Having seen Nicholas Campbell in A Heartland Christmas, we had to ask him: Why are you so good at playing a crazy old coot?
"After filming that, I lost about 20 pounds and got my hair dyed again so I'm looking more like myself," the well-known Canadian actor said with a laugh.
"My kids were going, 'Dad, dad, you're too young for this.' I'm not young!"
In real life Campbell is 58. But in the new two-hour special A Heartland Christmas, which airs Sunday, Dec. 12 on CBC, Campbell plays a man who seems to be carrying a thousand years on his face and in his soul.
"It was a great part," Campbell said. "Of course, it turns out he's not crazy at all, he's just tortured."
As a weekly series, Heartland is in its fourth season and has become a Sunday staple on CBC. Shot and set in Alberta, it stars Ontario native Amber Marshall as Amy Fleming, a young woman who has a special way with animals.
Campbell guest-stars as Will Vernon, the owner of some horses trapped in the mountains, and bizarrely he doesn't seem to care one way or the other if they live or die. That naturally puts Will into conflict with Amy, and even Amy's grandfather Jack Bartlett, played by Shaun Johnston, can't figure out what has turned his old friend Will so cold.
"It's always good when you're playing an everyone-hates-him kind of guy, because you have to find what's good about him," said Campbell, who to a generation of Canadian TV fans always will be known for Da Vinci's Inquest.
"If you have a real goody-two-shoes to play - which used to be my problem - then you try to find a dark side."
Campbell said he is a big fan and regular watcher of Canadian TV, so he was well familiar with Heartland when he was asked to come and play Will.
"They just called me and booked me, which is pretty rare," Campbell said.
"They told me they wrote it for me. I wish they had told me that earlier, I would have asked for more money. But then, if they could have got (Art) Hindle or somebody to do it, they probably would have."
If you look at a picture of Campbell and then look at a picture of Hindle - another Canadian acting vet - you'll see how funny that is.
Anyway, Campbell gives Marshall a lot of the credit for Heartland's long-term success.
"She's the real deal, she just loves the animals and she has a way with them," Campbell said. "She totally has embraced the role. The scripts are above-average for what it is, but I really think she's the reason they have such a faithful viewership.
"Coming out of her trailer at one point or another I saw just about every species of animal. She has roosters, then this, then that, then she rescues a whole family of ducks."
Speaking of rescuing things, Marshall's character sort of rescues Campbell's character in A Heartland Christmas. With a title like that, we would expect nothing less.
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