'Heartland' and Hallmark movie, TV star Cindy Busby highlights the beauty of 'Canadians telling a Canadian story'
Montreal-born actor Cindy Busby became a household name for many when she landed the role of Ashley Stanton on the beloved Canadian show Heartland. The love for Busby only grew when she began starring in Hallmark movies, including Hallmark's very first series Cedar Cove with Andie MacDowell, and she even worked with a young Sydney Sweeney in a thriller.
For Busby, performing was something she always felt like she was "born to do." But things really became clear for the actor in high school.
"[In] my graduating yearbook I said I was going to be a professional actor and people were like, 'What's your backup plan?' ... There's no backup plan, this is it," Busby told Yahoo Canada. "And I think a lot of that was a little bit naive, to be honest."
From high school plays Busby transitioned to the theatre program at Dawson College in Montreal, a different path from some actors who might go straight into finding an agent, and auditioning for roles in TV shows and movies.
"Although I probably could have propelled myself into just auditioning and getting an agent, and doing that right out of the gate, I just didn't really know any better, because I didn't grow up in a family that was in the movie industry," Busby said.
The actor is quick to admit it wasn't all "sunshine and rainbows" pursuing a professional acting career, from trying to get enough work to make a living, to navigating so many auditions, but she had the "perseverance" to keep going.
As Busby described, she graduated from college in 2003, and 2004 was really the year she dove deep into her career, but stressed that there were a lot of ups and down as she started auditioning regularly.
"It took me a couple years to really navigate and figure out what the heck I was doing and how to audition, because in theatre school, we learned a little bit about auditioning for movies and television, but it wasn't as in dept," she said. "I feel like it's one of the greater lessons, is never having attachment to that moment you think is going to be the moment, because you just never know."
While Busby can now be seen in When Hope Calls, and maintains an active YouTube channel, looking forward in her career, one thing Busby wants to do is a "full blown comedy," something like Bridesmaids.
"I love making people laugh. I love laughing. I love being silly. I love sacrificing my own pride to just make someone laugh. I just love being ridiculous," she said. "I always like to bring comedy to everything I do, to some capacity, because I think it's kind of what grounds us in a lot of ways."
"And I wouldn't mind doing a really kind of gritty indie movie, like something that just evokes thought and emotion, and just offers a bit of reflection on life."
Busby worked with Back to the Future and Some Kind of Wonderful star Lea Thompson in the 2007 TV movie A Life Interrupted, a film about Debbie Smith's sexual assault case.
With Back to the Future being Busby's "favourite movie of all time," the actor was particularly excited about working with Thompson.
"I'll never forget it, I walked into my costume fitting and usually in a production office there's the photos of the actors who are playing what part, and I just remember looking at the photos and seeing mine, and then looking at the woman playing my mom and my jaw dropping," Busby recalled. "And looking at the costume designer and being like, what's happening here? She's like, 'Oh, Lea Thompson, she's playing your mom, Debbie.' ... And I was just like, playing it cool. I just remember going home and calling my mom and being like, 'Mom, you're never going to believe this!'"
"[Lea Thompson] did not disappoint. First of all, she's the sweetest human. So talented, cares so much. And I think it was like on day three when I told her that I was a massive Back to the Future fan and she was so welcoming of that, and she was like, oh my gosh, those were the days, that movie changed my life, my trajectory. And she would give me anecdotes of her time on set. I just loved it and held on to it. And actually later on, when I ended up getting my visa and my green card, she actually wrote a letter of recommendation for me. ... In a lot of ways, she was a very important person for me in my career. But also, just someone I looked up to and it was really a full circle moment."
The CBC hit Heartland is Canada's longest running one-hour drama, entertaining fans since 2007. Busby plays Ashley Stanton on the show, starting as a high school mean girl, moving on to exploring her relationship with her mother, to the journey of Ashley and Caleb (Kerry James). While starring in the show for Season 1 to Season 4, Busby returned in Season 7, and again in Season 18.
"Heartland was a show that just truly changed my life in so many ways," Busby said. "It was the first role ... where I got to work consistently, and for months on end, and it wasn't like a full-time gig, but it was enough."
"It ended after four seasons and I was just kind of ready to do other things, or try other opportunities, and because it was such a commitment it was difficult for me to do other jobs while I was doing that. But it's always been like my baby, in a lot of ways. It's like my achilles heel. ... The fan base is just so loyal and so massive all over the world, on Netflix, worldwide."
Speaking about her return to the show, Busby was incredibly excited to come back, but she did have to think hard about playing Ashley Stanton again.
"I'm going to be honest, I really had to think about it, because part of me was like, have I outgrown this role? ... Can I still show up and do the character justice? Which is the most important thing to me, and not just do something because it comes my way, but do it for the the right reasons," Busby said. "I sat with it and I watched some of my episodes from the past, and that was kind of nice to go back in time, and then I was like, you know what, I'm going to do this for the fans."
