Cindy Busby is no stranger to period pieces or playing strong, spirited women—but in When Hope Calls Season 2, she takes on one of her most meaningful roles yet. As Nora Anderson, a trailblazing lawyer in the 1920s, Busby steps into a time when women were just beginning to break barriers in the legal world. In this interview, she talks about the power of playing such a pioneering character, what it took to learn how to drive a real horse-drawn wagon, and the joy of stepping onto a fully immersive set.
Busby also gets into joining a series already in motion, her path to landing the role, and how returning to Heartland after more than a decade brought back a flood of emotions. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For the full interview, watch the video above or check out our YouTube page.
I love shows that are set in a different time period.
Cindy Busby: I mean, it’s the best.
When you put on those clothes and you go to set, does it just make things so much easier for you?
Cindy Busby: Yeah, it certainly like whisks you away. You do all of your work ahead of time about the character and where they come from, et cetera. And you memorize your lines and then you get your hair and makeup done and you see yourself in the mirror and then you put that costume on, and your posture changes and you just start to feel it.
And then you show up on this set that is like a standing set. It just lives on this farmland in a field and every facade is actually built out, so the inside is set decorated and you can’t help but feel absolutely immersed in the world.
And it definitely helps a lot to see the background actors doing their thing and, and seeing the other actors, so it certainly facilitates things to a certain capacity for sure.
I was in a civil war movie a while back and I had to learn how to load and shoot a musket, which is something I never thought I would need to know. Did you have to learn anything for this show?
Cindy Busby: I did actually. I learned to, I guess you would say drive a horse-drawn wagon, which was pretty cool.
I had to learn how to control the horses with a wagon and a big wagon at that. And they had me do figure eights and circles with it. And it’s tough because it’s like a legit old wagon, so it does not have a very good turning radius. You have to really gently turn the reins slowly so that the horse doesn’t maneuver too quickly because you can actually tip over, which they only told me afterward. And I was like, “Thank you for not telling me that ahead of time because I definitely would have been more stressed.”
But it was fun. It was really cool to get to do that and I do think I was pretty good at it.
How long did it take you to learn how to do that?
Cindy Busby: I think I was probably doing it for like a good hour or so. And then every day on set that I had to do it, they would always get me on the wagon and rehearse the movement with the horse.
I have to say, there’s not very good suspension on those things so, you’re just jumping around and you need like a chiropractic adjustment after.
It’s always really cool to do something like that. I feel like as an actor, we’re always learning, like you said, the musket thing, we’re always learning the most bizarre things that you wouldn’t normally learn in life. So that’s kind of fun.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to learn throughout your whole career?
Cindy Busby: I had to learn how to shoot a bow and arrow, which is actually quite difficult.
And very cool.
Cindy Busby: And very cool. Then ballroom dancing, which is also very hard. I had to kind of like fake ski. I’m not much of a skier, but I’ve had to do a little bit of that.
Oh, also, learn how to do dog shows, like learning how to walk like a dog in a dog show scenario, which is actually quite complicated.
The show is set in 1920, and your character is a lawyer. How did that shape how you played her?
Cindy Busby: It’s a pretty big deal when you start to look at it. In the 1920s, it was the women’s kind of liberation of being able to vote and have your own money and women finally being able to take the bar and be lawyers. And at that point in time in 1920, I read there was only a certain amount of lawyers in America and 0.01% of lawyers were women. So, there’s only like a thousand something in all of America. It was really, really low. And so that’s a really big deal to be a lawyer. So it certainly shapes in that.
Protecting people really matters to her. She’s really smart. It also means that she’s really determined and really driven in her life. She has a really big heart and she wants justice in the world and she takes it really seriously.
It was really cool to get to play a character that’s such a trailblazer in so many ways.
I saw that you originally auditioned for season one.
Cindy Busby: Yeah, I did. Totally different role. It got pretty close but it didn’t go my way, which, you know, that’s life. And we’ve all been through that about a thousand times.
I didn’t hear about the show for a really long time. And then it came back around and then it came back my way. And actually, the initial audition I got for the show for this season was for the role of Hannah, which is now played by Sarah Fisher, who’s incredibly talented and does such a great job. It just didn’t work out at the time because I couldn’t do the audition and it just didn’t work out. And then Nora came around and I auditioned for it and that worked out and here I am.
It’s pretty amazing the trajectory as an actor, like where it takes you. It’s like one thing you think something, then the next minute you’re taken in another direction that you never thought.
You were on Heartland for a long time. I’ve done a lot of theater where I played the same role for a couple of months, but what is that like to play the evolution of a character for so long?
Cindy Busby: It’s really, really special. And that’s a big reason why I wanted to do When Hope Calls. I’d wanted to be on a series again, because like you know, in the movies you get one or two scenes and something, you have an entire storyline that you have to create within like that one scene or that 90-minute movie. But in this regard, you’re creating an entire life, you’re creating an entire arc.
Most of the time you have no idea where it’s going to lead, like the writers are figuring it out as you go. And sometimes you can chat with them about that, but you’re really creating a fully manifested person.
And I feel that character kind of grows along with you as a person, parallel to some capacity, because there’s certain things that you’re going through, maybe in your life that you’re using. Use what you know, right? So, you use that in that world.
I love it so much, because you get to create so many different scenarios, because as a human, you’ll have a good day, you’ll have a bad day, you’ll feel sad, you’ll feel happy, you’ll feel ecstatic, you’ll fall in love, and you get to experience typically, in a series, a little bit of all of that.
And I think that that’s kind of the dream, as an actor, to be able to really embody a person, and they kind of become a part of you, whether you like it or not. And Ashley will forever be a part of me.
And getting to play her again in season 18, just this past year… I hadn’t played her in 11 years, and when they asked me to come back, I was like, “Oh boy, do I still want to play her?
Does she still exist in me? Can I still do her justice? Where’s she at in her life now? What would she be like 11 years later?” It was so much to consider.
But I just was like, “You know what, I just want to do it for the fans. I want to do it to go see my friends again. And I’m so glad I did because I walked on that set and as soon as I saw some of my old co-stars, Ashley just came alive in her own, more mature, professional womanly way. And it was really cool.
There is something really interesting about bringing characters to life and how that all happens. Because it kind of comes out of you some in some way. Sometimes I’m just amazed at how it all happens.
Just like putting on an old pair of shoes, I would imagine.
Cindy Busby: Totally, totally. An old pair of cowboy boots.
