Natasha Burnett was born in Surrey, England and she began her stage career starring in the Magic of Motown show as Diana Ross. She toured the UK and Europe extensively with this show before moving to Vancouver. Our City Tonight sat down recently with the British actress and singer to talk about her diverse career. 

OCT: You were nineteen when you played Diana Ross and that seemed to be a perfect role for you. However, in the same production you were also asked to perform as Michael Jackson. How did you manage to pull off these two different performers?

NB: It all started with Diana Ross, and that was the role I played most of the time. They then discovered that the male lead singer found it difficult to reach those high notes for that role. This was portraying a young Michael when he was part of the Jackson 5 so they enlisted my help because I was the only one that could do the quick changes and be convincing in both roles. 

OCT: We grew up with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross so we are big fans of course. Even though the script was laid out for you, how were you tackling such a challenging role portraying Diana Ross?

NB: I watched a lot of footage on YouTube. I remember seeing one of her videos, I believe it was in 1986 when she was performing outdoors in Central Park, and it was raining. I will always remember this video: she was singing in the rain and said she was going to stay out there the whole night if the fans were going to stay with her. That inclusive and warm attitude is what I wanted to try to embody. I wanted to capture her nature and her warmth, and I wanted to portray that, and capture that, for the audience. 

OCT: You have lived in other parts of the world, including Sydney, Australia. Then you decided to make the move to Vancouver, and you’ve been working nonstop from what I’ve seen so far. You have worked in a lot of different shows, including iZombie and you also were on the popular show Tracker, which is also shot in Vancouver. We have not seen your film Legend of the Lost Locket yet, but not only are you starring in this, but you also produced it. You’re obviously looking to build your resume by adding more things to your career. What was it like producing and acting in the same project?

NB: I learned quite a lot in a short space of time and It’s one thing to be the lead of a movie when you have all the lines to learn as well as creating your character, but when you are producing as well, I found that there were moments when I had to put out fires before the director arrived on set. Your brain is working at 100,000 miles an hour. I even found myself realizing that when there were a couple scenes in the movie where it was set in the 1800s, I absolutely wanted to be there to ensure that what they were saying sounded as British as I needed it to. Even though I didn’t need to be on set, I made sure I went in at that time with everybody else so I could just be there to oversee. For some reason, even though I was working such long hours and was in almost every single scene, I was still attached to everything else that is going on even when it is not involving me specifically as an actor.

OCT: In 2021, you became a regular cast member on the TV series When Calls the Heart. This is one of those shows that is a global juggernaut in terms of its massive popularity. It has been on since 2014, and it’s aired here in Canada and the United States. No one thought it would become this big, but you’ve got fans around the world. You have the role of Minnie. What does it feel like to join a show like this that’s already a huge success? 

NB: You have to get the lay of the land once you get onto the set because you’re not sure of the dynamic that’s already there. Coming onto the set they have the same crew as well as cast and they all made me feel comfortable because it was like you were joining a family.

OCT: It’s interesting when talking to actors like yourself who have been on a show for a longtime as it’s always helpful when you have the support of the writers. They can help your character grow each year. Your character had a very important year this year in season 12. Can we talk a little bit about that for your fans?

NB: Before we start a season, we always have a chat with the showrunner and discuss where we think our character can go and where we’d like our character to go. We like to try and find what story we may want to tell for the next year. So, we always have a baseline for where we think we want to go. We have always seen Minnie’s character in positions where she was always in charge and always knew what she was doing. Minnie had an answer for everything. She really didn’t though, so that’s what we wanted to look at this year. We wanted to develop and make her character more complex because the fans did really love that she was that type of character. She seemed to always keep things together and always had her head on right. She was very calm and collected so we wanted to shake things up a bit because we’ve never really seen her having fun. We had never seen her fall apart, so this was an opportunity that we wanted to use to try and tell a slightly different story for her.

OCT: It is not surprising that a show like this has had such a great response. It is a family show and it’s sentimental, set in an old-fashioned setting. I think people really need this kind of storytelling. 

NB: It became very popular after Covid and in fact even during Covid when nothing was being produced. The world needed something light and I think we got a burst of fans at that point because people just wanted to watch something light and that felt good. Since then, it has just continued to grow. Season 13 of “When Calls the Heart” is airing & streaming now and you can watch this filmed interview in full at richmondsentinel.ca/videos.