"Anyone who goes on my Instagram will see the number one question I ever get asked is, 'Are you ever coming back on Heartland?' And it's like an ongoing joke with my friends and my family, because the fans are so passionate about it, which is the most incredible feeling, because it just shows that I did the character justice, and people loved her. She was the character that everyone loved to hate, and hated to love, and all that stuff. So it was really special to get to go back and just to get to work with my friends. And because that show was such a monumental moment for everyone involved, it's kind of bonded us for life, where I felt so welcome, so loved. When I was on set, everyone was so excited to see me, and I was so excited to see them. It was really special. I definitely came back home after that experience on cloud nine, because it was just fun. It was like getting to go to a high school reunion."
When Busby reflects on what has really resonated with people about Heartland, she stressed that, first and foremost, it was "Canadians telling a Canadian story."
"So many American productions come to Canada, which we're all so grateful for, because it gives incredible jobs, but to be able to tell Canadian stories and show the most beautiful parts of Canada is truly magnificent. ... It's a beautiful show that really shows off Canada, which I'm super proud of. We actually use Canadian money in the show, that's really cool!" Busby said. "And to be able to have family-friendly content is something that I think, at the time when it came out, there wasn't necessarily a lot of."
"And then, ... what I've come to realize is there is a massive love and appreciation for any story that has to do with horses. ... People love those stories, they can't get enough of them. ... A lot of times the stories are done in a period piece, ... but this one takes place in present time. So I think that makes it even more special. And there is a huge horse culture out there that, whether it's in Alberta, whether it's in Texas, whether it's in Montana, there's some everywhere, and it's a really beautiful thing that brings people together, and they bond over that."
While Busby now has an impressive list of Hallmark projects under her belt, the first one was Cedar Cove, the first series from Hallmark. Coming in midway through the second season, she played assistant district attorney Rebecca Jennings.
But before Busby landed the show, she had auditioned for Hallmark projects when she was living in Vancouver, but for some reason none of those auditions resulted in a job.
"I remember thinking, why have I not booked one of these projects?" Busby said. "Like, look at my face. I feel like I'm 'Girl Next Door,' ... and for some reason it just wasn't working. And then I ended up booking Cedar Cove."
But while Cedar Cove was history-making for Hallmark, Unleashing Mr. Darcy is what Busby identified as the project that "completely changed the trajectory" of her career.
"It put me in a lead perspective and it, to this day, I think is one of the most popular movies they've ever created on the network," she said. "A lot of that maybe has to do with the fact that we have so many cute dogs in the movie, and a lot of us were all fresh faces on the network. There was myself, I'd never been a lead on a movie. There was Ryan Paevey, who'd never been a lead on a movie, but was a beloved soap actor. ... It was just a fresh movie with a fresh twist on a beloved book, 'Pride and Prejudice.'"
"And then after that, movies just kept coming my way, and leads. And I'm forever grateful for those opportunities, because ... it levelled me up in my career and in my craft."
Before we saw Sydney Sweeney in The Handmaid's Tale, Euphoria, The White Lotus, and Anyone But You, she worked with Busby in the TV movie The Wrong Daughter. Busby plays Kate, who wants to connect with the daughter she placed for adoption years ago, but things take a dark turn.
"When I worked with [Sydney Sweeney], she had just finished a couple really big projects that were undoubtedly going to propel her to some sort of stardom," Busby said. "But you just never know in this industry, and there's so many talented, beautiful people that just don't make it, ... and it's been truly incredible to see her [career]."
"I'll be driving down Sunset Boulevard here in L.A. and I'll just see her on a massive building. ... And the girl that I knew in that movie, who I'm sure she still is to this day, is just a down to earth sweetheart, so smart. When I worked with her ... she was working her butt off and was going to school full-time, and we got along really well. ... We had like every scene together, so we had a lot of conversations about life and boys and school and troubles and the industry, and all that. ... I'm just so excited for her and happy that things worked out the way they did. I hope that she's happy with it."
Then Busby was part of another interesting Hallmark evolution, the Unwrapping Christmas movies, where each leading woman had her own film, but with each character showing up in all four stories. Busby led Unwrapping Christmas: Olivia's Reunion.
"I feel like it highlighted each person's journey and how everyone fit into each other's journey," Busby said. "We each individually shot our movies and then we did crossover scenes. So any of the scenes that we had together in our movies, we shot over a period of six days."
"I didn't know any of the ladies going into it, so I had to use a lot of my imagination, and as I usually do, I immediately messaged all three of them and was like, 'Hey, welcome aboard! So excited to get to know you!' And just trying to create a bond with them before we actually met, so that I had something to work off of as an actor. And then when we met on set ... we immediately were like, 'Whoa, we would actually be really good friends in real life,' and we were all so different."
But it was the differences in each story that really appealed to Busby.
"You want to be able to show different women who have different personalities and different things, but they come together," she said.
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