Katie Stevens & Lachlan Quarmby Interview

[00:00:03] Hi, I'm Bran and I love Hallmark Movies. I'm Dan and I despise Hallmark Movies. I'm Katie Stevens. I'm Lachlan Quarmby and I'm new to Hallmark Movies and a little scared. And we're in a Hallmark. And this is the Deck The Hallmark Podcast!

[00:00:39] Oh boy. Are you kidding me, Bran? The fates have finally aligned. The fates have aligned. We said we want them on here, but only if they could be in the same room together while they do the interview. And they're like, don't worry, we'll fly across country, we'll make it happen. That's exactly right. They spared no expense to be in the same room with each other for this year's podcast. This is very exciting. That's right. This is very exciting.

[00:01:03] I'm just, I'm thrilled to be able to talk to two people that have been in three movies that I feel like are completely different than what we're used to. They were special events, Bran. They weren't movies. They were advertised as special events. Did you see that? That it was a special event? Did you guys, Katie Stevens, Lachlan Quarmby, welcome to the show. Did you notice that your movies were not advertised as movies? Yes. It became very difficult to find the wording to say, but I think now we're getting there. Yeah, it's a three part special event.

[00:01:32] It's a three part special event. Now that it's over, you've got it figured out and that's all that matters. Well, because for a little while I was saying it was a trilogy. Yeah. Which it is. It is. Because it's based on a book trilogy. So I was saying a trilogy and they were like, it's a three part special event. Three part. Was there any talk of it being a TV, like a series? Is that why? Or was it just always supposed to be three movies? No. Yeah. I know to us, it was just kind of three. Wow.

[00:02:01] When I found out about it, it was three movies always. Man, it's a special event. I don't know if you know this, Hallmark won't tell you this, but August is typically where this kind of stuff doesn't happen. So like August on the Hallmark calendar isn't where we get something that one is a special event, but two is as high quality as what you guys have produced for us over the last three weeks. It's a special event. And so it was a really special event for us. We're coming off of Christmas in July.

[00:02:30] Brands usually really cranky that there aren't any more Christmas movies. Yeah. And instead we got something that feels very new and fresh with two new Hallmark. Have either of you ever been on Hallmark before? Nope. Never. I did one line in one of them a while ago. Oh yeah, of course not. We remember that one line. What was the line? What was the movie? What was the movie? And then give us the line. If you could give us the reading, that'd be great. I don't know about the line. I don't even, I don't think I know. Well, I knew it was one line, but I don't think I know. The movie was A Very Merry Bridesmaid with Emily Osment. Yeah.

[00:03:00] We've seen that one. I recall the flick. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I walked her down the aisle, which she was a bridesmaid. I was a groomsman. And then one of my lines was something about being annoyed about getting married in December. No, getting married in when's winter in this part of the world. Yes. December. That's right. December in this part of the world. You got it. Yes. And was that the line? Talk about Lachlan. What hemisphere are you from? It would be the same. Where are you from? Southern. I'm Australian. You're Australian. God. No, I knew that.

[00:03:30] You knew. We didn't think you were Irish at all. We knew. We knew. If you did, that'd be great for me. His name, Lachlan Cornby also sounds like it should be an Irish. Lachlan sounds like you are sipping against us as we're talking. Right. Lachlan Cornby? Lachlan Cornby? Hold on. You guys have never called him the corn beef? Are you kidding me? The whole time you're filming, not once did you call him the corn beef. Oh my gosh. That's unbelievable. I missed the mark. Yeah. I really did. She had it, but now she will. Now I will.

[00:03:59] Throw another shrimp on the corn beef. Yeah. See what I did there? Yeah. He's Australian, Brandon. Give me the, if you're switching your accent from Australian to Irish, which to us, obviously we hear it and we can tell the difference right away. Square away doesn't sound similar at all. For you, what's that change for you? You are. Normally we know when the accent is not authentic that we've seen a thousand of these movies. I can pick out a fake accent. I thought you were Irish, sir. And it could be cause your name's Lachlan Cornby, but tell us about getting into the

[00:04:29] act that accent. Thank you. Well, yeah, thank you for that. That's very encouraging. But I, I usually have to act in an accent because I'm Australian. So, and I live in Canada, so I'm almost always doing an American accent anyway, or sometimes a Canadian or whatever. So getting into accents just part of the process for me. And this time I just got to, got to learn an Irish accent and, and figure out what people may or may not have sounded like in 1844. So Katie, you also have to do the accent when you were back in 1844.

[00:04:59] I sure did. It made me break out in hives. That much fun, huh? No, just because I think one of my biggest fears as an actor is doing an accent and doing it poorly and then getting roasted for it. Because again, I, you know, you can, if somebody is doing an accent poorly, you're like, Ooh, that's pretty bad. And so I was very nervous and I wanted to do a good, a good job with it. You did a great job.

[00:05:25] How jealous Lachlan were you of all the other actors that apparently in modern day got to be used their own accent, but you did not for some reason. I don't know. I like doing the accent. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. I got to watch a whole bunch of Colin Farrell films. I'm like, yeah. You sounded like Colin Farrell. I said that watching the movie. Okay. You crushed it. Great. This is what we would have. Did you watch like the Banshees of Ennis Sheeran and just watch him over and over again in that movie?

[00:05:55] Like 20 times. Yeah. I love that. It's a great movie. Anything Martin McDonough writes is great, but Banshees of Ennis Sheeran, I'm sure you've seen it. I'm a big Banshee man. They call me Banshee. They call me Banshee Brand. That's what they call me. That's what they were right. I would like to get both of your perspectives on how you got brought into this project. Obviously, you have one line, Cornbeef, that really apparently caught Hallmark's eye and they said, we got to bring this guy back for the special event. But Katie, you have not been with Hallmark before.

[00:06:25] So I'd like to hear both of you and how you ended up being a part of this project. Cooper? Oh, well, I got a message that they had a Hallmark three-part special event that they wanted me to be a part of and they wanted me to play Quora. And I read the scripts and then I had a Zoom with Joanna Garcia Swisher and she just expressed

[00:06:53] to me that they wanted this to feel very different for Hallmark. They wanted this to be something that kind of competed with other streamers in terms of, you know, a lot of other streamers are trying to do what Hallmark traditionally does. And so they kind of wanted to push the boundaries of what people are used to on Hallmark.

[00:07:15] And just within that, that just gave us so much like agency and kind of like wiggle room to play and be able to kind of do more things that felt grounded. And so that was very exciting to me. Were you familiar, Katie, with Hallmark and like what that meant to like to push the limits on Hallmark? Did you have any reference points? My father has Hallmark on 24 times. My guy. My guy! Yeah.

[00:07:44] Hallmark is, Hallmark and like the Today Show are the things that play at my parents' house in 24-hour loop. I love that. So I'm very familiar with Hallmark. And I, yeah, I had never done one before, but it was very exciting to me that they wanted me to be a part of kind of the like new thing they wanted to do. And I was really excited because I am like a very grounded actor.

