Elisha Cuthbert takes aim at gun violence.

It's a long way from six-year-old foot model to "24" star. Yet Canadian actress Elisha Cuthbert is on the map because of that lucky, fast-tracking journey, one that now brings her back to Toronto to shoot her next film project.

In the made for television movie "Guns," Cuthbert, along with co-stars Colm Feore ("Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee") and Shawn Doyle ("Big Love"), tackle Toronto's rampant gun violence and the deep, socio-economic roots that have turned it into such an epidemic.

Telling it like it is

The issue certainly isn't whitewashed in this new flick. There are shoot-outs, people dying and the kind of tragic modern circumstances that make up real life for many young people in cities like Toronto.

"I think this will be an eye-opener for a lot of people," the Calgary-born actress said recently during an on-set visit with CTV's eTalk.

Directed by David 'Sudz' Sutherland, the film focuses on the dicey, dangerous lives of several people caught up with the gun trade from the United States to Canada. As Cuthbert says, "The concept is interesting because I don't think anyone's really spoken about this sort of issue -- that kind of stuff relating to guns and what it's doing to our community in Canada and just the world in general."

Is she Jane Creba?

Some have suspected that Cuthbert's part is based on Jane Creba, the 15-year-old Toronto teen who was mortally shot in 2005 while shopping on Boxing Day. The actress denies the connection.

"I play a college student who gets caught up in a gun war and does things for love," she says. Calling her character "a little bit of a victim," she's committed to a guy on the wrong side of the law and lets her emotions drag her in deeper and deeper into a deadly situation.

"You know, just the other day while we were shooting there was another fatal shooting in Toronto," says Cuthbert. With news like that, the importance of doing this movie hit home with the actress.

Also, shooting in Canada made the deal all the more appealing.

Glad to be back in Canada

"I've been waiting to find something that I thought was really great and well-written. When I read this I just thought what a great concept and what a great thing to be part of."

During filming, the 24-year-old actress flew back to L.A. to make her new thriller, "Captivity." In it, the woman Maxim magazine ranked #25 on its 2007 Hot 100 list stars as a famous model who is abducted and tortured by a sadistic captor. It's a controversial work, one that has already garnered a lot of hype over the "torture porn" supposedly in the movie. Dismissing the remarks, Cuthbert says, "That's movie making."

The Cuthbert Connection

• While trotting the globe as a correspondent for the award-winning series "Popular Mechanics for Kids" (1997), Cuthbert caught the eye of Hillary Clinton. The First Lady later invited Cuthbert to Washington to meet her.
• Afraid to fly, Cuthbert told Conan O'Brien in 2004 that she never gets onto a plane without boarding it with her right foot first.
• Cuthbert was given a six week deadline by her parents to land an acting job when she left Canada and moved to Los Angeles at 16. She snapped up the role of Kimberley Bauer on "24" at the end of the 5th week.
• For her 22nd birthday, her "House of Wax" co-star Paris Hilton gave her and autographed copy of her autobiography and a bottle of her perfume as a gift. No wonder the rich stay rich. They're cheap.
• In 2005, Cuthbert broke off her engagement to boyfriend Trace Ayala, Justin Timberlake's personal assistant.