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Interview with Erin Rodman and Zac Hug | Twelve Dates 'Til Christmas · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is a Bramble Jam podcast.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a Hallmark review podcast. I'm
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: I'm Wendy. I'm a former Hallmark hater.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Today we are thrilled to be joined by two of
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the brilliant minds behind Hallmark's brand new sixth episode holiday
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: rom com series twelve dates till Christmas. We've got showrunner
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Aaron Rodman, whose credits include The Christmas House and The Christmas.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: House to deck those halls, as well as Christmas.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Class Reunion, and writer and producer Zach Hug known for
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: some of our favorites like Ghosts of Christmas.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Always the more the merrier. Thank you so much for
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: being here.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having us for thrilled to be here.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: We have loved this series, loved it.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: We can't say enough about it, and as Wendy said
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: in our first review, it's like grab Hallmark by the
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: shoulders and say like.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Let's keep doing more of this please kind of love.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's what we always wanted to happen. And here, of.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Course, well let's talk about how it came to be.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: It's adapted from a book by Jenny Baylist. I'd love
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to know just the origin story. Did you read the book?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Did someone come to you? How did the series come
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: to be?
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: So a producer sent to the book to me before
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: it was published. And as you may know, it's very
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: common in Hollywood for manuscripts of books to go out
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: around town to producers, to writers, to studios before they're published.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Sometimes they're never published, but the manuscript still gets optioned
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: or bought to be adapted to a TV series or
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: a movie. This was Jenny's first book. She was not
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: yet This is her foray into being a novelist. It
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: was sent to me as in manuscript form at the time.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: I love this producer, but I did not have the
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: bandwidth to take on the project. And so about a
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: year later, that producer wound up as an executive at
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Hallmark and called me and said, can we take another
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: crack at this? And so I had loved the book
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: and loved the concept. I think that the Twelve Dates
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: of Christmas as a dating service, like a Christmas themed
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: dating service you could do every year at Christmas, is
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: like I wish it was real.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, sign you up so hard, Like I would have
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: just so many people.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: So I reached out to Jenny. I had took me
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: a little time to get to her through social media.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: I reached out to her directly and said, hey, there's
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: interest in this, and here's who I am, and let's
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: talk and let me let's see if we want to
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: be partners in my You know, a lot of times
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: the author is not involved, you know, you just option
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: the material or deal with reps. But I really thought
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: there was a benefit to us being partners and finding
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: something together.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: And I like that. I like collaboration.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: I like taking advantage of all the work she's already
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: done on this story. I'm building this world, and she
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: was an absolutely huge part of this process.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And still is.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: She was in the writer's room, she was on set.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: So it's all started back five years ago when before
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: the book was published. But it's been a nice, long,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: beautiful relationship and she's published many books since then.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Can I ask you a question about the writer's room.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: I saw a screenshow of a zoom. Is your writer's
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: room virtual or are you actually sitting in the same
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: space doing it?
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Was virtual? It was virtual for two reasons.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: One is it did allow for all of us to
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: not have to be in the same space, and Jenny's
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: in England and I was out on the.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: East Coast for part of the of the writer's room period.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: But even when we weren't all in La Ellie, traffic
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: is real, you know, the city can be a pain.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: People have kids that got to pick up at a
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: certain time and an hour in traffic, you know. To
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: all come together in the same room, there's definitely a
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: benefit of it. And if we'd had a longer writer's
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: room perhaps that would have been the choice. But it
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: was truly just easier on all of our lives and
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: schedules to do it over zoom.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, I feel like we've opened up that
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: window right five years ago. It's like, oh, we can
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: do so much more work this way and on everyone's schedule.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Some time in sweatpants pajamas, Yeah, make your lunch and
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: meet your snat.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I mean it just you know, you can blow your
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: background and be in your bedroom and yeah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: But I think we made a joint decision, like we
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: talked about it as a group, because you know, you
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: don't want to sacrifice something valuable in the chemistry of
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: being in a room together, you know, without thoughtlessly you
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: want to make sure everybody still feels like we could
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: do a great job.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: VI A Zoom.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: So both of you have extensive Hallmark resumes, but this
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: show has a really fresh, sharp tone. We obviously love Hallmark,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: It's what we do, but it feels real netflixy in
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: a really good way. And I'm wondering how like this
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: whole team of you know, Hallmark familiar creators came to
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: create such a fresh take on this store.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: And was there.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Any pushback at all when that was happening. Of course,
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: it's still like checks all of the boxes, but it's
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: it's it's different.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know to me. So I was brought on
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: by Aaron and they had already worked on I think
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: the first two episodes were written when I joined up.
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: But my take when I when I started was like,
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: this is this is Hallmark how it exists kind of
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: in my head when I'm writing it. This is kind
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: of how but which is not to say that like
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: it changes or becomes something else. I think there was
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: more time to create it, and I you know, these
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: movies are made, and they are made. There is not
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: a formula, but but also there is an expectation and
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: a brand around the stories that you tell, and I
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: think audiences expect something from a two hour movie that
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: in a TV show, you really if you if you
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: moved that quickly, and if you if you told the
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: story with that lens on it that the movies exist
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: in you, you would you would lose something in the
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: TV show. I think because these stories have to move
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: so quickly and you have to you gloss over stuff,
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: you sort of and you know the show you actually
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: you have all these characters. You have to service all
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: of them. You have to give them all interesting lives.