[00:08:12] And so being able to like have the freedom to kind of play, to have discussions with the producers and with Hallmark on things that didn't feel natural to me and kind of have that collaboration. They were like really, really great about that. So I was excited to be a part of it. What about you, Lachlan? I needed a job and I auditioned and that was cool for me. Yeah.

[00:08:38] It was one of those things where it's like I have auditioned for a bunch of Hallmark or Hallmark adjacent type movies plenty of times, like for leads, for guest stars, for like, you know, one line roles or whatever. And very, very rarely do I even get close. So how that's insane. I just wish you look. I wish you look better, buddy. Like you just do looks are against you. You know, it might just be a crazy, a vibe thing. Well, the universe was waiting for you to do that. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:07] What I'm kind of saying is like destiny. Oh, good God. Here we go. Um, no, I, I was waiting. I was sort of reading them and then every now and then they come across and I'm like, this is another one. I don't think it's going to go well, but this one I read and I said, I was just like, this actually does tick a lot of the boxes that I'm kind of naturally good at. I like, I prefer to do accent, like acting in accents. I prefer to do like sort of carry fish out of water type characters.

[00:09:34] I like to be this sort of odd kind of quirky character or whatever. And, and it just seemed like really layered. And I was like, this might be the one that just, I was waiting for to come for me and to go. I just love the idea of Hallmark casting. Be like, we got this six, four guy from Australia who can do all the different accents. Looks great. Nah, it's a pass this time. It's a pass. Did you guys, did you guys read the books before you did it? Or did you want to? Obviously Dan and I, we did a whole reading marathon. We read it. We love them.

[00:10:02] Did you guys read the books maybe beforehand or would you rather have the character been your own and like loyal to the script and then read the book afterwards or just not at all? Yeah, I got the books and the scripts at relatively the same time. And I was kind of trying to read them at the same time and learn the script and read the book. But that got way too confusing because of the books are actually, there are quite a like few different relationships in there. Like her father in the book is the one who brings me to town. And that completely changes that relationship.

[00:10:31] So I was like, I had to put the books away, finish filming all the movies and then I could go back and listen to the audio book. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I, it was kind of the way Hallmark does it. It is kind of a fast process between getting the role and then starting to film. So I got the role in December and flew to Canada January 10th.

[00:10:53] So I listened, I started listening to the audio book, but I then got insecure because in the book, Cora is blonde curly hair, blue eyes, like could not be more opposite to what I look like. And so I was like, I don't think that it's smart for me before doing this to like really delve in.

[00:11:16] And also because there's so much that is different in the books, the books are a hair spicier in terms of you all tried. You guys did for Hallmark. We did spice. Yeah, we did spice. But you know, there's like a scene when they first meet in the book where like Liam kind of cuts Cora's dress apart. And it's, it's not Hallmark.

[00:11:41] So I kind of was like, I want to really immerse myself in like the story we are doing there. I, you brought that up and I have to ask because for Hallmark, the, the scene with the dress, the scene with the chair where he pulls your chair closer, like these two types of scenes don't happen on. They don't, it's like, they just don't. How much went into Hallmark going? We have to keep our TVG rating or whatever, but we want to do this thing.

[00:12:09] Like, was there a lot of scrutiny around those scenes or did they just trust you guys to do this? I'm no, they, they definitely trusted us to do it. And I mean, one of the execs at Hallmark who was like in charge of our movie was like, it really excited about it. And she kept being like, I might get fired, but yeah. Wow.

[00:12:28] But, but I think that it was, I think that it's great that like, they're kind of like pushing the boundaries because I think like even just us seeing the response of these movies, it's like people like a little spice people, people enjoy it. Like avid Hallmark fans, like I haven't seen anything negative about those scenes. So I think that, you know, people are enjoying them. Yeah. Katie, you mentioned that you feel like you are different than the character that's in the book.

[00:12:54] Um, but it seems hearing you talk about it, that you got an offer, like a straight offer. You didn't have to audition for it. Do you, do you, did they tell you what they have seen you in before that stuck out to them that they said with this character for this special event, we need Katie? I mean, I assume that they had watched me on the bold type.

[00:13:15] I mean, my character on the bold type couldn't be more different than this, but I think just because I had been on a series before, they thankfully trusted me a bit, but I was happy that it was something that I had never really done before. Like I essentially got to play two different characters in this, which was really fun for me. But I didn't find out that I had to be Irish until I agreed. Nice.

[00:13:41] Um, and I remember the first time I had my dialect coaching session. I remember her being like, you're going to be fine. I mean, you had to audition for it with the accent. And I was like, no, I didn't. Um, so it was like really nerve wracking to me because I've never for anything that I've had to do. I've never had to do an accent. So I was, I'm really blessed and grateful that they trusted me and were like, you can do it. Yeah. And, and then I tried really hard.

[00:14:10] Lachlan, you get, uh, to play a fish out of water time traveler, basically not technically, but basically, um, one of the tough parts of this movie is, is walking the fine line of how much you understand and can deal with technology. So like, how do I, how do I use a cell phone versus not being surprised by the cars that are everywhere? Um, what I too thought he should be more shocked by. Yeah. Like I, it was, it's a tough, you, I feel like they, you know, home.

[00:14:39] That would take months. It would take months for me, but sometimes Hallmark wants to dumb it down a little bit where their audience doesn't have to work in any of this. Was there a discussion there, Lachlan on your end to go, Hey, if he's this confused by a cell phone, these skyscrapers are really going to throw him for a loop. Or were you just like, we don't have time. And by the way, you told you said it, uh, I guess a two part question now, cause it just flew into my funnel. But normally these movies take 15 days to film these three movies.

[00:15:08] How long was spent filming all three of them? So movie two and three, we both shot in 12 days each. Holy God. Um, and then movie one, we shot in 14 days and then we went to Ireland and we did three days of shooting in Ireland. Your homeland, of course. Yeah. My ancestral homeland. That's right. Yeah. Uh, and the, the Liam being, uh, being a fish out of water thing of it all. It was such a fun way to have a, to discuss everything on set.

[00:15:37] Cause what would he think about walking into the elevator? None of that stuff is scripted. Yeah. But I was just like, how is he interacting with this? And we had to exactly like you said for the pacing of the narrative, you just have to kind of get through that. And the way we got through that was, we said, Liam's a quick study. He, he is just, he's naturally got that thief like brain where he just reacts to things and he seizes his opportunities. And so when chief Boyd says, put on your seatbelt, he does a quick look. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Got that. Put it on.

[00:16:07] And, uh, otherwise, yeah, we would have spent an entire TV series of him being like walking around a grocery store being like, what? Look at all these potatoes. They're everywhere. Right. Yeah. I love the line when you walk in and you find out that your partner is, uh, going to be a female and the way that you responded to that. I wish there was like a few more of those little lines, just being surprised about how things were. Cause when you, when it happened, it, it worked.

[00:16:36] And I thought that that, like that scene where you guys bump into or meet each other for the first time and you, and you say that line about, but you're a, you're a woman was great. And it made me, made me laugh out loud. So I thought when it happened, when it hit, it hit, it hit real good. That's right. Yeah. We wanted to do more for sure. My favorite, my two favorites were when you say you're a constable. Yeah. I'm a constable. What? That was one of my favorites. And then my other favorite was when I'm like, are you going to get your phone?

