[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
Friday night, Sara Canning goes two for two on ensemble holiday movies for Hallmark Channel, following up last year’s gem, Holiday Road, with another winner, Christmas on Call. This year’s entry follows an intermingled group of Philadelphia first responders in the days leading up to Christmas.
Canning plays Hannah, an ER doctor and recent transplant to the city, who’s a bit adrift about being alone and away from her family. Thankfully, ER charge nurse Emerson (Monique Marcker) and Dr. Stanfield (John B. Lowe) having none of it, and after a few sweet hallway conversations, Hannah finds herself nudged toward spending time off the clock with paramedic Wes (Will Trent‘s Ser’Darius Blain).
Alongside their new friendship/maybe romance, there are several other threads: a budding relationship in newly assigned police partners and former missed connections Danielle (Reena Jolly) and Sanjay (Erik Athavale); a new EMT recruit, Julia (Tamara Almeida), who struggles with her first rotation while Wes and the Chief (Paul Essiembre) take her under their wing; the station looks after Scott (Alec Santos), the son of a fallen firefighter; neighbors arguing over holiday decorations; and Emerson pining for a daughter, Chloe (Juliette Schroeder), who’s deployed.
Directed by Jeff Beesley and written by Jennifer Barrow and Chris Sey based on Barrow’s story, it’s a sweet film about making a family of your choosing and finding moments of joy when you’re always on call. I’ve been a fan of Canning back to The Vampire Diaries, but weirdly had never interviewed her, so today Hallmark helped me rectify that. In a wide-ranging conversation, we chatted about making Christmas on Call and the gift that keeps on giving with TVD.
Canning spent two seasons playing a surgeon on the Canadian drama Remedy, and filmed 10 episodes of a much lighter medical-themed web comedy series, Hospital Show, so she’d been in that world before and enjoyed getting back to it. She also appreciated giving a nod to her own circle of first responders and the families they create.
“I really love the ensemble Hallmark movies because while I love watching two people fall in love [and ensemble] just creates such an opportunity for humor and I think it’s really fun to see that sense of community reflected back in more and more Hallmark movies,” she says.
“So many people love Christmas because it affords them time with loved ones and family and friends, as hectic as it can get. Hallmark is becoming so inventive in looking at different types of communities. I have a lot of friends who are nurses in particular. I have some paramedic friends. I know a couple of firefighters. I interviewed a lot of surgeons when I was doing Remedy, and it is really something to think about.”
“A lot of people get a couple of weeks off at Christmas and they can plan holidays, but a lot of people don’t really have that type of structure with their lives and the passions that they’ve pursued. And particularly if you are helping others, you can’t really say, ‘I’m gonna take my two weeks and relax.’ I thought it was really cool to look at the holidays through that lens. Both the fact that I have so many first responders in my life that I respect and appreciate so much, and it was another ensemble movie, which I love.”
With their careers front and center, both Hannah and Wes have willingly made choices about when and whether to spend time with someone outside of work, so when they find each other, they’re very intentional about making that time count. Canning loved that adult representation of the relationship.
“I actually really enjoy the final scene because it feels so grounded in reality. It doesn’t feel like someone is going to throw away their old life for a new life. It really feels like a conversation that two working professionals would have, and it feels vulnerable. It doesn’t just feel like a broad romantic wash of the scene.”
“It feels like two people being vulnerable and honest with each other and going, ‘I really like you. I really like spending time with you, and I know where I’m needed and let’s navigate this. Let’s figure this out.’ And it’s really refreshing to see that.”
” know that people love Hallmark movies to sort of escape … we’re not in the easiest landscape right now in any sense. It’s nice to say, ‘Okay, we can put on this cozy holiday film and really enjoy it, but also [acknowledge] that a lot of us are having to have vulnerable conversations and to be really considerate and mindful and take things one moment at a time, in many relationships. So I really appreciate our final scene for that reason.”
Hannah also makes time for her patients. While working as an ER doctor might typically mean engaging with patients more for speed than depth, she recognizes when a patient needs a little more than a resolution to her physical issue, and tries to help her find emotional support, too. Canning loved getting to play that, especially in a time where society is experiencing an epidemic of loneliness, and the holidays can compound that sense of isolation.
“I’ve played a doctor a couple of times now, and I thought, ‘Wow, this series of themes is such a great way to bring the medical profession to a Christmas film because obviously there’s not gonna be much place for me sewing someone’s hand back on. We have the cute little guy who breaks his leg sledding, which is a very Christmas-oriented medical issue. But t then we also have this sweeping issue of loneliness and how do people connect with others in this world that is becoming increasingly [hard] with the pace and the way that everything moves,” she shares.
“I think things can get away from us really quickly and easily, and suddenly we find ourselves feeling really disconnected and lonely. And I think that is particularly hard during the holidays. I was aware of it, even as I was saying it, I think a lot of people really look forward to that community time. And then I really, really feel for people who don’t have that necessarily readily available to them. And I just thought it was a really beautiful way to shine a light on that and say, ‘This is very real. These lonely feelings are not a figment of the imagination and mental health is absolutely healthcare.”
