Sook-Yin Lee on the challenge of playing Olivia Chow

Her cinematic claims to fame thus far have included roles in two John Cameron Mitchell films—as an androgynous guitarist in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and as the sexually curious Sofia in the controversial Shortbus, which featured non-simulated humping and other intimacies.

Now CBC radio host Sook-Yin Lee is in the midst of shooting Smilin’ Jack: The Jack Layton Story, slated to air on CBC-TV, in which she plays Olivia Chow, widow of the late NDP leader.

Appearing in the biopic means a lot to Lee, given that Layton died of cancer last year, a disease her sister Deanna has since been diagnosed with.

“I saw first-hand the kind of strength and courage it takes to live with the disease,” she said. “It will be a challenge for me to embody Olivia in all her beautiful complexity.”