[00:17:04] And you're like, Oh, I got it. It's just, yeah. Not answering. You guys also have an amazing for Hallmark. Normally after one and two, we're just trying to find some folks in Canada that are available. Uh, you guys have a great supporting cast here. Uh, you also get Nile Mader. Who's like a Hallmark veteran to get to really chew on being basically Satan in this movie.

[00:17:31] Um, and I, I have to ask like in your scenes with him, like we've watched this guy be the love interest in movies where he's wearing a cable knit sweater. And he's, you know, the small town, you know, coffee shop owner to watch him get to do this. First of all, how was that experience? Nile's the best. We've had him on the show, but also, I also have to ask you guys never say hell throughout this movie. You say angels, you say limbo, you say purgatory, you say the other side.

[00:17:59] What, what was that about? I mean, Nile's clearly from hell, right? He's clearly like straight from straight from hell. Was that, was that like a note or was that something you couldn't do? I didn't even ask to be honest. It just seemed so blatant on the paper that it was like, Hey, I guess we're not saying certain things. We spell it. Cause Agon says double hockey sticks. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:22] I think it's, I think it's just more so, you know, with, with the hallmark audience, you know, there are a lot of people that have certain beliefs and I think it's like out of, out of respect for that probably. But like he said, like, there was never really like a discussion about not saying it. It was just kind of like the lines were limbo and HG double hockey sticks on the other side.

[00:18:45] Like I always took when they were like the other side, it was like kind of, um, like a cheeky way to like say it without saying it. Cause you don't know who's hearing. And all right. Yeah. And what about Nile? But, but to Nile, did you even have a scene with Nile Katie? I did in the interrogation. Yes. Yes. That's right. He's the lawyer. And he was so good that I like actually did like, it was so great for my character.

[00:19:15] Cause I'm so angry at like how gas lit I'm being in that scene. And he was just God, everything he did in these movies, every scene, he just stole the show. He was amazing. He could see that he was a bit like a dog. He didn't let off the leash. Yeah. Yeah. Just relish the opportunity to just have this freedom and like do something completely different. Yeah.

[00:19:36] We were talking with Amitai and Amitai was talking about the, um, the scene where he's at the bar and the, the glass of fire. And he said that he was, he feels like his performance, it worked for it because everything Nile did Amitai and his brain was just like, that's a really nice choice. It was incredible. Yeah. He crushed it.

[00:20:01] Another hallmark staple that we got to see, uh, do something a little bit different, especially, uh, and the third movie movie is Maddie Finocchio. Yeah. Wonderful. So much fun. Um, and then to see kind of the, the, the twist at the end that he's kind of the baddie Finocchio. The baddie Finocchio. Yeah. Uh, I, I, we don't know Maddie. We haven't had him on the show. Put in a good word for us, but I imagine wonderful. He's the funniest person I know. Wow.

[00:20:26] We had, it was so hard to do scenes with him because I would just start laughing. I've never worked with an actor who is naturally so funny that he will just do a normal, like a completely normal line. And you'd be like, I need, I need a second. Yeah. There was a, so when we filmed, um, my death scene in Ireland and I'm laying on the ground there, they, they just had the shot where he comes up to me.

[00:20:54] It would be obviously after we find out he's bad and he takes the necklace off of me and my eyes were closed and he comes over me and he takes the necklace and he improvised just tanks love. And it was not him trying to be funny at all. My eyes were closed. I broke the tape by starting to laugh and he goes, what? And I said, I was literally just thinking of your face standing over my dead body and it made me laugh.

[00:21:23] Uh, so you know, like you killed me. Yeah. It's hilarious. Big fun. Wait, so you actually went to Ireland to shoot. And you still did it in 24, 38 total days for three movies, including Ireland. Yeah. We were in Ireland nine days total, but only three. I do love that. That's where Hallmark was like, we have to do that.

[00:21:52] People are going to know if these exteriors aren't in Ireland. That was a very interesting decision. Well, yeah, the, the outside of the, when we're doing like the fencing outside, that castle behind us is actually the castle we were shooting inside of. So where the stairwell was the drawing room, chorus room, like all of that was legit. Yeah. Did you even get to enjoy Ireland? That's a, such a quick trip. We sure did. Heck yeah. We sure did. I won't ask any follow up. Lachlan.

[00:22:21] Did you try out your accent on the, on the townies there? Did you go to a bar to go to a pub? Actually she did more. So she was, she was enjoying like just mingling with the locals in accent and everything. I had a couple of good like thumbs up that I got from them, from the people. The Irish people are so forward. Second they smell something. They'll just ask you about it. I remember we got into the car transport guy first day. He said, go, yes, you're doing an Irish accent. All right. And I'm like, yeah, I am. And he goes, all right, thank go for it. Yeah. Wow. Just straight in.

[00:22:51] Give it to me. Um, yeah, I decided that I was just going to fully immerse myself. So the second I got off the plane, I just decided that I was going to be Irish and I was. In a few days of fittings because I had so much wardrobe for Cora and like the second day that I was there, the wardrobe ladies were like, so we just found out you're not Irish. Good. And I was like, yes, that's right. It was great. Cause we had the whole crew there and everybody was in the accent.

[00:23:19] So it, in many ways, like made it easier. Cause we were like hearing it all the time. And we did have a dialect coach from Ireland on set with us who would come in and tell us like, Hey, this word, like watch out for this. And she like really didn't give us a ton of notes, which part of me was like, am I doing a good job or like, I would rather get notes, but it was, I mean, Ireland's incredible. I mean, you passed the test for us in the, in the comments over here in the double decker Facebook group.

[00:23:49] It's people who are like, correct. It was great. The whole movie and Lachlan. It's cause it's cause Katie went method. She said, I'm full Daniel day, Katie, Daniel day, Louis Stevens. And it worked. Uh, they said, she was getting a lot of method acting. You had to call her Cora for nine days in Ireland. It was a whole thing. Uh, now Lachlan, I'm not joking. When I say this, I was like everybody else, Maddie Finocchio, Katie Stevens. They speak with an American accent in the present day.

[00:24:14] They speak with an Irish accent in 1844, but Lachlan is just Irish the whole way purely because he, he's not, he's from Ireland. That's why I literally, I thought the reason you didn't switch is you're from Ireland. I, what I, I just, I, that isn't, I'm, I'm just kind of gobsmacked. That you're not. And then also you kept the accent at this point. Oh, thank you. I mean, the, the Irish accent is one that I haven't done before, but I, I, I like to do accents. I like to do impressions and characters and things like that.

[00:24:43] But the real kind of surprising thing is when you get the audition, you typically have 24 to 48 hours to submit it. And it says like, do two of the scenes in Irish accent. So that's the one where you really have to like speed learn it. And you're just kind of frantically finding Colin Farrell interviews on YouTube. And just figure it out. But yeah, no, the Irish accent was really fun. And the Irish people in particular over there was so embracing and so warm. And like, they would come up and say, you know, you wouldn't say this. You'd say it like that.

