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Ah, to be Sook-Yin Lee – the Parker Posey, Patricia Clarkson, Sienna Miller, Alfre Woodard (pick your own indie-film darling) of Canada. As a very jealous friend of mine once put it, “She sings, she acts, she directs, she's beautiful and she's got a Cash-for-Life job at the CBC. I hate her I want to be her”

Indeed. In a perfect socialist utopia, we would all be as talented, sexy and busy as Sook-Yin Lee. As her latest movie, Toronto Stories, opens this weekend, Lee is embedded in a Vancouver studio making Year of the Carnivore, her debut as a feature film director – all while chugging along as the host of CBC radio's ever-popular Definitely Not The Opera. Furthermore, her lively contribution to the omnibus Toronto Stories is the offbeat romance The Brazilian, in which Lee not only stars but also served as director and writer. I wonder if she has ever received counselling for overachiever syndrome?

Fans of CBC scandals (if that's not an oxymoron) will remember how Lee's full-frontal performance in the 2006 sex romp Shortbus caused the grey beards in the broadcast tower to quiver in their Gandalf cloaks. What, they wondered, would our devoted listeners in Presbyteria, Sask., do if they found out a CBC worker actually had a body, and, horrors, knew how to use it? Happily, the Canadian people sided with Lee and her randy exploits – purely out of concern for her right to freedom of expression, of course.

Given her manic schedule, chatting with Lee is surprisingly calming. I expected her to be scattered, multitasked to distraction and breathless. Instead, she was pensive, forthright and as stable as a yoga mat. Some people really can have it all, damn them.

First Shortbus, now The Brazilian (the title explains itself, if one is familiar with what goes on in waxing salons). You're Canada's nakedest actor

Ah-ha Am I? I'm not particularly … um, I have really no feelings about it. I mean, I don't have any strong feelings about it. Well, no, I probably do have strong feelings about it Ha

When you read a script do you say, “Oh, nude scenes Yay”

No, no, not at all. It's more, to me, a metaphor for vulnerability, for when your shields are removed. And it's looking at the raw part of a person. It's all semiotics, visual metaphors. I'm really not interested in the romanticization of nudity. I've done a couple of romance scenes, and they're really boring to do.

Why?

For example, I did one movie where I had a really hot scene with Adam Beach, and it wasn't hot, the actual making of it. He walked in with his groin gap-taped shut, and there was a whole camera crew under the bed. We were supposed to act like we were having this “moment,” and, as an actor, that's kind of a hassle. But I am interested, as a storyteller, in uncovering those dynamics, because we are all so familiar with our naked bodies, yet every day we cover them up. Nudity, in some scenes, can really strip a person down to their vulnerable being. For me, it's kind of looking at the person without their armour on.

I think knitting with Adam Beach would be hot.

Yeah That would be hot He was very nice. As opposed to it being uncomfortable, he was an old pro: “This looks hot if you do this, and then this looks hot if you do that.” And I'm like, “Okay, let's do that.”

Anthology films like Toronto Stories are traditionally a hard sell. Why do audiences find multiple narratives harder to digest? You'd think they'd understand they were getting more for their ticket money.

I don't know why they find it difficult. Perhaps it's the inconsistency, from one film to the next? I think sometimes it works, though. Anthologies of books, short stories, work, and I enjoy immensely going to film festivals that have a bunch of shorts together. I'm not sure why it's harder for a feature.

Let's talk about market issues. As you become more and more of a filmmaker, can you foresee a point when your role as a commentator on culture, via your radio show, will create a conflict of interest with your own cultural products?

I don't foresee a problem. My commentary on culture, my work on Definitely Not The Opera, is never in a critical capacity, it's more a sharing of culture. DNTO is not a magazine show that rates things, it's more about looking at art and what significance it has for people. It's an anthropological perspective. It's about sharing of stories.

I'm frustrated by the compartmentalization of talking about culture – that somehow only artists can express these things. Everyone creates, and it's a gift, and it's a joy to be able to share our perspectives through art. I prefer the democratization of creativity: I make stuff, I share stuff, I talk about stuff. It's always been very difficult to pigeonhole me.

Are you anxious about your first feature?

I'm on this huge learning curve I've made a lot of shorts, and I usually work with my friends, and we usually shoot in each other's houses. This feature is a whole other paradigm. For the first time, I actually have a transport unit I'm really having to learn how to delegate, after doing a lot of things in a DIY fashion. And I keep breaking protocol I keep getting in trouble I keep hearing, “You're not supposed to talk to so-and-so”