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: I mean, I love that scene where Laura's at home
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: with her husband, like her husband is this solid dude,
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: and that you know, you don't have time in a
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: lot of ways to sort of prove that, like the
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: confidant has this life that's awesome. And I think here
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: in six episodes, while you're still limited in time, you've
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: got you've got more space, more room to breathe a
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: little bit about everyone's emotional lives, and so I think
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: that's kind of that's to me is the great joy
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: of it is that you you get to live in
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: it a little bit longer, and that feels nice.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: I think that there's a chain of people that explain
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: why this feels appealing for Hallmark, right for the Hallmark audience,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: right for you know that brand, but also perhaps larger
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: partially because Jenny, the way she writes in her novels,
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: you know, her Girls Party, and we walked that back
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: to some degree in developing this story. She writes very grounded,
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: real women, So they do things in the real world
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: that we all do when you're single, when you're dating.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: And then so we started with what already felt kind
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: of like a swing, but Hallmark was always very supportive,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: really loved the book, really liked what that brought. So
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: we have their support early on with you know, trying something,
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: because that the great.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Thing about working with Hallmark.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: No one knows their audience better than those executives, and they.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Don't expect you to already know.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: They are able to tell you, like, we try things
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: and then they say too far, or go farther, or
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: how about this, So it's a real collaboration. That's the
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: benefit of those executives to so many in so many
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: ways is that they aren't going to throw you to
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: the wolves and say guess what Hallmark wants. They're really
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: going to help you find that bulls eye and no
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: one knows better than them.
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so your.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Job is to bring your distinct voice, your level of comedy,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: push them sometimes and see what happens. And sometimes it works,
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: sometimes it doesn't. So there was Jenny, there were our
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: Hallwark executives, and then I have to give credit to
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: my kosher runner, Dava Avena, who is you know, a
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: very seasoned TV writer and the only one of us
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: on the writing staff not from Hallmark who'd never done
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: Hallwark before. She's done incredible shows like Firefly, Lane, and
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: she worked on like mainstream shows on ABC, so she
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: really was the seasoned TV writer, had run Writer's Rooms before,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: had been an EP executive producer.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: So we brought her in to, you know, help.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: She had just had the most experience of the whole process,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: and by not having someone who was very familiar with
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: the genre and writing strong women and writing rom com
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: you know TV and like series long stories, she didn't
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: bring any preconceived notions and so we had a real
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: fresh perspective.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: And that was intentional.
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: Hallmark had always wanted to work with her and this
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: was an opportunity to do so I lucked out big time.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And having a.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: Partner who had all this experience and curiosity about finally
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: like working in.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: The Hallmark space.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: And so she was our leader in the writer's room,
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: and she was on set with me, you know, almost
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: the whole time. And so she, like you know, was
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: part of that chain as well. So it really is
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: the fabric we intentionally the fabric of creators for this series.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: And then you bring in May, who has not done
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: you know, has maybe done Hallmark.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: I think she's done on her too, maybe when she
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: was younger. I don't, honestly don't remember. I don't know.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I should know the answer to that. It's horrible that
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: But she is different and she has her own perspective,
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: and she brought a lot to the character.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: So all these things.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: Factored into it, and that is like part of the
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: magic of this particular project.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I think, will you bring up May, I think that's
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: the perfect transition because she is like, having seen this,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine anybody else as Kate. But was there
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: anything for you that shifted Kate's personality or performance once
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: May was brought on.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: She's so funny. Oh my god.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: I used to joke with her on set about some
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: pitch line changes and they were better. And this sounds
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: like you're going to be in the writer's guild by
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: the end of this production. Because she just has so
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: much experience, Like no, literally, I don't know that. I mean,
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: since she was a tiny child, knows how to just
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: be a you know, a terrific collaborator with everyone, crew, casts, writers, everybody.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: But she is fearless.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: About pitching jokes, she tries things, and she's very funny.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: She's a very funny person, a very entertaining person, and
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: we were so lucky that she brought that to the character.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean literally, day to day to day,
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: I could look at almost every scene and tell you
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: something that she added, what was on the page.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: I think also, though she's in so many ways, if
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: I were to make a movie of Aaron's life, I
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: would cast may that like because in the writer's room
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: we talked a lot, like we would occasionally refer to
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: Kate as we'd be like when then Aaron goes to sorry,
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: Kate goes to the thing her voice. I don't think
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: we meant to do it, but I think that her
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: voice sort of naturally, you know, I mean, like erin
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: and I've been friends for fifteen years. And I think
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: one of the reasons is that like that is that
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: is the person that I try to write right. When
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: I'm writing anything right, it's sort of like, give me
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: a real person, give me this woman who knows herself,
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: who is fallible but also like really smart and kind
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: and wants things out of the world. And it's really
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: funny about it. And so a lot of the story kept.