[00:25:11] But they wanted us to succeed because I think the Irish accent has been done poorly in the past by certain people. So they were really happy that we were trying our best. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I do want to talk a little bit about a little more about the spice of it all, because there's for Hallmark. You just there's crazy amounts. I want to talk about the the the table scene from the third movie, the chair pole pole,

[00:25:39] the moving the wine glass away so that he gets a little bit like how much of that is on the page versus how much of that is just you two playing and with the scene to try to make it as spicy as we can. Both of those things were not on the page. Holy cow. That's what I was. Come on. Come on. How about that was something that our director because we each each movie has like us like a spicy.

[00:26:08] Yeah, so movie one it was the zipper movie to it was the lake. Yeah, and then when we were doing movie three there really wasn't a spice scene. And so they were trying to figure out like how do we spice up this this dinner. And so Lucy, our director had the idea of like, I want him to pull the chair. And we were kind of like, yeah, but like what is prompting him to pull the chair.

[00:26:34] And so then we just decided that it was going to be like this really vulnerable moment. Maybe Cora touches his leg and then, you know, and the wine thing. I can't remember if that was a Lucy thing. I think it was good. She was she she was like, just like push it away from him. And then I just decided to do it like five times. Got to be honest with you, Katie. It doesn't really matter what prompted him to do that chair thing. It works. It works every time. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

[00:27:03] You could do that in every movie and everyone would be like, hey, he did the chair thing again. It was great. Lucy guest shout out to Lucy going for some DGA nod here. That's fantastic. Incredible. Can I ask you guys about the love triangle? Because if I had a disappointment, which I talked about in the third episode, which is not out yet and you guys haven't heard it yet, it's I never really you guys. Your chemistry was so good. I didn't ever feel as though there was a legitimate chance that that Liam had had an opportunity.

[00:27:32] Like I know that Evan Roderick is an a bona fide Hallmark lead. I also know that it's Finn's job to push Cora to Liam. But the movie flip that. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's okay. Sorry. Fin and Liam. It's complicated. It's tough. It's hard, man. But they never. I do feel like Hallmark has this unwritten agreement with the audience that they you can't question too much. Who's going to end up together at the end of the thing like you just can't.

[00:28:00] And so if there was a punch pulled in this thing, it was you two were always kind of meant to be together. Like and that's the that's the real story of what we're telling and the love triangle of it. I had not met a single person who was who was so he's Liam. He's he's Liam. Yeah, I never met a single person that was team Finn. Like I didn't meet anybody that was like, no, I hope Cora and Finn and up together.

[00:28:23] And even with the devil, the literal devil, they're going, if Cora and Finn don't eat them together, then it's really good for me, even with that. And so, like, was that like, did that weigh on you guys? Or did you guys just kind of know from the beginning love triangles? Maybe not the right term for what's going on here. Yeah, no, it's yeah, it's all interesting thoughts. Definitely things that we discussed as well. Yeah, I mean, it's funny because I mean, we shoot so much like there's so much.

[00:28:53] When we watch the cut because it has to be what, like 83 minutes and 55 seconds or something. So like we shot so many things that didn't end up in the movies. Sure. But I think that it's nice to have options. But we we I think Finn had the disadvantage that like they show Cora and Liam's love story in Ireland. You know, they already are getting you kind of primed and rooting for him.

[00:29:20] But like we me and Evan always were kind of getting the note of like, obviously, we all know that she's going to end up with Liam. But like we need we need this to seem like, well, he could be a viable option. And I do read people being like, he's a great guy. And like, yeah, she could end up with him. But like, it's not it. And I think think that was more the point.

[00:29:44] That's like, I think that it was more so not to not to really have people thinking she's going to end up with Finn, but to kind of have you have that conflict of like, yeah, he's a good guy. And she like could be with him and be really happy. But it's just not right. Yeah. Do you I have not read the books transparently. But from what I hasn't read a book, that's I know. I know. This is a shocker of the year. It's going to really throw people off hearing that I didn't read the book. But it does.

[00:30:12] From what I gather, it seems like the stakes for not ending up with Finn were higher in the book than what it seemed like in the movie, which in the movie and you this was part of the confusion on my end. What what were the stakes for not ending up with Finn? Was it that the the foundation would not flourish? Right. You're totally right.

[00:30:40] Like I've I was confused about this until until even like months after filming where I'm kind of like I can see and it's it's a bit of a stretch, but this is where I've I've landed on it. It does pull from the book a little bit. But Korra, the whole thing of like history repeating itself, history will continue to repeat itself unless we do this one like we follow this one faded path.

[00:31:05] And that one faded path, the key like junction, the nexus, if you will, is Korra has to be with somebody who's truly, truly good in their in their spirit in order for her to break the chain of history events. So even if she was with someone who's okay, just a good guy, not dangerous or anything, she might still die young. The foundation might never get off out of its like grassroots level and it might just be like sort of two community centers as opposed to this worldwide thing.

[00:31:34] So they were kind of like, no, no, you need to be with someone truly good who regardless of who that person is, that will just be the thing that keeps you on your good path and you live a long life and you produce this thing that will save many lives. So that's kind of where I landed on. I like that explanation a lot more. The breaking of the historical cycle is really keeping Korra alive past a young age. OK, got it. Makes sense. You guys were filming this and you don't have neither of you.

[00:32:04] We got one line over here. I don't want to discredit the one line on Hallmark, but really good. One. I'm going to say you crushed it. You walked her down the aisle. It was a big deal. Emily Osmond is wonderful. National treasure. We get it. Awesome. You guys just for the sake of this question, let's say you'd neither of you really have been on Hallmark before you're making this thing from the opening scene. We have 1500 episodes of deck. The Hallmark. We've watched so many made for TV movies. It's borderline criminal from the opening scene of this.

[00:32:33] It doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like Hallmark. Now we do hit some Hallmark beats and I think we've covered that and that's awesome. And that was necessary. But from the opening scene, this feels very different. It qualitatively feels several steps above what you're going to get during normally during the August, September months on the Hallmark channel where they, you know, sometimes pull some acquired stuff or some lower budget stuff while filming. What like your baseline is nothing. I understand that.

[00:32:59] But were the notes you were getting or was the feeling you were getting that this was you guys were really trying to do something different for the network or clearly you guys all got together. I don't know if you said that when we were recording or not, but you said you guys all got together in Nashville to watch the first one like three or four of you did, which is so cool. So you clearly were really close. Did you have this you you two and then the Agon actor? I've not seen in much. He may have been in some other stuff, but I've not seen him in much.

[00:33:26] But you did you have this feeling while you're, you know, sometimes you hear these stories of we're filming this movie and it just felt special. Did you have this feeling that this really was something that you guys were really going to be proud of and it was going to be different or because your baseline was nothing for Hallmark? Did you have more of a let's wait and see approach? Great question. Well, I mean, I, I have done things in my career where I'm doing them and I know they're not going to be great.

