{alltv} 'Heartland' star likes going country

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The city kid goes to the country — and likes it! Graham Wardle, one of the appealing young leads in the Canadian TV series Heartland, was born in Mission, B.C., but grew up entirely in greater Vancouver. So Alberta's Big Sky country, where Heartland is filmed, is a revelation and part of the show's appeal to both him and the public.

"I think, for people who have grown up in the environment, it reminds them of home," Wardle says in an interview from Vancouver, while preparing to shoot the fourth season in Calgary with co-stars Amber Marshall, Michelle Morgan, Kerry James and Shaun Johnston.

"And, for people who have not experienced that, like me, it is such a peaceful thing. You can't help but relate to it or want to engage in it because it such a peaceful, relaxing setting. That's what gets me into it. That's what attracts me."

The fourth season starts production on Wednesday. Last week, E1 Entertainment launched its complete-season DVD sets. Following the separate half-season sets from last fall, Heartland: The Complete First Season is now a 4-disc set that deftly introduces the characters on an Alberta horse-rescue ranch. Also new is Heartland: The Complete Second Season, another 4-disc set that sets up Wardle in conflict with James' new character, a rival stablehand.

Wardle plays a bad boy who works on the ranch as part of his probation. Quick tempered and moody, Wardle's Ty is an archetype, like many other Heartland characters. But the quality writing, directing and acting transforms these familiar types into flesh-and-blood characters.

"You work out the character and then you bring something of yourself to it," Wardle explains. "You empathize with the character and where he comes from. You try to think of what happened to him and, 'How did he cope with that?' That's what I try to do to bring life to him." The collaboration of the writers, producers and directors helped tremendously, too, he says. But so did his own past, which parallels some of fictional Ty's experience.

"I used to have a lot of similarities with him when I was back in high school. I was a bit of an angry teen. But that's what provides me with the perspective or an appreciation for the relaxed attitude that I have now. Because once I was not (relaxed). So there are similarities with Ty. There are differences, too."

Both full-season box sets offer behind-the-scenes featurettes that introduce us to the actors, filmmakers and the locations, which include High River and Kananaskis Country in the Rockies.

Wardle confesses he has a lot of emotion invested in Ty specifically and the series as a whole.

"Spending that much time playing a character, you get to know him really well and you sort of care about him. There are things I want to see my character do to push forward and to succeed. It's funny, in my own life I will learn things because Ty made a decision of made some mistakes. And I'll go: 'Hmmm, interesting, I see how that played out!' So I can pick up little things for my own life from the character."

In Heartland, co-stars Marshall and Morgan play sisters. Morgan is the reluctant older sibling who returns home after a tragedy to run the family business. Marshall is the teenager who has inherited her late mother's horse-sense, a super-sensitivity that allows her to "fix" behavioural problems. Wardle, still wide-eyed as the city kid, is now a believer that horse whisperers do exist.

"Of course, I don't believe in a mystical or magical thing. I moreso believe in an awareness for animals. Amber is actually really good with animals, just as her character is."

American

Sunday, May 9, 2010

{alltv} 'Heartland' star likes going country

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