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: I think we all kind of just rallied around that character,
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: and there is a blend, I mean, in the chain
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: of how this turned out. Like I would I would
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: also note that Aaron is so much of the voice
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: of that character and how everyone relates to her. To
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: Kate is a lot of how people relate I think
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: to Erin in a lot of ways, and I just
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: that was one of my favorite pieces of watching this
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: was like, oh, I'm watching a television show about my
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: best friend.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: I had flaws for days and for our main character
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: soon lots of issues.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: So funny you say that, because as we watch a
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: lot of Hallmark movies, review a lot of Hallmark movies,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: we watch a lot of TV too, and we have
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: always said since we've been doing this is like, we
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: want messy characters. We want characters who who look like us,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: who are doing things, making decisions, making bad mistakes just
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: like we do. Like that's very relatable TV, and I
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: freaking love Kate. Can you tell us how May was
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: brought to you, guys, like when you were writing the
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: show where you're like, yeah, we want to do it
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: with me, whitman?
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Or was she presented to you and did you go
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: when she got cast?
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Literally have never recovered from you that she said yes.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: So even now, I still can't believe it. She was
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: number one on our list. And as you you know,
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: the casting process is there's a million factors that make
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: an actor available or not available or just flat out
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: say no.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: She was number one on our list.
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: Hallmark was very interested in, you know, finding a way
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: to work with her. You know, I was on everyone's radar.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: If you're a woman of a certain dame, you're interested
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: in what she's doing.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: And so she was.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Number one and she said yes, like within a couple
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: of days. It was the most simple process ever casting.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: I still can't believe she said yes. I still can't
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: believe Hallmark. I mean, I just can't believe it all worked.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: It's like the thing where you're like, she said yes,
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: and we were all like, okay, nobody move, something is
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: going to make her change her mind. And then I think,
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: you know, I yeah.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: What A get what I get? I love seeing her
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: on Hallmark. I'm a huge fan of hers. So yeah,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: when we when it was announced earlier this year that
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: the series was coming, I was.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Like, who, Who's coming to Hamemark?
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: What?
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: It was so pretty cool.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: We couldn't tell anybody for a while. I mean, I
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: think it was me.
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: So we've written all the scripts before, and so by
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: the time it got to casting, the writer's room was
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: pretty much finished.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I think, I can't.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: We were going we had written this show, so we
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: didn't write with her in mind, and so but her
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: saying yes hotified.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: The tone of the stories. So like by virtue of
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: knowing it was.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: Going to be her, I think we all took like
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: this deep breath of like the way the comedy feels,
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: the way the heart you know, and the emotion comes through,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: all of it is going to be in good hands,
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: and like she knows what She's going to know what
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: to do with that tone and preserve it and add
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: to it, and you know, she delivered it in every
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: single way. And because she's such a professional, she knows
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: how to like just show up and the crew was
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: obsessed with her. She was friends with everybody, like she
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: just makes us. She knows how to be a number
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: one on the call sheet, she.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Just knew how to set. Yeah, it was a dream.
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: It was a dream.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: It's still a dream. I still can't believe it, you know.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have said that this show has a little
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: bit of a Gilmore Girl's sensibility to it, which for
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: us is a huge compliment. We love that show, We
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: love that pace saying is that something that you strive for,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: is that something that you recognize?
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Is that our feeling is like, you know, May is like.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Sixty degrees of separation away from gil margirls with her
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: friendship from Lauren Graham.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: So like, did she bring that?
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: It obviously comes through in the writing because the writing's snappy.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think I could be wrong about this
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: because it's all last week is kind of a blur
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: the week, you know, the show comes out. I feel
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: like People Magazine did an article that said that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: In the title, oh, the show.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: Feels like Gilmore Girl or like May Whitman name checked
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: Lauren Graham and the tone of something, and I was like,
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: you know, like this is the most amazing comparison.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: And I think the bottom line is the things we
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: all love in culture, we just want more of.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: So it was not intentional in the sense that we
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: sat in the room and said, how did love to make.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Gil margirls two point out?
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: But did I from the time I started pitching the
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: show four years ago, did I always say Blaxford, which
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: is the English village you know, at the heart of
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: the show is the stars Hollow of England. You know,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: think of it as a community in this way where
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: there's the Reverend characters and there's a community spirit and
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: a real devotion to this place, and that it'll be
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: the kind of place you see on screen and which
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: was real that you could live in.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And so it was, you know, in on our minds
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: for sure, but.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: On our minds because we loved the show so much,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: loved you know, Gilmore Girls so much, and I wish
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: there was a ten more seasons sure than you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: everything I write is chasing a certain emotion that I
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: felt before as a viewer, and I want to create
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: a story that elicits that same feeling in myself and others.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: So in the spiritual sense, I do think there it's
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: thrilling to think that people find them in the same universe.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Well, you talked a little bit about Blaxford, Ireland stands
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: in for London and much of this movie. What was
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: it like filming on location in Ireland and did that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: kind of shape the obviously it does, but shape the
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: feel of the movie for you arriving there.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, I the series, not the movie. I'm sorry, that's okay.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: So the part London was actually London.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: Our first like five days of shooting, three days of
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: shooting was in London, and then we all moved to
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: Ireland and the rest is you know, Ireland for England.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: I will tell you that we I think I can
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: speak for you know, everyone I know involved in this
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: production had the most amazing time in Ireland with the