[00:33:56] So looking up your IMDB right now, Katie, keep going whenever you're ready. No, no, no, no, no. But but but doing this, I will say, like, I think the the connections that we had, even just like sitting in Video Village and just seeing the way they were lighting it and the like shadows on people's faces and like allowing there to be kind of just mess.

[00:34:20] Yeah, felt very different because even though I've never been in a Hallmark before I've seen them, so I could I could see that it was different. Um, so I think, yeah, like I was excited to see it, but you always have nerves because especially with it being Hallmark and especially with us having shot some things that were a little spicier and pushing boundaries for Hallmark. I was nervous about what was going to get cut. Like, I was scared that chair pull was going to be cut.

[00:34:49] I was scared that zipper was going to be cut like any of those things that I was like, this is pushing the envelope and this is going to be really great. I was scared that those things were maybe at risk of being on the cutting room floor. So I was very excited when we were able to watch it and see that they really stuck to their guns and wanted to make something that felt special. How much? How much? Sorry, go ahead. Lachlan.

[00:35:15] Oh, I was just gonna say I found it like really difficult actually guys to get the hang of what we were actually making to find the tone and the genre, especially stepping in. I was trying to learn this Hallmark curve. I was also trying to learn this romantic lead genre curve. So I hadn't done any of that before.

[00:35:35] So I was making a lot of mistakes with my instincts that like was getting corrected by our very trustworthy directors and EPs and stuff being like, oh, it's more like this. It's more like that. But then we had some EPs who were really pushing for the spice, like pushing that to be the main thing. Yeah. And then you have other ones who are maybe more network focused, who are sending like word down the line to be like, well, we want to focus on this as well.

[00:36:01] So there was a, there was a lot of maybe even sometimes contradicting opinions on just how to do it. Because like you said, this doesn't slot into any existing category amongst Hallmark or amongst other things. So it's kind of like, we had a bunch of people who didn't really know specifically what the end product wanted to be. And so we would try to mold that the whole time. And for me being in the middle of it, getting a couple of different instructions, I was kind of like, well, but then I just gave myself over and trusted our directors and our producers.

[00:36:30] Yeah. I mean, yeah, that, that was difficult to like figure out. Cause I, I struggle with exposition and I know that that's like a big thing of Hallmark is you can't, you can't show everything. So like a lot of, I didn't struggle when it was like things that were the love story or like relationships because they felt really natural to me.

[00:36:55] I really struggled with the cop stuff, the cop jargon, the cop jargon. And like, because, because it was such a like complex, like case and everything. And so getting that to stick in my brain, I was like, I can't remember this like me. So we had a lot of people who were like helping me through that. Well, also the, the problem is the lead, the, the jewelry store crime is just not as interesting because everything else is so interesting.

[00:37:24] Yeah. The jewelry store is not helping you with your zipper. Like that. You know what I mean? Like, it's just like, well, the jewelry store is not an 1844. No, no, no. It's just, it's not, it's not a rant. So that also probably you're like, all right, we got to, this is the scene we got to choose through. You know what I mean? We got to get it right, but we still have to, you know, do this thing so we can do the other thing. I want to, you, you've talked a little bit about the direction of the movies. Uh, did Lucy, did she direct all, all three movies?

[00:37:49] Um, no, we had a direct different director, Siobhan, um, for movie two and she was also incredible. We got very lucky, but Lucy did, um, one and three. I, I, this is probably like a question for Lucy and we'd love to have her on the show at some point, but I think she's done a handful of homework movies that are also, kind of different while still kind of playing in the sandbox of, of Hallmark.

[00:38:16] How much did like, how much did Hallmark let her kind of just like, just let her cook, let her cook, let Lucy cook. Cause it does really feel like with, especially the past couple of years with her that they've really kind of entrusted her to, to make something special. Was she the kind of their, like, we want Lucy to do this because we want it to be different than what we're kind of used to on the network.

[00:38:40] I think so. Yeah. And especially coming from Joanna and Kate, who were like the EPs, they, they brought the book to Hallmark and had it produced. But I think they picked Lucy because they were on the same wavelength. They really wanted to, to push the boundary and to execute on those steamy scenes and to get us there and just see what happens. See if the audience would like it. And they kind of were hedging their bets that people would like that.

[00:39:04] Yeah. And I mean, she also, I mean, both her and Siobhan, but like Lucy, the fact that she finished movie one, we, we shot until like three, four o'clock in the morning, finishing movie one. She immediately drove to the airport on no sleep to fly to Ireland, like five days before any of us got there, landed in Ireland and just immediately started working, like scouting locations and doing all this.

[00:39:31] Like she was so invested probably to like a, like sleep def deprivation state, but she just was so passionate about these. And really, I think that they gave her a lot of, they trusted her a lot to be able to cook. She's made some, some of the better Christmas movies. Yeah. Santa class seal with a list. That's got our boy Evan Roderick in it as well. Shout out Evan.

[00:39:56] We need to have you both back on individually so we can do our traditional rapid fire round, which, you know, I don't know how we would do that here. I do have a question about another work for each of them. Okay, sure. And I'll ask them both at once. Lachlan, you were in the Murdaugh murders with Bill Pullman and that's from my home state of South Carolina. So how dare you? And then Katie, no, I do. I would love to know your experience there and working with Bill Pullman.

[00:40:21] And then Katie, you played the daughter of Catherine Willows on CSI, a show that I grew up watching and like Thursday nights at our house. And like, so big deal when that came back around and when it came back again, did you understand just what was part of undertaking a character that had been on, you know, the daughter of a character that had been on television for, you know, decades? Oh, how big of a deal that was. Oh yeah.

[00:40:48] I remember when I booked that the first time around, it was like 2014 and they were doing kind of like a two hour end of the series finale. And that's always interesting to just like be the guest. And everybody like, I mean, everybody was just so lovely and like sitting with them at lunch and just watching them and being like, holy moly, you guys have like years and years and years and years and years of history with each other.

[00:41:17] And like, this is like your goodbye. And I kind of get to be a fly on the wall for that. And they were all just so lovely and helpful and wonderful, like kind of parading me through the process. But then in 2022, I got a call that they were like, we're bringing it back and we're bringing you back for a scene. And it was like now I was no longer think my character like left CSI because I was like a forensic tech.

[00:41:46] And I left CSI and for some reason now I do only fans. And my mom really like who poos on my new lifestyle. We had a scene where like her and I like get into like a big fight at a restaurant and yeah, it was so dramatic. That was the opposite of what CSI was growing up. There was none of the character. It was all like just the case. So that's wild. Yeah. And then Lachlan, tell me about working on Murdoch.

[00:42:15] It was great. I mean, I, Bill Pullman was just the dad like on all the movies growing up and then you meet him and you're like, are you my dad? Yeah. I don't know, but no, he's this, the nicest guy on the planet and another fun accent to kind of like dive into a little bit. And, and yeah, I mean a tragic story. Like when I watched that documentary, I felt like actually sick. Yeah.

