We’ll always have Paris
Heartland star gets bombshell treatment as eighth season opens
Heartland fans, it seems, are forever chasing Amy Fleming. They follow her — or rather, the actress who plays her, Amber Marshall — to the Calgary Stampede, on TV as she hosts the Canadian Country Music Association Awards and even online (Marshall’s official Twitter account now has 35,500 followers).
But when they find the plucky horse whisperer at the start of Heartland’s eighth season, they might not even recognize her.
As the CBC family drama opens, Amy is in full-on bombshell mode in Paris, there to work the World Equestrian Games with Prince Ahmed. She slicks on some lipstick, brushes her cheeks with rouge, affixes an earring and descends a staircase, Mae West style, in a slinky white dress.
A few scenes later, Marshall is back at Heartland ranch in Alberta awaiting a blissful family reunion. But Paris has a way of putting some glamour in a girl’s gait, and she struggles to adjust to life back at home. “Being in Europe for four or five months has changed her,” she says of her Heartland character. “She might not realize it at first, and might want to carry on with life as she knew it, yet everyone around her has grown and so has she.”
Playing Amy for almost a decade — practical, outdoorsy, animal-- focused — has been as comfortable for Marshall, 26, as slipping into a pair of faded Levi’s. In real life, she is a former veterinary assistant who lives on a ranch outside Calgary with her husband, photographer Shawn Turner, and assorted four-legged friends.
But adjusting to Amy’s new grooming habits this season has been a learning curve for the London, Ont., native — and her fans are quick to notice. “This year, as part of the changes for my character, they wanted me to have beautiful nails and that’s something I have never ever had.
“For my wedding, I didn’t even paint my nails or even carve the dirt out from underneath them,” Marshall says. “So I’ve been going and getting my nails done, and the fans notice instantly. I put one picture up ( on social media) where you could see one part of my hand in the photo, and they all instantly started commenting, ‘ Did you get your nails done? What’s going on? Are you feeling OK?’ ” What remains the same, though, is Marshall’s passion for animals. She began riding horses at a young age, and furry creatures always had a place in her family home. “My first pet was a dog named Tal. I got him for my 10th birthday. But prior to him, my family had cats and dogs, so I was always around them. I did everything with Tal — I took him to the agility and obedience courses. That was my first responsibility.” After training at an arts school, Marshall starred in a TV movie about the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart. Roles in TV series including Super Rupert, The Power Strikers and Dark Oracle soon followed. But Heartland, with its empathy for animals and emphasis on family, was a dream gig — and still is, eight seasons later. “My life has settled into everything that I enjoy all happening at once. I’ve always loved acting, and I’ve always loved animals. When I got Heartland, I thought, well this is kind of ironic. They’re the two things that I enjoy the most, and now all of a sudden I’m doing both of them as a career,” she says. “With Heartland, one of the reasons for its success and longevity is the fact that families can sit down together and not be concerned by the content and not have to explain anything to their kids or be embarrassed by some of the things they’re showing on television.” At home, Marshall’s menagerie of farm animals sandwich her days and she finds solace in the cacophony of critters. “Right now, I have two dogs and three cats and three horses and a bunch of cattle and chickens and a rabbit and an alpaca,” she says. “Every day I come home from work and hang out with the animals, even if it’s just sitting on a fence and watching them interact — it’s kind of my wind- down time. Some people come home and they’ll watch a few episodes of their favourite show or surf the Internet, but I like to come home and hang out with the animals and wind down from my day.” Heartland marks its 125th episode during this season, making it the longest- running Canadian onehour drama. But Marshall already has thought about what life would be like once the screen fades to black. “I’m excited for what’s in the future. I don’t really know what it will hold, but I’m open to all the possibilities,” she says.