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: most talented Irish crew and actors, the most warm welcome
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: as you know, a giant production that clunked into town
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: bothered everybody for five months. The talent, the people we
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: got in each department, you know, the art director and
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: like the our costumes and our hair and make everybody
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: was so incredible and so good. We were so lucky
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: that like a lot of our crew was had worked
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: on Wednesday, and a lot of our crew worked on Vikings,
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: and they were people who had done all these big
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: shows and they hadn't done Christmas.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Nobody was sick of Christmas.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: Nothing felt like it was all fresh and new, and
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: so we would have these meetings in the art department
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: and with the production designer and he's like excited about
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: doing Christmas, which was so fun.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Too capitalize on everyone's enthusiasm, But I.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: Would say that the way in which Ireland had the
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: most impact on the show is that the way we
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: all felt about each other. It really is so cliched
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: to say about the crew becomes a family and all
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: of that, but no kidding, Like our text chain, which
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: is like one hundred and three people, is still going
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: and we wrapped in May, so like this is you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: and it's almost all Irish people and then some Americans
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: and some English people, but it is like the we
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: all lament this is over because it was such a
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: wonderful experience. Everyone was so kind and so had a
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: good time on set. And I think you can feel that.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: I think you can tell you can't always tell when
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: like production's brutal, and you know, you can't always feel
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: that in the product. But I believe that the war,
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: a lot of the warmth and joy you can sense
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: in this show is because.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: The people were actually feeling those things to the theater school.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: I mean it really to me, Like I was on
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: set briefly, Like I was there a couple of weeks,
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: just kind of for in and out, but it really
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: felt like when people come together to make community theater,
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: except they all are much better at their jobs and
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: they've been doing for years and they know how to
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: want a camera. But also every set that I walked
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: onto it felt like it came out of my head
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: but was better. Like the what is it the Escape Room?
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: I walked in there and there were these someone had
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: found all of these incredible sculptures that were Christmas villages
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: that were kind of like a Tim Burton Christmas and
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: like I just stood there for like an hour, kind
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: of going through the room and thinking to myself, like
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: what this is like living in my own head? I'm speaking,
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: but they were all, yeah, it was the nicest, loveliest people.
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: They had us over for dinner. We crushed the erin
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: and I just like this guy and his wife and
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: their kids, and they're.
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: People from the sound department, were like, don't spend Easter
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: by herself comes, So we didn't.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: It just it never ended.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: There was just this excitement and thrill for everybody. And
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: I think, like we shot there's this all the scenes
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: that take place in Nicola. By Nicola, which is the
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: the saddle Row Design House where Kate works as a
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: pattern as a textile designer.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Is a real.
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: Irish tailor, Like it's been there for over like one
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: hundred years forever, and it's it was like he just
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: led us. He was such a one wonderful man and
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: had this incredible story about being orphaned when he was
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: a kid and like being basically raised in the attic
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: of a tailor and like became a tailor himself and
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: then had these kids and then adopted. I mean, he
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: was just like this Irish twinkle in his eye I had,
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm like, it was just it was too
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: good to be true. And one of our one of
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: the production designers, has a daughter who works in fashion,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: and so he had her send the clothes she'd made
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: and we use those in the show as part of
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: the So there was just this endless amount of like
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: people just willing to give their things and be a
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: part of it and contribute, and it all felt so
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: like yeah, community theater, like just we were all trying
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: really hard, running in the same direction to make this
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: great thing and this fun thing.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: The dates are very cool production value wise, the content.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: Is there one that was the hardest to pull off?
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: The London Eye, Oh, it doesn't happen.
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: I think, well, it's they each had their hardship. Yeah,
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: I think that you want them to be so dazzling
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: that they all felt pressurized to be that. So that
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: and that's not maybe that's not a very fun answer,
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: but like for every single one, it was like, how
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: do we knock this out of the park, and then
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: how to realistically what can we pull off with budget
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: and yeah, Heather and cast.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: Availability and like what's actually possible? I think Zach said
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: the escape room they built it out of nothing and
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: it was so incredible and it was this playground for
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: the crew, you know, between takes. I almost want to
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: say that the hardest was the final date, date twelve,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: because it had to feel so grand and like worthy
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: of a finale and finding the right space and having
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: the right feeling for that was like we all were
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: sweating to make sure that it would actually feel that
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: special and transportive.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking of dates, we have to ask about Callum
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: not knowing the full emotional arc. At what point were
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: you like, Okay, well we got to thread the needle
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: here and again we have not seen the whole thing,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: so this is not a spoiler. But to us having
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: seen the first two, it's like, well, is he the
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: obvious love interest or is this a red herring? Like
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: how did you walk that line with Callum and with
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Richard Richard hartright emerge?
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: I know that I will say the writer's room that
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: was the most fun because because up until the last minute,
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think you know how the you know
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: how the book ends, and I won't spoil it here,
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: but we had a hard time. I chose. I was
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: on I'm on both teams at different times. Right. I
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: was on the team of the guy in the escape
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: room for a minute. I was on there's the guy
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: who's the guy that I really loved. There was one
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: there was one date where I was like, he needs
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: more story and they were like, we do not have
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: time to tell the story about this poor sweet man
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: at the SALTI Club. Sorry, but I think that's the
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: that's the part of it is that if you're going
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: to send someone on twelve dates, I listen, I'm I'm
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: all four to twelve. I'll go on twelve, I'll go
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: on one hundred dates, Like I want to meet people.