[00:42:41] But, um, an important one to tell and they're doing it. They're doing it again. They're doing a HBO version or Apple version with Jason Clark. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. There's not enough real murder out there. So let's just do it again. Let's run it back. Let's run it back. And I will say this one. I understand if the donations to the charity are high enough, Lachlan will do the entire Bill Pullman speech from Independence Day. That's what I heard. Um, you know, I'm ready. He's ready for it. He honestly will.

[00:43:09] I want to, uh, I have one more question, uh, about the show and I will ask Lachlan, if you could do this whole thing in a Southern accent, this, that that'd be really good for me personally. Did you have to do a South Carolina accent for your part in that?

[00:43:29] Yeah. Well, yeah. The character I played was the best friend of the son of Alec Murdoch. Um, and I had to, the good thing about him was there was the body cam, the police body cam footage was 90% of my scenes. And so I was just in that instance, I wasn't trying to learn an accent. I was literally just trying to mimic him because the script was pretty much.

[00:43:50] Interesting. Okay. Okay. I need to watch it. I watched a documentary on it, but I haven't watched the movie. If it's from my home state, I typically stay away from the reenactments just because I'm like, dude, we got enough problems around here. I don't need to watch somebody reenact one of our problems. Yeah. But I was going to give you, I can go back and try to give you a hard time about your accent if you'd like.

[00:44:10] Yeah, we'll do it retroactively. Um, but this is, this is the question. Obviously the, the movie, uh, the special events, sorry, ends with a flash forward one year. You guys are apparently married, which when I found that out, I was kind of bummed because it feels like at that point, this is done. Like what, what more is there to tell?

[00:44:30] Well, it do you, but this obviously has happened, uh, a handful of times your, your, your, your, your destinies keep, and there's the things and the stuff and the fate of it all. Do you, is there any, any chatter betwixt the people of like, Hey, maybe let's, let's get to gang back together, tell a different story from a different time or whatever, because these two characters are so interesting.

[00:44:55] And I think that there could be more to, uh, examine, uh, maybe, maybe a one-off, I don't know, maybe a one-off special event. What's the, what's the word? Yeah. I mean, nothing official. We are like flooded with people saying, make this a series, you know? Um, I mean, I think we all would love to do it again. Like we had the best time ever. I keep trying to think of like, what, what story it could be.

[00:45:22] Like mine is my thing is we never see bail, like fuming over the fact that he's lost. Thank you. Yeah. We talked about this in the episode. I was so angry. I didn't get a scene where Niall Mader went postal on everybody. So, so for me, I'm like, there could be a world in which like, he's mad and breaks into the department of destiny. I also want to watch a spinoff on, um, what the history between bail and smell is. Sure.

[00:45:53] They have some chemistry. Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I, I'm like, maybe like he goes into the department of destiny and he like foils something back in Ireland more so selfishly. Cause I'd like to go back to Ireland and do that stuff again. And, and my thing is, I think that in this version of the story, Aegon sends Cora and Liam back, but Cora has all her present day memories and Liam does not.

[00:46:20] So then it's like little outlander modern woman having to try to be a 1844 girly. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah. I like the idea that bail gets, uh, he plucks Maddie Pinocchio out of the, out of limbo before he makes his way down and brings him back. Cause we, we need, we need to see some more chief boy being bad. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. We're never going to complain about more Maddie Pinocchio. Yeah. Can I ask a really specific question? No. Okay. Go ahead. You want me to?

[00:46:50] Yeah, go for it. Um, did Cora get reincarnated as, as baby? Were you, were you baby? This is a good question. This is a good question. Thank you. Cause I did listen to that episode of your podcast. Yeah. We didn't know. Um, I guess in my brain, I don't know. Okay.

[00:47:13] I, I think I, I think I was thinking of it as like, they just got kind of have gotten placed here with all of these memories of a life that they may or may not have like gone all the way through. Hmm. Like, I think that it's, I think that it's more so that like, okay, we've placed all of them here. They all have memories of their time on earth present day. Like Cora has memories of like being a kid and all of that.

[00:47:41] And obviously Cora doesn't have her accent, which would mean that there are obviously past memories that would establish that. Yes. So I guess the way that I was, I mean, not that I even had to play that aspect of the story at all. Um, but in my brain story wise, I was like, maybe cause there was a whole thing of her and Suzette knowing each other for this amount of time. So for me, I'm like, I think that I've been down there as long as maybe Suzette has been down there. Cause when I got placed on earth, maybe bail placed her.

[00:48:11] Right. Yeah. So that's my, that's my thought. Okay. I like that. I just had a great idea. Uh, Brandon and I have been trying to figure out a way to get a little television show. We love called early edition back on the air. Do you guys, if you guys ever heard of a television program called early edition? No. Okay. So early edition, buckle up. Uh, Kyle Chandler, who's the football coach and Friday night lights. You guys know Kyle Chandler? Before that, Kyle Chandler, uh, basically is a guy who lives in Chicago and he gets tomorrow's newspaper today. Yeah. He delivered by a cat. Delivered by a cat.

[00:48:41] It's not important. Yes. Yes. Okay. And then he basically helps someone in need or stop something from happening. Depart you guys now. Okay. You see where I'm going. Uh huh. So the basically there is this, this, uh, spiritual supernatural argument between the angels and the other side. If we give this person another chance, are they going to do the same thing again? So you guys know ahead of time that this crime was going to be committed and they send this,

[00:49:08] they give this person another chance and Niall is down there trying to get them to commit the crime again. The angels are trying to stop it. And you guys are there trying to facilitate a change in behavior so that they can stay on earth. Cause you're, you've proven that it can happen. And it's a Liam's character is proof that someone can change. So let's use that. It's serialized. It's episodic. It's procedural. Sign up right now. I mean, I'm already detectives. That's right. Yeah.

[00:49:37] See, but then I get sad. Cause then where's the love story in that? Well, I think we, the big problem, Katie is. You're going to make me do more cop jargon. Uh, no, we could get you another accent. I think would be the best. No, I think the problem is the flash forward without the flash forward. This makes sense. Cause you guys are in love and it seems like you're going to stay in love. But I mean, Evan Roderick's still in the office, you know, who knows? We don't know. It's still possible. Uh, but with the flash forward, it does make,

[00:50:07] I was bummed to find out that you got, the flash forward was a downer. I gotta be honest, like from a standpoint of watching these and wishing it was a TV series that was 10 episodes long where you got some more character development, the last 30 minutes felt kind of rushed to me in a way that I felt like if you had had 10 episodes, you could have really made this up something where people could pull for both sides and, you know, really want you guys to be together like a, you know, like some of those proper will they want days that we have in the cultural zeitgeist here.

[00:50:36] So, uh, the flash forward does hurt my plan, but I'm just trying to get early edition back on the year. That's all I'm doing. Thank you. You know? Yeah. Did we do it? I think we did it. How about we do one quick rapid fire and it is, I was going to say, I love it. We love a game. So I just want to know, it's just questions that are like the ones we've been asking, but not about movies. Yeah. Great. Let's do it. Let's do what's your favorite meal in Nashville, Katie. Hmm. You'd have to give me a cuisine. Okay.

