‘Heartland’: Amber Marshall Doesn’t Really Do Birthdays Just Like Her Character Amy
Amber Marshall has played Amy Fleming on the TV show Heartland since 2007. Marshall shares many similarities with Amy, including a love of horses. In a 2021 interview with BriefTake, Marshall revealed another similarity she has with her Heartland character.
Amber Marshall has a similarity with her ‘Heartland’ character
Season 15 of Heartland premiered on CBC in October 2021. Before the season premiered, Marshall sat down for an interview with BriefTake.
During the interview, Marshall admitted that she does not do lavish celebrations for her birthday, just like Amy.
“In my own life, I wouldn’t say that I’m big on celebrating birthdays. We usually don’t really do anything. We just go out for maybe a nice dinner or something. So I would say that I’m fairly similar to Amy in that aspect,” Marshall told BriefTake.
Why Amber Marshall thinks Amy Fleming did not want a big birthday
In the first episode of season 14 of Heartland, Amy’s husband Ty Borden (Graham Wardle) died suddenly. Since then, episodes of the CBC series have shown Amy and her family processing their grief.
Speaking with BriefTake, Marshall speculated that Amy’s hesitation about celebrating her birthday in a big way has to do with Ty.
“But for her, this was a little bit more about the death of Ty. And she just didn’t want to have a big celebration. She didn’t want to have a big family gathering because it would bring back too many poor memories,” Marshall said.
She continued, “So I think that in general Amy’s never been a big birthday person but the fact that she’s lost someone very close to her that probably contributed to the whole reasoning of just wanting a small gathering.”
Birthday celebrations are not the only think Amber Marshall has in common with Amy on ‘Heartland’
It turns out Marshall is actually quite similar to Amy. In 2019, CBC’s official Heartland blog interviewed Marshall. During the interview, Marshall revealed that the writers for Heartland will use her “real life” as inspiration for the character.
“I believe that over the years my character Amy has become more like myself and vice versa. The writers seem to gravitate to stories that of happened in my real life, and by living on a ranch in Alberta myself, I have intern adopted similar traits to my character. It makes what I do come easily and I love being able to bring a realism to the character,” the actor said.
Over the years, Marshall has even “formed quite the bond” with the horse that plays Amy’s horse, Spartan.
“The horse who plays Spartan is named Stormy and he has been playing the role since the first season. Rightfully so, him and I have formed quite the bond,” Marshall told CBC’s Heartland blog.