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: I'm interested in the stories they have to tell. And
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: I think keeping that character on her back foot the
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: whole time was one of the more for like was
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: one of the best things to write, because it does
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: again when you're in a to our movie, Well, at
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: some point they're going to kiss and then they're going
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: to be together forever fate to black and I and
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: the snowfalls and I we didn't have that right, Like,
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: that doesn't exist in this universe. And I think that
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: what what a fun thing to write, particularly in a
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: Christmas story, that it's not just two people linking up.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: It's a character who wants things outside of this dating
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: life for herself and they are the obstacle. And also
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: the prize. I think that was an incredible what a
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: gift for a writer to throw together.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: I feel like what we really wanted to make it clear,
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: and this to feel true to life is you always
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: have choices that you know there are that this notion
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: of like fate or like you know, the right one
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: there there is the feeling of that, but there is
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: also you can still mess it up.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: You can be able to use something else.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: You know, there are options here, and it may be
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: that you have a sense because of the genre and
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: the tropes we work with, who's going to be even
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: in that case, how and starting with Callum in a relationship,
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: and starting with Kate and Callum in this deep friendship
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: creates a question of well.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: How from here to there?
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: And the hope is that that journey's entertaining. It feels
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: true and emotionally resonant, that you know it can happen
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: this way, and that there's curiosity about it, so you
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: know you will find out why they aren't together, why
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: they weren't together, and.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: What stands in the way for the future.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: You'll find out and hopefully that is a rewarding, you know, reveal.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: But in the meantime, she's trying on different you know,
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: feelings and chances and you know I wanted it to
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: I wanted there's no point putting her through.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: The dating process.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: If she wasn't taking it seriously, she couldn't be dialed
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: into someone else, so that the twelve dates were just filler.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: You know, it had to feel like you know possibilities
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: and that someone could.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Turn your head.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: You could think you know what you want, but someone
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: could turn your head and surprise you. And then what
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: does that bring up and what does that mean and
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: what should you explore? What instincts should you follow? So
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: that is that was the playground.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: Hopefully, well just that it makes her a better artist.
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: I think that was my favorite part of it was
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: that we kept coming back to this thing that she
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: is not out to find someone to date. She is
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: out to reinvent or reinvigorate the life she's living, and
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: this is a piece of it, and that those things
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: do you know, inspiration comes from the emotional life of
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: a character, and I think watching her discover like that
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: scene where she's on the roof and she starts sketching,
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: I think there's something great about showing a character in
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: their daily life how this affects them, rather than that
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: is the goal that is the want of the character.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: The want of the character is very much grounded in
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: This is a character who who knows something is missing
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: in her life. It probably isn't a dude, and it
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: isn't right that she has. What she has done is
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: sort of shrunk away from herself, and this is her
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: throwing herself back into the world.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: And I think that, yeah, there's there's value in the experience. Correct, Yeah,
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: experience itself, regardless of the outcome, is going.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: To change things.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: I think that comes through so strongly right off the bat,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Like we have the first five dates, right, and Kate's
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: not excited about this, like she's irritated going into it
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: that her friends have put her in this position. But
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: then she commits immediately, like even when she's in the
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: igloo alone, like she's popping champagne and having a good
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: time by herself. And then she has that date, the
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: ice skating date where he cries into her mouth, which,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: by the way, we need to know who is responsible
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: for that line.
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: I don't remember, but I think that's Aarin.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Well doav is that episode one?
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: Then?
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's me. That actor was so great that we
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: wrote him into more things throughout the season.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Well, and that's the nice thing, right, It's like it
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: doesn't end like these guys. His story carries through and
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: he reconnects back, you know, to Kate's core group, and
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: even she has that baking date and you're like, well,
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: this isn't the guy, but also she's all in, like
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: she's fully connected with him. They have this great connection
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: moment talking and I loved the way May did that
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: where she wasn't like I'm just checking the box so
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: my friends get off.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: She was there and all in.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: And then she orchestrates to Wingman's that dance, which is
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: so great, like the fan scene where she blocks the
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: guy from getting onto the dance.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: It's it's so good. Oh my gosh.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's nice hear you say that.
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: I think that it was important that we be like,
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: she's not interested in a relationship, but that is not
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: the only reason you date.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: So that's just the truth.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: If it wasn't twelve dates, it could have been twelve murders.
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: Like it's a different show. It's like doves at that point,
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: but like it's you know, if she is she's reinvigorating
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: her sense of herself and it just this one happens
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: to be through dating, And I thought that was a Yeah,
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: I love my I love.
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: That about this, But I agree with you that the
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: way may played it, she's not someone who's she's a
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: creative in the world. She's not afraid of experience, it's
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: afraid of a good time just because she's in a
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: low moment in life.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: She's not like a wallflower.
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: She's not a weirdo who needs someone to drag her
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: into society. Like she knows how to be in the
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: world and do stuff, and so she's not that's not
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: the issue. Yeah, that's not her issue.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Speaking of relationships, can we talk about mac and Evelyn
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: and the lovely Jane Seymour I.
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: Mean another kind of pinch me moment of asting, of course, sure.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: And she was such an enthusiastic participant in this, like
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: she was so here for the love story, for the
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: ways in which it was about two people who had
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: been through a lot in life and were deciding whether
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: or not to maybe look at each other a certain way,
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: you know, and and try this again or find a connection,
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: whether it's romantic or platonic. And they, you know, she
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: and Nathaniel Parker just knocked it out of the park
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: as far as great chemistry. They they took it seriously
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: and they carried with you.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Know, a lot of intention into making.
