[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
Hallmark faves, real-life close friends, and ardent Alzheimer’s Association advocates Andrew Walker and Ashley Williams team up onscreen for the first time this Saturday in Jingle Bell Run. Directed by Lucie Guest and written by Tom McCurrie and Stephanie Sourapas, the ensemble film follows an elementary school teacher and former NHL star who are paired up to compete against other paired contestants in an Amazing Race-style, Christmas-themed competitive reality show. Earlier this week, I chatted with Walker about the project – his 32nd Hallmark film as a lead if my math is right, last month’s Countdown to Christmas “Jingle Stop Tour,” and next week’s second Hallmark Christmas Cruise.
Last spring, Walker had just banked filming the Three Wise Men and a Baby sequel, Three Wiser Men and a Boy (premiering Thanksgiving weekend) when the Jingle Bell Run script was sent his way. “I didn’t think I was going to work with Ashley for a long time. It was a pairing that came out of the blue. I had done Three Wiser Men and a Boy, and I thought that was gonna be my only Christmas movie this year. I was very pleasantly surprised hearing it was with Ashley, because when I was working with Paul [Campbell], he was rolling into Falling Together with her,” he recalls.
“She texted me and said, ‘Hey, did you, did you hear? We’re gonna be working together after this movie I do with Paul.’ We had been discussing some opportunities potentially to do some unscripted stuff together for the streaming platform, but this was amazing to be able to work with Ashley and do a movie like this, too.”
“This was perfect for our personalities. And I don’t think they could have written two characters that embodied who we were as people better than this movie. Even though I do hear from some people that watched it that they said that they didn’t realize I had a douchebag side,” he laughs. [I direct those people to his pre-Hallmark Lifetime library, a bunch of which is streaming on Tubi].
Their real-life friendship lent itself to them finding the right balance as their characters fall in love. “We’re really good friends in real life. And her boys are really good friends with my boys. I’m close with her husband [producer Neal Dodson] now. And so coming in knowing that we had to move the love story along in the movie was interesting for us to plot out,” he explains.
“Every Hallmark movie is kinda like this. Nikki [DeLoach] and I work like this, as well. It’s pretty formulaic in the way that [by] page 25 [in the script], we should be moving things along a little farther. By page 40, things should be even moved along even further. Obviously Ashley’s a director as well, so she’s very smart in the way that these things should work within the confines of the script.”
“So we would approach it in a formulaic kind of way. And then once we knew that we had to do something specific or move that story along, specifically in an area, we would say, ‘Okay, let’s just throw caution to the wind and let the sparks fly here and connect with each other in a romantic way and see what happens.'”
“It felt like it fit the movie because these two people, it was opposites attract, an NHL hockey player and an elementary school teacher. And these two people never thought that there would be a world in which they would fall for each other at all. Until he started realizing, ‘Wow, I’m in love with her. I think she’s beautiful, but also her brains and the way she approaches things and the way she approaches life and how good of a person she is. And then she saw through the cracks in Wes. And so it was a different approach to any other movie that I’ve worked with an actress before.”
Walker also navigated the aforementioned douchebag potential as his character agrees to help manipulate the relationship for the camera – to a point – and he explains that’s part of the whole reality TV game. “That’s the delicate dance that we’re doing here. Everyone knows nowadays that these reality shows try to play up the drama. The person who might be the villain in a Bachelorette episode, you might meet them on the street and they might be an incredible person. They might be a great person,” he points out.
“They want to play up the drama and they want to have the protagonist and they want to have different people create the story. And so, it was a kind of looking behind the curtain at what it’s like working on a reality show [like] The Amazing Race or on these different shows that have a goal that has to be attained, but within getting there, there has to be drama along the way and keep viewers wanting to come back and see more episodes. So it was just us trying to be as realistic with the whole process as possible without [villainizing] Wes. He’s not somebody who wants to hurt somebody.”
Despite an 88-deep credit list on IMDb and that 30+film library at Hallmark, Walker marked a significant first on Jingle Bell Run. “I’d never worked with Lucie, and I’d never worked with a female director. I’ve been in this industry since I was 13 years old, and it hit me when I was on set. I said to Ashley, ‘I can’t believe I’ve never worked with a female director,'” he shares.
