her own right. She has been named one of the national ambassadors of Plan Canada’s Because I Am a Girl campaign, an initiative that promotes empowerment for girls worldwide.
With so much going on, it seems the actress-writer–yoga buff has no intention of slowing down. But with a life already so fully lived, what does Ray want for the future?
“To be happy. To contribute. To write. To live in many different directions simultaneously.”