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: This love story feel just as important in the whole
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: series as anything.
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: She also changed, I mean to me the role writing
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: Evelyn and watching Jane play Evelyn. There was a very
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: interesting change in the character from from my experience in
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: the room because I've famously very protective of Evelyn. I
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: don't know why. Something about that character. I was like,
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: nothing bad can happen to her. And then but in
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: my head she was a little bit you know, drier
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: and a little bit spark like crankier about things. And
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: then you put all those words in Jane Seymour's mouth
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: and they are the most charming, lovely human who knows
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: themselves right. And I was like, oh, that's how that
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: works so well? Is you know, you write towards one
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: thing and then an actress comes in and goes hold
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: on said a lot of it line for line, and
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: it still just changed it entirely and made this really
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: well rounded character who had a lot going on inside
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: of them.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: So and she has the most beautiful hair.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: The most.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Okay, before we keep going, we should probably talk about
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: that little seven day magic mind experiment we did last week.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that thing that I thought would absolutely do nothing,
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: and somehow I did something. I tried it because my
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: afternoons have been rough, like I'll sit down to work
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: and immediately think Nope, not today. And I tried because
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: my brain fog has been real. I can start the
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: day feeling like I'm on top of things, and then
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: by noon I'm like staring at the screen going like what.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: Was I doing?
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: So around day three of the Magic Mind, I remember
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: thinking like, oh, I'm just doing my thing. I'm not pausing,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: going what are you doing, Wendy?
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: Do you know what I mean?
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah? The biggest thing for me was that I wasn't
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: scrambling to find my focus. It's like my attention span
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: stopped fighting with me. And because it's not coffee level intensity,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: I wasn't jittery. I could just sit and do the thing.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: I know, you're the kind of girl that's like I
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: can't drink a coffee in the afternoon. Here's the thing.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: For me.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: It didn't like change my personality or fix my life
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: in any way, but it did make the week feel
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: a little bit easier, especially towards the end of the week,
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: where I'm like done, Yeah, just through the edges, a
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: little bit less fog, more focus, and if your brain
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: feels like a little cluttered browser window most days, this
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: might help.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: So if you are curious, we do have a link.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: It's magicmind dot com.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Slash Girls Gone twenty and the Code Girls Gone twenty
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: gets you a discount. Try it for seven days and
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: see if it does anything for you. We were surprised
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: in a good way. Well, I will tell you.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: I watched episode three.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Last night, Zach's episode.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Zach's episode, and when Evelyn and Matt go on their
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: road trip and we have this whole like scream scene,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, like, it really made me feel things.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: And as I'm watching this, I was like, I don't
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: even care if these two end up together. I truly
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: just love their friendship so much and I'm so invested
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: in whatever happens between them. And I had told Megan
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: off Mike, yes, it's fun to watch Kate's dates, but
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: I think I'm closer in age to Mac and Evelyn,
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: so like I'm rooting for this relationship. But anyway, lovely
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: lovely stuff between them and episode three, I just love
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: it so much.
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: We're all channeling our own line. I mean Evelyn to meet.
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: My father died five years ago. My mother is really
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: she's an adventurer now in a way that she kind
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: of always was, but it's different. And I think that
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: that screaming off the cliff was something in the writer's
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: room that we sort of when we landed on it.
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: It was very well preserved. It was like where does
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: it happen? Where in the episode does it happen? How
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: does it get there?
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: All those things and this is you know, really Zach
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: deserves the credit for that first Like he's the one
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: that wrote that episode, and that section of the episode
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: remained pretty much unchanged the whole time because he really
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: nailed it and found the right amount of sentiment, the
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: right amount of humor, and something that felt cinematic and
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: appropriate for like a visual medium, but still felt true
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: and like like something that could be nice if it
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: was real, you know, if we really had these places
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: to express ourselves and these people that forced us to
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: let things out. I personally absolutely love The Sheep and
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: I think that being on set with the Sheep in mental.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Sequence was my favorite, one of my favorite days on set.
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is so funny you said that I was
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: watching that scene and I was like, how how who corralled.
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: Literally this random farmer who had a field next to
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: where we were shooting, and the.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Did you have our enterprising location? People went over and
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: were like would you bring the sheep over?
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: And he said sure, and it was him and a dog,
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: literally a sheep herding dog, and they just came down.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: I have a video. We're all set up for cameras, car.
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: The actors and in the distance is this man and
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: his dog and this flock of sheep.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Coming down the road.
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: It was wild.
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: It was as irish as you could possibly imagine. It
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: was so fun and some of the sheep, you know,
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: got into the craft services and like into the camp
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: like it just was a delightful day and you're working
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: with animals. Is a real crap shoot, but it was
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: pretty great. But Zak and I were together on set
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: the day they shot the scream off the cliff and
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: it was a beautiful day and our actors really went
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: for it and it was so rewarding to see it,
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: and that that location itself, that.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Was yeah, yeah, well it really translated on screen like
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: I'm glad to hear them.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Was really moved by it. So nice work. Shooting in Ireland.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: You touch on it briefly, but one of my favorite
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: places in the world is Ireland. My parents go there
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: all the time and we come back and we say,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: how is the weather. My mom says it was irish, Like,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: you know, it's very Did that impact filming days?
