TORONTO — Fastening a push-up bra, pulling on a pair of Spanx, clipping in hair extensions and applying a perfect pout of bright red lipstick: before heading out to any audition, aging B movie actress Jana in "Amazon Falls" goes through a transformation.

For the real-life actress and former beauty queen who portrays her in the new Canadian film debuting at TIFF, it's a process she can relate to all too well.

"It was my idea (to include that in the film) because that is the stuff I go through when I go to an audition," says April Telek, over the phone from her home in Vancouver.

"This business is so physically driven and perfection sells. I related to the fact that Jana was not perfect anymore. I related to the fact that she'd had some early success and it wasn't in her hands anymore, and she was trying to get that back."

Whereas her character of Jana found fame playing a warrior princess in "Amazon" films, Telek started her career off as a model, traveling to Tokyo on her 13th birthday to model for Shiseido Cosmetics. She won the title of Miss Canada in 1994 and began acting shortly after, with credits that include "Flight 93" and "Robson Arms."

She knew exposing this side of herself on screen the way she did in "Amazon Falls" would make her more vulnerable than she ever has been before, but believed it was necessary to accurately portray the character.

"It was something I actually talked to my husband about. I said, ‘I think I need to show this because I think it's such a huge part of (what) we go through as actresses' … I am fully aware that it is ugly to see."

Bowen's B-movie experience

"Amazon Falls" is the first feature film from Canadian director Katrin Bowen and is loosely based on her own experiences in Hollywood.

"I was an 18-year-old actress in L.A. doing B movies basically because I'm six feet and there was a group of older women that mentored me, so Jana is kind of a combination of all those women," says Bowen, who was raised in a Mennonite community in Alberta but now also resides in Vancouver.

Bowen only pursued acting in L.A. for a couple of years. She did some work with B movie heavyweight Troma Films before deciding to study Anthropology at Berkeley instead. While she was there, she also became interested in directing.

After making a number of award-winning shorts, including "Someone" and "Almost Forgot My Bones," Bowen set her sights on a feature film. After the financing fell through for another project she was working on, she began developing "Amazon Falls" -- a story she had wanted to tell for a while.

She enlisted the help of her writer friend Curry Hitchborn, who wrote the script in only two weeks. The entire movie was shot in 12 days on location in Vancouver and L.A.

With such a tight turnaround and an even tighter budget, everything depended on the actress who played Jana. Bowen says when Telek auditioned she just knew that she was the only one who could pull it off and without her honest performance, "Amazon Falls" would never have worked.

"I thought that's really brave for someone that was Miss Canada, someone who has made her living as a beauty queen, for her to just go there. I have so much respect for her. When I see the movie I still think, ‘Wow.'"

And while both Bowen and Telek are ecstatic to be able to showcase the film at TIFF, Telek admits she's a little bit nervous.

"I've never been so naked – and I've been naked in movies before – but I've never been so naked on film," says the actress. "It will be hard to know people have seen me in such ugly states, but I just needed to be honest."

"Amazon Falls," which also stars Anna Mae Routledge, Zak Santiago, Benjamin Ratner and William B. Davis, premieres Saturday, Sept. 11 at AMC 10 at 5 pm. Screenings will also take place Sept. 13 at 3 pm and Sept. 18 at 9:15 pm, at AMC 9.