“It’s timely because Ashley started her Make Her Mark program. I was so happy to be getting this opportunity. I felt a difference being on set with a female director, and it was just a much more nurturing set. Given the nature of the content of the movie, it was nice. I don’t know how things would’ve turned out differently with a male director.”
“Lucie is also great at comedy. She allowed us to really explore the nooks and crannies of the broadness of where we could take the scene. And she just let us go. She had a real vision, as well. There was a way of talking to us, coming over and kind of whispering the direction to us and asking us what our perspectives were on the scene. And it was just a different situation, a much different approach to what I’m used to seeing with male directors.”
Last month, several of the Hallmark stars boarded a Countdown to Christmas-wrapped tour bus and made their way up the East Coast to visit fans. Walker found it extraordinarily meaningful. “[The Jingle Stop Tour] was an unreal experience. The fans are what make this network what it is. And anytime we get an opportunity to be fan-forward facing, there are a lot of familiar faces now that I start seeing.” he says.
“It’s been about six years since the first Christmas Con where I started meeting people and hearing stories about what brought them into Hallmark. And it just furthers the ambition that I have to continue to put out the best work I possibly can for them and to elevate the network.”
“We started in Washington. Then we rode a bus to Philadelphia to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia [ChoP]. And we had this amazing welcoming from the nurses. They carved out this whole section in the atrium for us. We were waving up at kids in the windows who couldn’t come down to be with us. It was very emotional, obviously. But it just furthers the need for this network and the joy it brings to people.”
“And parents were talking to us and saying, ‘We’ve had an ongoing Hallmark marathon in our kids’ room, and that’s what’s gotten us through the past few weeks.’ And it’ll be that way throughout the holidays. And then going to New York and having that welcoming we got at Hudson Yard, it was like a thousand people that were there.”
“To be with all the people that I love and that I do this with, all my peers, and to share that with all these people…People may wonder what it is that we talk about behind the scenes. And honestly, it’s how surprised we are and continue to be [that we get to do this]. And the gratitude. It’s constant. ‘Can you believe what we’re doing here, guys? Can you believe this network? Can you believe the fans coming out and supporting us the way they do?’ And we are so lucky, the core group that was on the tour bus.”
“But even the ones that couldn’t join us. There were a lot of actors who weren’t there that are very much a piece of the fabric that has made Hallmark what it is today. And I want to give a shout out to those people because it’s tough not getting invited to certain things along the way.”
“And as the network is building, they obviously have their own business development ideas and how they’re gonna spend money and who they’re going to put where, but we couldn’t do it without everyone who has brought us to where we are today. And there have been so many moving parts and pieces to Hallmark as a brand that have allowed us to get to where we are today.”
“And I just feel so fortunate because, I’ve been talking to you for 10 years now, and if I didn’t come into Hallmark when I came into Hallmark, who knows if I’d be where I am, doing what I’m doing. I don’t know.”
If you’ve been following several of the Hallmark talent and fans on social media over the last week, you’ve likely seen photos and videos of last week’s Hallmark Christmas Cruise from Miami to the Bahamas. Next week, Walker is joining his Three Wiser Men and a Boy crew and Curious Caterer co-star DeLoach partner the second sailing, and he’s looking forward to it being an all-around family affair. “Christmas Con has prepared us for this. The good news is that my wife [Cassandra] is gonna be joining this year and she’s a way bigger celebrity than I will ever be. So between her and Tyler [Hynes], the people are all gonna gravitate towards the cousins,” he laughs.
“[Everyone I’ve talked to] can’t say enough about how much fun they had on the first cruise. I can’t wait to be on the cruise, to be honest. We come prepared, ready, and willing and available and approachable. And we know that anything could happen at any time and we’ll just roll with it. We’re a family and we’re supported from the fans, who are also so forgiving. They just wanna get to know us better and spend time with us, as we do them.”
Jingle Bell Run premieres Saturday, November 16th, at 8 pm/7c on Hallmark Channel and streaming on various outlets in the US and W Network in Canada. Check back Thanksgiving week ahead of the Three Wiser Men and a Boy premiere for more of our conversation. Here a couple of sneak peeks of Jingle Bell Run. [Update 12/22/24: the film is now streaming on Hallmark+.]
Photos courtesy of Allister Foster/Hallmark Media; video courtesy of Hallmark Media.