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, you were there not have irish weather? We wow,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: It's another one of those things that makes you feel
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: like this was imagining.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: So it was dark and cold. We shot.
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: You know a lot of times Hallmark movies shoot in summer,
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: and we shot February through May, so we shot.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: And start in the dark winter into the spring. I
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: think we had one rain day. That's it. One day
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: where rain really impacted our schedule.
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: A lot of our experiors we had no rain. We
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: had blue skies to the point where I was like,
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: this is a problem.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: This is California.
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: Those flowers came back at one point and it was like,
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: we've got flowers on the hillside.
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: We shot in the park and the daffodils were coming
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: in and I was like, I'm just going to take
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: some scissors and I'm just going to run and they
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: were like, you cannot do that, And I was like, well,
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: just everybody look away, I will just we'll just get
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: rid of the munch. But you know that's it wasn't
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: when we first learned that we were going to shoot
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: in Ireland, because there were multiple options of places to
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: shoot for England and Ireland.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Was one of them. When we settled on Ireland, my
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: concern was the rain.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: It was going to be that the weather was going
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: to somehow impact this, and it really wasn't an issue.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Switching yours completely, Yeah, thanks Ireland, switching gears completely. The
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: diversity and representation in this cast is so great. How
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: much of a hand did you have in that? How
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: important was that? Because I think we're telling so many
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: different stories here that it's nice to see so many
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: different lives represented on screen in a real as you said,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: just like natural way, not like this is a very
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: special episode of television. And look at those same sex
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: couple having a dance, right, it just happens.
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: Well, look this takes place, the story takes place in
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: London and areas we're.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Outside of London. It's an incredibly diverse place.
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: We were representing the truth of the location truly, and
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: there is a lot of fun in different perspectives on
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: the holiday. So you know that part is always intentional too,
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: is just keeping like in a big city where there's
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: lots of different cultures and lots of different colors and
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: lots of different holidays, keeping it all really you know,
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: true to that in real life. In the show, I
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: also want to again give Dava credit as she's Latina
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: and she's almost the only diversity, really uh racial diversity
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: in our writer's room, and she, you know, came in
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: very connected to that topic and all of us are too.
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: We were all really aware that we wanted to keep
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: that in mind. But when we went through the casting process,
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: it was something we talked about all the time, was
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: making sure this felt like true life and real life.
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: You know, we all live in big cities and this
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: is what life looks like. So it was it was
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: simply that, but it was absolutely something that you know
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: was intentional.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Well, and every person on the screen is more beautiful
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: than the next, Like people walk on and like.
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: Even I was like like everybody. Also, everyone was so
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: tall except for May, so it was also so funny.
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: But yeah, there was a lot of good looking people.
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: And what are you gonna do? Everybody you.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Talked about a lot of fidelity to the script.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: The script was written, May shows up, she slides right in,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: puts her own little spin on it. Are there any
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: improvised moments that made it into the final cut? Anything
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: that you go, oh, wait, yeah, that's good.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: Many I'm trying to think and we think of episode
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: one and two, Zach, if you can think of anything.
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: I haven't even seen episode three yet, like I'm I'm
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: I'm seeing it Friday. I'm very excited.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: Oh well, I've just been was in post production for
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: I've seen it. I could recite the entire series to
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: you all by memory, and you know, it's funny. I
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: never got tired of it, which I am also am.
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: I like a narcissist, couldn't get tired of show.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: But I never came to do that.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Can you do that jump cut monologue opening by heart?
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Because oh my gosh, that's so good.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: It's in a museum, So there are I can think
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: of a couple of things that you know, may like.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: One of them that comes to mind. I think it's
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: episode four where Callum agrees to do.
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: Something that he said he's not going to do, and
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: she says, you crumbled like a cookie and I that
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: was not the line, and I liked it was her.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: She tried a bunch of different things like that, and
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: we love that one.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: And that's like not the most exciting.
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: Example, but it's just there were a million moments like
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: that where she just could give you, like, let me
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: try five different ways of saying you know the same thing, and.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Which one was cuter or funnier. And I remember I.
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: When she did that, I was like, damn, that was good,
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: Like I like, I like that choice, and I love
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: these times when she brings in her own creativity and humor.
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: There. There is also that scene in episode four where
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: they're in the tea house where it's it's Delilah and
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: Mac and Kate. And I was weirdly on set that
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: day because I in the shot. I got to sit
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: behind Mary McDonald because she is, I mean, top tier.
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: I teach a class about her arc in Battlestar Galactica,
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: like she is my favorite human. Don't meet your heroes
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: unless it's Mary McDonald. But there was this moment where
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: I think Mary and May looked at each other and wait,
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: wait is it are we doing this? Or are we
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: doing this? And the director just was like, what's your take,
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: and they tweeked the scene and like the I think
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: they flipped like four lines over on themselves and suddenly
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: everything worked really well. And it was just such a
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: wild thing to watch two actresses who have been doing
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: it and know it that hard, like know the process,
• 43:42
  Speaker 5: work with the director, work with everybody else in the room,
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: and go so, well, let's just change that to that
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: great yeah, And then they shot it and we were
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: all out of there. It was pretty amazing.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: I think the benefit when you have people like May,
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: people like Mary, people like Jane who've done so much
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: they have an intuition about these some of these choices,
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: and it is in those moments I always have the
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: same feeling, which is like, oh my god, that's great,
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: and then followed by why.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Didn't I think of that? But it keeps you humble.