[00:51:05] What's your favorite hot chicken in Nashville? Hattie B's. Hattie B's better than princess. In my opinion. Yes. Okay. It is better than princess. Oh, Lachlan, do you have a dog in there? Have you, you've, I hope have been to. I've been to Nashville. I'm not a spice guy, but I did try some chicken. It was delicious. Did you go, did you go to Hattie B's and get chicken? No spice. You got a little spice, like mild. We didn't, we didn't go to Hattie B's. We went to acne. Yeah. Okay. Yep.

[00:51:35] Cause they have a very good, uh, hot chicken sandwich there. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Little spice. Very little spice. Okay. There are two princes locations in the country. One's in Nashville. One's in Greenville. Did you know that? Oh yeah. The owner came down here and set it up because of yeehaw brewing setting up here and they were doing a thing. And they, so we have a princes down the street here. That's right. Well, and now there's a princes and a Hattie B's in the airport. Oh, look at that. You just need to know what you're getting immediately. If you need indigestion. That's right. Yeah. Right away. Right away.

[00:52:05] Um, what, what are your early additions? What show would you like to see come back? Firefly. Firefly. Yeah. Firefly. The Joss Whedon. Nathan Fillion one. That was my favorite. Maybe Stargate. Ooh. I'm a sci-fi guy. Clearly. Yeah. I don't know because I feel like every show that I love, I want it to like stay where it is. Oh, that's how I am. Yeah.

[00:52:35] After the end of Stranger Things. We're just in such a heavy, like remake. It is. Guys. I feel like that was, that was something that I, I loved about this was it felt original. Like, I don't mind IP if it's like a book or something, but I'm like some things like, I remember I had read something a couple of years ago that they were toying with remaking the princess bride. And I said, how dare you? How dare you? That's right. You don't touch anything. That's perfect. That's true. So, um,

[00:53:02] so I guess I would say I will rewatch the original. How about that? What, what's the, that's where I am. I have to season one of Stranger Things. I've said this for forever. When it finished, I was like, they shouldn't, they should leave it alone. It's just perfect. Don't, don't make any more. And now they've just made the same season over and over again. Uh, if you're going to go Hallmark's clearly going to call you guys again, we're just going to happen. Um, are you, are you, what would you like to do next on Hallmark that would break genre barriers?

[00:53:29] Is there something you'd like to do that you've not done before that would be great on Hallmark? Am I getting one line or am I a lead? Well, I'm going to talk to Emily Osmond. We'll see what happens. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we can get you a full, a full game. But you got to do South Carolina accent. That's right. Ooh, I like it. I'll take it on. Okay. Yeah. It's good. I feel like we like ticked a lot of boxes for me with this. Like I've always wanted to do a period piece, maybe just something that is true period and just stays in the period.

[00:53:58] First Hallmark horror starring Katie Stevens, Lachlan. Oh my gosh. Could, could do that. Could do that. I have been known to be a screen queen. I love it. Oh, there you go. Yeah. I, I don't know. That's a tough, tough. Anything to break the genre is, can we do a Hallmark in space? Yes. Hallmark sci-fi. They're not ready. Interstellar Hallmark. Yeah. Astronauts or something like that. I like that. I like that a lot. Or like, like Hallmark game of Thrones.

[00:54:28] Oh, okay. Like a medieval, a medieval. Medieval. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think Hallmark in space is more likely. Hallmark in space is more likely than Hallmark in thrones. Yeah. Yeah. Only so many chairs you can pull. You know what I mean? You said it, brother. You said it. You have to pull a chair in space. Yeah. Yeah. What's your go-to movie theater candy? Oh, that's a good question. Got me this. Milk duds. Milk duds. Milk duds. Let's go. Didn't see it coming. All right.

[00:54:58] Yeah. One more. Lachlan, you can be, since Katie doesn't like reboots, you, your favorite, you're going to be the lead in one sci-fi property that you love that is being rebooted. You're going to be the lead in it. One, it can be a movie. Like Katie wants in now. A Kubrick or a Nolan movie. I do want it. It can be a TV show. Then this is an all play. It's for both of you. One of the ones from your childhood, you get to be the lead. It's a full reboot. You are choosing. What is it? I don't want it to change at all. I just, I just,

[00:55:27] I just get to be in it. Yeah. And then I wanted to finish. I wanted to be exactly the same, but I want to experience making that show. It's lost. Okay. All right. Answer. Yeah. Which character would you be? I would love nothing more than to say Sawyer, but I think I'm a Jack. Yeah. I think Jack would be it. Yeah, for sure. I think the ending of that show is great. And I'm, I'm a little bit in the minority there, but I love it. I love it. That's what I'm talking about. I've never watched lost.

[00:55:58] And when we started working together, he said that it was a show that like shaped him as human. I was like, all right, all right, lost. I watched lost. We would wrap at like 11 PM and I would stay up until like three in the morning, watching lost. Cause I couldn't stop. It has that effect. So good. I finished it in like three weeks. It was honestly crazy. Yeah. And then, um, my rap gift to him. You can share. She got me a cameo from, uh,

[00:56:28] from a lovely lost actor. And I fell to the floor. We have to say which one. Oh man. He had said to me, see you in another life brother. And I fell to the floor. Wow. How thoughtful is that though? That's how you do a cameo. Instead. Instead, what I did was I got Mr. Feeney from boy meets world for brand, his favorite show. But I told him that brain had lost his Christmas spirit and he needed a pep talk. Which is just not true. It's not true. It's the furthest thing from the truth.

[00:56:58] And now that's the thing that Feeney knows about me is something that's not true. He's Feeney's 99 years old. And he's like, what about that one guy that lost his Christmas spirit? Katie, Katie, what was your, your, your reboot? You want to be the lead in? Um, it's like, it's, I wouldn't say it's from my childhood cause it's not, but it is, I will go down saying it's one of the best shows I've ever watched. I would unfortunately need to learn German, but I would want to be in dark. It's amazing.

[00:57:28] Katie Stevens, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, I don't know what else to tell you. She's all of her opinions are correct. Wow. It's, um, it's honestly, I think it's just brilliant. Like the storytelling, the, like the, how intentional it was. There's a reason for everything. Like, I think that's my problem with like some reboots or things that like go longer than they probably anticipated was you can just tell when they're like, like, we just didn't know what to do at this point. Yeah.

[00:57:57] And that show is just like, they pitched it and said, it's going to be three seasons, three seasons only. This is everything that's going to happen. And we're done. Can I tell you about the thing that got me on dark was I had to turn the dub on because I always want to watch it in its original language with the subtitles. The, yes, I had to, because I felt like when I was reading the subtitles, I was missing very important visual aspects of the show.

[00:58:27] It's the only foreign language, anything on around here and I get yelled at the only foreign language. No, not the subtitles subtitles off the audio dub. I know. I love an audio. I hate that's just, that's an absolute bastardization of the show. But for this one show, I was reading the subtitles and I was, I felt like I was losing information visually. And so like, well, that's why you just have to rewatch it a couple of times. Yeah. I guess I could do that. All the way through. Yeah.