“I just really appreciated that as a significant part of Hannah’s storyline. This beautiful actor, Lauren Cochrane, plays this woman who’s just really feeling lost. And I love that it’s an important piece of Hannah’s arc of asking, ‘What can I do here?’ I just think it’s important that it be acknowledged that there is a crisis there.”
The film is firmly entrenched in Philadelphia and a love letter to its sports, its food, and must-see destinations (although it filmed in Winnipeg). Canning hadn’t done a location-specific film before and loved doing that here. “It is a very anchoring experience. Hannah is in this new place and everyone around her has such conviction about what is great about their city,” she explains.
“I’ve not spent much time in Philadelphia at all. I lived in Atlanta, I’ve spent a lot of time in LA, but I am from Newfoundland which, East Coast, Canada, and it’s a very similar feeling where there are such cultural specificities, sort of like what we got to imbue this film with. I was just in Newfoundland last week, and one of the producers who I was there with really wanted to get screeched in, which is a Newfoundland tradition of just drinking some really potent rum and kissing a codfish and reciting something fun, and then you’re like an honorary Newfoundlander. So we have really specific fun traditions like that.”
“It is also that feeling of, you like it or leave it. They’re kind of willfully stubborn about their way of life, which I love. And so for me, I totally get it. I think there are so many pockets of the world that, even though it’s about this particular city and a love letter to that city, I think so many people would go, ‘Oh, it’s so similar where I grew up,’ and people are so hardcore about how they order their cheese steaks or whatever it is.”
Current #1 NFL mama Donna Kelce appears in the film, sporting an Eagles jersey as a nod to her son, Jason. Canning was impressed with how easily she took to the minutiae of filming. “She was super fun to just hang out with in our little green room. And she had a really lovely friend with her who we got to meet and spend time with, too. And I think it’s so cool to meet these salt of the earth people in unexpected ways. I don’t know that I would’ve ever crossed path with Donna Kelce otherwise,” she says.
“She was so game to try different takes of the scene. It’s not easy to just stick a non-actor on a mark and say, ‘Okay, you need to make this feel really natural, and you’re saying these lines at this time.’ There are young actors who spend a year figuring that out. I just have such respect for people who are learning it on the fly. I know that people sometimes think ‘Oh yeah, nothing to it,’ but it’s not really true. There’s a lot of moving pieces.”
“She’s also funny in her scenes. There’s a moment at the end of her second little scene with me where she brings over some extra fries because she loves Wes. And she was kind of doing some little improv lines that actually surprised me, and there’s a real laugh, a real look of surprise on my face at the end of that scene. She was awesome.”
Canning has an impressive library of film and TV roles spanning pretty much every genre, and she’s appreciative that she’s been afforded those opportunities. “I’ve been so lucky to do the broad spectrum that I continue to get to do — a lot of indie films, some horror, some holiday films, some really beautiful drama and psychological stuff,” she says. “It’s really been the best.”
If you’ve followed Canning on social media, you’ve seen her talk about The Burning Season, an indie released last year and boasting an impressive cast of recognizable Canadian talent. US fans will finally get a chance to see it when it’s released to iTunes, VoD, and cable on December 10th. “I love that film. I loved working on that film. Those actors are so wonderful,” she shares. “It’s one of my favorite working experiences I’ve ever had.”
While Canning is most well known for The Vampire Diaries, now in its second generation of fans, she’s now also being recognized for her Hallmark movies. “I actually had a very sweet moment a few weeks ago, just having routine blood work done. And the nurse said, ‘Are you in Hallmark movies?’ And it was just really lovely,” she recalls.
“I got to tell her, ‘Actually I’m in one that’s about first responders coming out soon. It was a nice full circle moment because she said she’s a person who puts them on all the time because it’s just a really good way for her to decompress. So it was really kind of perfect.”
“I’m just always amazed by The Vampire Diaries recognition and the demographic who watches it. “I have 60- and 70-year-old women and men come up to me all the time. Now there are 16-year olds coming up to me, and that show came out 15 years ago. And people will still say to me, ‘I grew up watching it,’ but now there are people who I think, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope you didn’t grow up watching it. You look way too young.'” she laughs.
Back when she was cast as Aunt Jenna, she had no idea what the show would become, but she was immensely grateful that it came her way when it did. “I had no idea. I was working seven days a week at a restaurant. I was auditioning all the time. The day I booked it, I think I had four auditions that day. I don’t know how I managed that. In the middle of all of those auditions, I had a doctor’s appointment, again, routine, yearly doctor’s appointment. And the doctor looked at me and asked, ‘Are you alright?’ and I said, ‘I’m so tired. I’m so exhausted,” she says.
“I was so relieved to get a job and have a moment to not audition. I didn’t know what a TV pilot was. But then as soon as I started on the job, I remember I visited my parents and looked at my mom, and I said, ‘I think this show might be a bit of a thing.’ It was right when we got picked up to go to series. I had to wrap my head around that. I think I was just happy to be working.”
Christmas on Call premieres Friday, November 22nd, at 8 pm/7c on Hallmark Channel and streaming on various outlets in the US and and Saturday at 6 pm/5c on W Network in Canada. Here are a couple of sneak peeks. [Update: 12/22/24: the film is now streaming on Hallmark+.]
Photos courtesy of Steve Ackerman/Hallmark Media; video courtesy of Hallmark Media.
