If y’all have read us for a while (thank you!), you know that Warren Christie is a long, long, longtime favorite around here, and this month, we’ve been treated to two new films on Hallmark Channel – earlier this month, he reteamed with Nikki DeLoach for Home Turf, which is now streaming on Hallmark+, and this Saturday, he’s back to launch the 2025 Countdown to Christmas holiday programming with A Royal Montana Christmas.
This week, I chatted with him about the films and his longstanding relationship with Hallmark, and he gave us a spoiler-free sneak peek at the upcoming Netflix reboot of Little House on the Prairie. Here’s the first part of our conversation.
In A Royal Montana Christmas, Christie stars alongside Fiona Gubelmann, who also executive produced the film. It was his first time working with her as well as director Peter Benson, although they’ve known each other as part of the Vancouver creative community. “Around a certain age, we all get to know people. I hadn’t seen Peter in a bunch of years. And we happened to cross paths. He mentioned this, that my name was getting kind of bandied around a little bit, and I didn’t even know about it yet,” he recalls.
“Getting to see him directing was pretty fantastic. He’s really good at it. He’s so nice. Everybody loves him. To see him in that environment was very cool. Every time I’m fortunate to be offered a job, the first thing I always ask after the script comes through is, ‘Who is the female lead?’ And then I do a little investigating. Because somebody has to know somebody, and everybody raved about Fiona and how sweet she was and all this different stuff. So it was a no brainer.”
“But she is also so funny. I don’t know if I’ve laughed so much while working. Between her and Peter and just everybody else involved. Luckily Fiona and I clicked very, very quickly on day one and started laughing. And that’s important, to have a lightness to it. She’s wonderful. She’s very easy to work with, lovely and incredibly talented and very, very funny. I had a blast. I would work with her again in a second.”
That buoyancy comes through with a pervasive charm that is infectious to watch, and Christie credits Benson and Gubelmann for that. “That is them. Fiona was trying to get this movie made for a couple years,” he explains. “She spent a ton of time on it, and her and Peter sat down and they spent a lot of time on making sure the beats were there, the storylines, the different things. They really deserve a lot of credit. They’re both really phenomenal. I just get to show up and do my job.”
The film follows the story of Victoria, a European royal who’s about to take on additional duties as her mom (Gwynyth Walsh) steps back a bit. The already-bananas schedule in the run up to Christmas is overwhelming, so she calls a time out and leaves things with her sister, Emma (Eva Tavares, who directs the upcoming The Christmas Baby). With her trusted assistant Gabriel (David Kaye) in tow, Victoria heads to the Montana ranch where she had a formative childhood experience while visiting with her dad years earlier. Mark Famiglietti and Michael Testa wrote the script, directed by Benson.
It’s there that she meets Huntley (Christie), a former ballplayer, now coach, and the son of the owners (Eric Keenleyside and Lynda Boyd), who helps out over the holidays. And it doesn’t take long for Victoria to feel at home, and (of course) help save the day when staffer Shelby (Julia Benson) needs an assist with a fundraiser.
Despite being set on a ranch, we never actually see them out riding horses. Christie says it wasn’t for lack of effort on his part. “I never got to get on a horse. I was very upset about that,” he laughs. “It just never quite worked out. I tried to angle it a lot. I was very fortunate for the last few months to be riding on [Little House] quite a bit. I did try and fight for it, but it was never gonna happen.”
I’m pretty sure that Christie is the longest continuous Hallmark Channel star, with The Most Wonderful Time of the Year premiering back in 2008. I’ve talked about how special that film is here. According to this super handy IMDb list, that film was the 20th title of the over 500 Christmas movies produced since the very first one back in 2000. Christie says it’s still the project people talk to him about the most.
“It’s such a perfect example of things. I remember when I did that movie, I had just gotten home, I was doing a show and [when it was pitched with] Henry Winkler, that’s a once in a lifetime thing. So I did the movie, and I had such a good time. And Brooke Burns was incredible and Henry was everything you’d hope he could be,” he says.
“And then you go home. It’s like three, four weeks. And you don’t think about the scope of it. You didn’t realize 17 years ago that it’s going to play every year for the next 2,000 years. It’s the thing I get brought up to me more than anything, not just at Christmas Con, but in general, it gets brought up to me more than anything. And I’ve been doing this for a while.”