[00:58:56] I have one more question. All of these have been really good. Let's get to the serious stuff. Have you ever lost anything and then never found it? Interesting. Lenty. Really? Like, just like things. Yeah. They hate this question. but let's get to my mind. It's a bad question. Your mind is a great, a great answer. Yeah. Yeah. I bought a, I bought a nice sweater when I was in Tokyo and then we went out and we did, we did karaoke and I left it there. Oh,

[00:59:25] I got to wear it for about three hours and then I never. Oh, that's the worst. If anybody listening in Tokyo right now has seen Lachlan sweater. Yeah. Is it one of those? Let us know. It was in one of those karaoke rooms in Tokyo, Japan. One of them. Hopefully you can find one. Do you have a really quick question? uh, B, uh, go to karaoke song. He said it. Go to karaoke song. It's a follow. Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. Yeah, dude. Are you kidding me? Well, yeah, we did.

[00:59:53] That was one of our cast bondings was we did a pub crawl in Dublin and ended up at late night carrier. Yeah, you did. Katie Stevens is anything that you could imagine is like the most difficult song in the world to sing. You just like, you've just put that on and she's like, Oh, great. Yeah, I can, I can nail that. And then she will. And then no one will sing again. Perfect. Perfect. Um, I sang, uh, it's all coming back to me now by Celine Dion. Cause I also felt like it was,

[01:00:20] I also felt like it was very appropriate to our story because you know, Cora, things are coming back to her. You started talking karaoke. And of course, in our chat over here, we do a festival here in Greenville every year and we end the festival with karaoke. We always bring a few actors in and now everyone's requesting kindly that you guys join us next year in July. So mark your calendars and come on down. Cool, cool, cool. Invitation formally given. They only carry on. Go ahead. I was going to say, can I ask you guys a quick question?

[01:00:50] Yeah, yes, we, in our one, obviously we've already talked about, we tried to do same, same, but different. Like the hallmark channel has cultivated this wonderful audience. Like that we've been interacting with who love the genre, love the tone of the network. And it's, it's always sort of like a procedural type thing of putting these shows out. They're called, they're kind of always same, same, but different. And we tried to lean more into the different than the same, same,

[01:01:19] keeping those like hallmark beats. Do you want to see more stuff like ours that is kind of pushing the boundary, but staying in the world? Or do you want to, or do you like, do you want to keep in that world and just kind of keep mixing it up? It's a pass for me, Lachlan. I thought, I don't know, it's a pass. I'm kidding. It was amazing. But, but more of this, but you also like, I know. So I don't want, I don't want all different. I want complicated questions for us to, because you would say you need, you need your good Mac and cheese. You need your,

[01:01:49] the movies that feel like they're 10 years old and you need at least a few dozen of those a year. Yes. Yeah. 100%. I never want to see one of those again. Okay. Like, like in, in, in 2021 ish, 2020, 21, we started seeing occasional Christmas movies that I was like, this feels like there's a Hanukkah movie came out a few years ago called round and round. It stars Vic Michaelis. They're on, they're on dropout. They're an improv genius. Vic Michaelis is in this movie.

[01:02:18] Brian Greenberg's in this movie. Great cast. It's a, it's a time loop rom-com around. Amatized in that movie. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, he is. And that's where I'd seen him before. It is the best Hallmark movie that's ever been made. It is phenomenal. I, when we like over the last four years, you can see Hallmark doing this thing where they know who they have and they don't want to lose them, but they also know who they would like to get to watch. And they're trying to do both. Every time we get a big swing,

[01:02:48] I love it. And in fact, sometimes there are movies that take a big swing and they miss. And I would much prefer you take a big swing on an eight of 10 difficulty than make a 10 of 10 movie. That was a three of 10 difficulty. That doesn't do anything for me. I, I just watched too many of these movies to be impressed by. There's a movie. We got a screener for that's coming out in a couple of weeks with stars that we love. And as a spoiler alert to literally our people that are listening to this, that will maybe figure it out.

[01:03:17] I watched that movie. The stars we've had them both on the show. They're amazing. They did an amazing job and they have some scenes that I'm like, man, this is great. It's a movie Hallmark would have made 10 years ago. They make a 10 of 10 movie on a three of 10 difficulty level. That is all well and good. What you guys did was like, Hey, Outlander was a thing like Hallmark literally was like, Hey, Outlander. That's how I imagined this pitch happening. Outlander was a thing. What if we did Outlander for Hallmark? And there,

[01:03:45] I guarantee you half their voices in the room were like, we can't do Outlander for Hallmark. And then you guys found a way to do it. You have to make a synthesis. So you have to take thesis and antithesis to make synthesis. So it's going to, it's going to have the bones. It's going to, I minored in film and I'm that like, I'm that snobby about it. There's no way I can talk about it without sounding like just an a-hole, but there's, there's going to be this thing where you have to have what the normal was and

[01:04:14] the thing that is the opposite. And I love for that thing. That's the opposite to be as out there as possible. And so my, most of my frustration with the Providence Falls movies was, I didn't think it had enough room to breathe. I thought you could have, you could have had more, you know, for what you did in the time you had, I like, that's what I want. I want both of you guys with your next script to just be like, can we do this instead? Can we do this instead? Can we put like, I'm that guy. Whereas I know when it's coming to 10 or 12 movies a year, I'll see the movie.

[01:04:44] And I'm like, my buddy brand's going to love this movie. Yeah. And that's just not where I am. But so yeah, you're not going to please both of us, but you can, but you will. Cause I, I also need some of the, the different too. Yeah. You're not going to upset me at all. Super interesting. Well, you got questions for us. We're here for them. No, I was, I was curious to that. I think, yeah, I think you guys probably are those two ideas of making up the two 50% of the entire audience. Right.

[01:05:13] And so you, you want to please both and you want to also have the, the ones that are mystery. Like I just tune in for the mystery or I just tune in for the romance or whatever you want to kind of, and that's what we were. I think we were trying to get as many of those Venn diagram crossover audiences that we could. Yeah. Yeah, you did. You guys, for the first lead for both of you on Hallmark, couldn't have gone better. You guys really did a great job. Thank you so much. Absolutely. We can't wait for your next one. I'm speaking for myself. I hope it's a Christmas one. Personally,

[01:05:43] I'd like to see you both in a Christmas movie. You guys need to announce you booked a Christmas movie. No, nothing yet. All right. We'll see what we can do with our big poll. Yes, that's right. This was so much fun. We loved it. We can't wait to have you back individually to dive into even more of your filmography. It's going to be a lot of fun in the future. Until then, maybe the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. Deck the Hallmark is a Bramble Jam podcast is produced by Aaron Shea. What? For more information on Deck the Hallmark, you can go to deckthehallmark.com.

[01:06:12] For more information on the Deck the Hallmark family, you can go to bramblejamplus.com. Deck the Hallmark is presented by Philo TV. For a free trial of Philo, go to philo.tv slash DTH. You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio. Thanks for listening or don't listen. It's really up to you at this point. It's at the end of the show. I mean, you're listening to me. Hi,

[01:06:41] but here they come. I promise they're coming. Yep. Here they are. Happy day. Happy day. Happy day. Happy day. Thank you.