Amber Marshall Says Playing Amy Fleming Still Feels Personal After Nearly 20 Years

Most actors leave their characters behind when filming wraps.

Amber Marshall never really had that option.

She has played Amy Fleming on Heartland since 2007. Off screen, she lives on a 100-acre ranch outside High River, Alberta, surrounded by horses and many of the same routines that have defined Amy’s life for nearly two decades.

The overlap between the actress and the character has only grown over the years.

“Amy’s had a pretty tough life,” Marshall said. “She lost her mom in the very first episode. That kind of grief doesn’t disappear. It shapes who you become.”

Over the years, Amy has gone through marriage, motherhood, heartbreak, and loss. Unlike many television characters, she has never stayed the same for very long.

The Reset Button

When filming ends, Marshall goes home to a life that looks a lot like Amy’s.

She spends much of her time caring for animals, working around the ranch, and riding her horses.

“Doing chores helps me decompress,” she said. “It’s my reset button. Feed the animals, walk the property, breathe.”

Her horses—Cash, Hawk, Cinch, Nitro, and miniature horses Talon and Screech—are a regular part of her life away from the cameras.

Keeping Heartland Honest

Marshall’s role on Heartland goes beyond acting.

She also serves as a consulting producer and often helps make sure horse-related scenes feel realistic.

“The writers are great, but they’re city people,” she said with a laugh. “Sometimes I have to say, ‘That’s not safe,’ or ‘No real trainer would do that.'”

That experience comes from her own life. Marshall works with horses every day and has continued learning new training methods throughout her time on the show.

She credits horse trainer Nikki Flundra with introducing her to liberty work during Heartland’s early years, something she later brought into her own work at home.

Even her horses occasionally end up on screen. At one point, Talon appeared as a rescue horse, though Marshall joked that making him look neglected was nearly impossible because he was clearly too well cared for.

One Storyline She Never Forgot

One of the most difficult storylines Marshall filmed involved Amy temporarily losing her eyesight.

“Portraying that fear—thinking she might never see again—was intense,” she said. “Horses are everything to Amy. Losing that connection even for a moment was terrifying.”

For a character whose life revolves around horses, it was one of the biggest challenges Amy had ever faced.

Amy Grew Up Too

One reason Marshall still enjoys playing Amy is that the character has been allowed to change.

Over the years, Amy grew from a teenager dealing with the loss of her mother into a wife, a mother, and eventually a widow.

“They’ve let Amy change,” Marshall said. “She’s matured, made mistakes, kept learning. That’s rare in TV.”

After all these seasons, that is still what keeps the role interesting.

“There’s always something new with Amy,” she said. “She’s not done yet.”

Suggested Reads

• Amy and Ty’s Saddest Moments on Heartland
• Why Americans Can’t Get Enough of CBC’s Heartland
• Amber Marshall Says Her Real Life Is a Lot Like Amy Fleming’s
• Inside the Heartland Ranch: The Bartlett-Fleming Family’s Home
• The Heartland Storyline Amber Marshall Says Was Hardest to Film