The saying in the movie business is that Canada produces actors, not stars.  But you can forget that - Miss Molly Parker has stepped into the spotlight.
    Parker first turned heads with her extraordinarily low-key performance in director Lynne Stopkewich's Kissed, in which she managed to to make necrophilia seem poetic.  Kissed was an unlikely launching pad for the then Vancouver based actor, but talent, no matter how it's wrapped, has a way of unfolding and getting noticed.
    Parker stars in three films at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.  In writer/director Jeremy Podeswa's evocative The Five Senses, she plays a mother whose child disappears.  In English director Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland, she's a working-class pregnant South Londoner.  And in István Szabó's epic Sunshine, she's a Hungarian Jew married to, yes, Ralph Fiennes.  It's a string of roles any female actor would covet.
    "Oh, there's no question I'm very fortunate," says a smiling Parker.  "I made these three movies in the space of six months, and it was an intense, joyous experience."
    The now Toronto-based Parker, a movie publicist and a hair/makeup stylist have all descended on the west-end home of NOW photographer Susan King.  Parker is making herself comfortable for our interview while the talk focuses on arrangements for the photos.
    She's a wee bit tired of being described as fresh-faced and wholesome, even though she sort of is.  She insists she's been without makeup in all her recent photos, looking like she just finished scrubbing her face in a mountain lake.  So it's time to snap a few glam pics.
    But she's no prima donna.  Parker has a serene, intelligent presence.  It's this still, watchful quality that informs her acting.  She's one of the best onscreen listeners I've ever seen.  Her open face acts like a drawbridge, inviting you to step inside her character's mind.
    "That's what interests me about being an actor," she says.  "It's not 'Hey, look at me,' it's about psychological depth.  When I'm acting, people wouldn't be seeing me, they should be seeing themselves.
    "I didn't go to theatre school, but I did study acting for four years with a really great teacher.  I still walked around with the assumption that every other actor knew what they were doing except me.  I thought they all had a plan, and when they got a part they took out this list and went down it, " laughs Parker.
    "Of course, that's not true.  Some people have very specific ways of working, but with me it's really a subconscious process."
    Parker trusts her intuition in front of the camera, but in the wake if Kissed's opening she was a loss as to how to handle success.
       "When we made Kissed, my biggest hope was that Toronto film-makers would see me and consider casting me in their movies," remembers Parker.  "Then, suddenly my career changed entirely.  It was the first time in my life I'd had choices, which can be a little debilitating, so I ended up taking things easy.  I was unsure what I wanted to do.  Then, suddenly there were a bunch of scripts I really, really liked and they all fell into place."
    Parker had promised Podeswa two years ago that she would do The Five Senses.  Sunshine producer Robert Lantos wanted her to audition for his film in London, where she later read for the Michael Winterbottom movie.
    "I remember I was in Montreal when I got a message from my agent saying 'You got Sunshine, the movie with Ralph Fiennes!'  My girlfriend and I were out shopping, and it was, 'Aaaah, let's go out and buy shoes to celebrate!'"
    Landing roles doesn't seem to be a problem for Parker any more, but she waves off my silly assumption.
    "It's a weird combination of things.  It's like where you are - are you in the right city to meet that person on that day, and have they seen your work and do they even care?  I mean, I've been hired by people who saw me in a magazine and thought I looked interesting.
    "getting work is never straightforward, and even if you're an actor who's working all the time - and I mean all the time - you're probably still being rejected 80 per cent of the time.  You have to put that out of your mind."