Cowgirl Up Fans

How did you get involved in cowgirl up?

I got involved with Cowgirl Up thanks to Danielle Carroll. She was the DP on another project I shot in ’09 and she told me I had to get in touch with Nancylee. I came on to assist with gun wrangling and stunt coordinating. The dominos just kind of fell in my favor from there and out of a comedy of errors I became Rusty.

Did you have any experience with the Cowgirl lifestyle prior to the show?

I was on ‘my’ horse Sheba, at 6months. Every summer and school vacation (when we were stateside that is) we’d head out to my grandparents farm in KS, and my Great Grandfather’s farm in the Ozarks. Most of my extended family is from Middle America and if I wasn’t on a horse or running through a pasture, gathering eggs, chasing goats or shooting a revolver, .22, or a shotgun, I was lighting bonfires or driving tractors or even coon hunting (well I didn’t hunt so much as ride along, but still). I never was a cowgirl, but I spent my childhood pretending to be.

Did you know anyone involved in the show prior to the show?

I knew Danielle Carroll and I knew Nancylee & Paige from shooting another series the year before. The second week of filming Peggy Irby came on as behind the scenes crew and I had worked with her before. Other than that (and watch I’m forgetting someone) it was like showing up at camp, I had heard of several of the cast and crew but I didn’t know them till we started filming.

The outtakes are really funny. It looked like this was so fun to be part of. Can you tell a story or favorite part of making cowgirl up? Buzzlvr

Hi Buzzlvr, the outtakes are ridiculous!! The thing about filming is that not everyone is always around for every scene, so I found myself laughing out loud at several bloopers as I watched them for the first time. Hmm, I doubt I could pick just one favorite part, there were too many great things throughout filming; Goggling ‘Can sage get you high?’ after hours of filming the Indian voodoo scenes with burning sage indoors and having a funky killer headache, the oldest horse ever trying to take off my finger when I was feeding him an apple (quickly learned carrots were safer), and of course hanging with Nancylee, Paige, and Kate – who surprised me and put me on a horse after everyone had left the ranch. Kate let me canter and gallop, but that’s nothing because she was BAREBACK!!

If you could’ve played one of the other roles, which character would you want to be, and why?

Which character WOULDN’T I want to play – between the chaps, war-paint, one-liners, horses, guns?! Every character had something and I think that’s part of the success of the show. The only character I’d struggle with playing is the one who had to pick up a snake. I know it was fake, I saw it, and my heart jumped every time I did.