“There’s something about that movie that just seemed to click with people. And everyone wants to know what Henry was like. Luckily for me, I don’t have to lie, I can tell you the truth, that he’s everything you would’ve hoped he’d have been and more. He was hilarious. People throw the word iconic around a lot, too much. But he truly is.”
“I asked him, ‘Is there anywhere in the world you can go [that you’re not recognized?’ And he said no. He had the most beautiful mindset to it. And he had fun with it, and he knew the responsibility of it. To see him reinvent himself over the last bunch of years is pretty amazing.”
As someone with a significant Hallmark library, spanning almost two decades, Christie explains his connection to the network, and how excited he is to see them encouraging and investing in its creative community. “The one thing that’s very, very impressive about Hallmark is they’re their own entity. And they’re very great about helping support people who want to do more things. I know a few people that have gone through their [Make Her Mark] directing course, and I know a few people that [benefitted] because they embolden people to have ownership. People want to stay there for a reason because they’re treated so well,” he shares.
“There’s not this fear training people up and giving them opportunities because they’re gonna leave. They do it because they know people want to be there and tell these stories. I don’t see it at too many other places. If people want to direct, they say, ‘Okay, well we’ll give you an opportunity. Here’s our course.’ It is a really special place to work. And so many people stay there for so long because of how well they’re treated and the opportunities that they’re given.You don’t get that in a lot of places. They really do treat people incredibly well.”
Christie is returning this year to the Hallmark Christmas Experience in Kansas City the weekend of December 5th. He says last year’s event was extraordinarily special. “The Hallmark PR and the whole team are so good. They understand the connection that people have between the actors and these movies. I think they created a great experience for people. And I hope that we did. And everybody that was there knew and understood how special it was,” he says.
“It was very eye-opening to see the scope of all these people that came from all over the place to spend some time. And they had their stories. These movies, especially the Christmas ones, click with people so much. And part of the reason is to go back to what Hallmark does by reusing actors. By having them in multiple things, the viewers, we hope, have such a connection to the actors and the stories.”
“They’re just nice stories. We know that there’ll be a happy ending. And people want that more and more. Countdown to Christmas is starting earlier every year, but people will put it on and have it on for the next two months. And they connect with it and they have their old favorites, and hopefully they find some new favorites. But you could see that sense of community and that sense of connection with the actors and the different people involved.”
“I had an absolute blast with it. I thought everybody was so nice. I was fortunate enough to meet some people who had some really, really lovely stories about maybe some work I had done that had clicked with them and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
Speaking of icons, next year, Christie will be back on our screens in the Netflix reboot of Little House on the Prairie, an eight-episode adaptation of the Laura Ingalls Wilder novels that of course launched the 70s series that still reruns around the world. He leapt at the opportunity to join the project.
“Truly, you’re talking about something iconic. There’s no trepidation. I was sent the first two scripts and they were incredible, and then the character I got to play as well. When it came together, we shot in Winnipeg, which I had only been to briefly once before. I can’t obviously say too much about it, but what I would say is there aren’t going to be a ton of surprises,” he shares.
“It’s more based on the books. The original show took a few liberties. Ours is a little more true to the book. And there are a couple of real people, real characters, who were not in the original show, but were in the books. And so you’ll see them.”
“And Rebecca Sunshine, who is our showrunner and oversees it, she truly loves these books and it comes out in every single paragraph she writes. I’ll rave about her till I’m blue in the face because you can tell she loves the book. She also happens to be brilliant. And she also just happens to know how to make really great television.”
“What I can say, as someone who’s never spent much time in Winnipeg and the prairies, is that it’s stunning. My castmates were incredible. I’ve seen a little sizzle reel here and there and the scope of it is beautiful and breathtaking. And then the stories that were written are so personal and wonderful.”
“You’re gonna get the scope of this massive prairie and this massive world and the beginnings of the new West. And there’s going to be the juxtaposition of these really beautiful personal stories of a family who’s just trying to survive. I’m very, very excited about it. I’m very proud of it. I’m thrilled to be a part of it. And it was never lost on me at the time how special it was to be a part of this universe.”
A Royal Montana Christmas premieres Saturday, October 18th, at 8 pm/7c on Hallmark Channel and streaming on various outlets in the US, where it will also be available on Hallmark+ the day after, and on W Network in Canada. Here are a couple of sneak peeks. Check back next week for more of our conversation as we chat about Home Turf, streaming now on Hallmark+.
Photos courtesy of Craig Minielly/Hallmark Media; video courtesy of Hallmark Media.