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: But it's important to remember this is it isn't just
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: you write a thing and they say the words.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: It can be a collaboration.
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: Everyone finds it together and that is a good thing
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: and that it should be encouraged. You know, when you
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: have trusted collaborators like we did, and you know, especially
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: for a series where you're spending this much time with
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: the characters. May was invested, and you know, Mary was
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: invested and Jay was invested in what their careers were
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: doing for six episodes so that it felt real and
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: felt like they could bring something special and they all did.
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: And I appreciate so much that they felt comfortable being
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: able to do that well.
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: They knew how they were thinking five steps ahead of
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: all of us. They knew or what it would be
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: like in the editing room, they knew how to how
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: it would play, what they would need later, and it was.
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: It was a shocking witness. But that I would say
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: that that's pretty common. Like I have now worked Cardi
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: Wong is in two Christmas movies, and when I found
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: out he was cast in More than Merrier, I rewrote
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: for him because in Road to Christmas, there's this one
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: moment where he ad libbed this line where they all
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: come to the door and she opens it up and
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: he just went, hi, Mama, And I burst into tears
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: every time, and everyone talks about that in like reviews
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: and not scripted, just Cardi being really good and so
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: of course that's the guy you call right like you
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: then say, can we get him in this role again
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: so that we can do this thing. And like I've
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: tried to get him in every movie now simply because
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: he did it again and more than merrier. He has
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: this like he changed a line about where his family
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: was for Christmas, and like it's ten times touching. It's
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: ten times better than I would have come up with.
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: So it's you know, the first time I ever worked
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: really closely with an actor in this way was with
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: Rob Buckley in Christmas House and we you know, that
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: was his original pitch and we conceived of the story
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: together and then I wrote the script, but he like
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: he had such a like we would sit and talk
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: about the story and the scenes and he would kind
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: of start to like perform a little. And I felt
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: like such a dummy because I'd never really been that
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: aware of how actors take what you've written and start
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: to make it feel natural and make it feel connected
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: to a character.
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: And all that.
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: And sitting and doing some of that and then being
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: able to edit the script along the way in development.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: With his input, I was like, oh my god, this is.
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: Gold to be able to really have that like, oh
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: my gosh, how great and you find the best line
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: together because they're finding what performs best for them, and
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: you're finding, you know, like what sounds best and what's
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: going to connect to the story later.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: It's just it was terrific and it made me less.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: It made me, you know, very unafraid to do that
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: in the future with other actors. And on this show,
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: you know, every time the actor was like, I want
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: to talk about this scene, I'm like, yes, tell me.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Tell me what all your thoughts are.
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: What do you want?
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: You know, let's talk talk it through, because you can't
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: be a fraid to change something and find the better version.
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: It has to be okay that what you have on
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: the page is you know what you know. There's always
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: up for discussion to some degree. It doesn't mean you
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: throw it out. Sometimes you talk to the actor and
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: you keep exactly what's on the page. But it is
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: not a conversation to be afraid of.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: It's so funny that you say that about You're like, oh,
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: this is how it works. Because speaking about Christmas House,
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: the mother in that show, it's Sharon Nyan think.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: I know it.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: I know we just saw her on Find Name Mister
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Christmas and she does these four scenes with these four actors,
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: and I felt that moment, I was like, oh, she
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: changed her performance to match the energy of the guy
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: in the room that's acting.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: It's just like it's like.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: More than memorizing lines. Yeah, like we know that, but
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: then you see it.
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: Not that I thought it was easy right exactly, and
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: you know I yeah, yes.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: But watching someone like Sharon Lawrence take it and just
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: tweak it ever so slightly, it just had a different
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: feel every time.
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: And in our review I was.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Like, that was amazing to see it happened. So, yeah,
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: I think that's very interesting to watch it come to life.
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: Well, I want to give a shout out to to
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: our director for Block one. Imer Conroy is a big
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: director in Ireland and she's been on the series Blood
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: of My Blood, which is the spin off of Outlander,
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: and so she's like used to being in fields and
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: rain and blood and stuff, and then she came into
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: our half of our series and the Christmas loveliness. But
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: she and May connected really early, really quickly, and she
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: watching the way that she would that emer would share
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: like directing, like the way she did it, like the
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: suggestions she'd make. She'd find one one emotional thing to
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: just speak on simply and let the actor take it
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: from there. And I felt like it was such an
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: education for me to understand how you speak to an
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: actor in that way, because you know, as showrunners, Dom
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: and I are there, our hands are and everything. We're
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: like watching everybody all the time, changing the scripts and
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: changing the budgets and you know, overseeing everything. But we
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: don't direct, and you know, the relationship between the director
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: and the actors is sacred, and so watching that and
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: seeing how that shapes the scenes too was I was
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: grateful to get to see that firsthand and see it
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: so successfully. And our second block director Megan Fox, not
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: that Megan Fox different Megan Fox. She's so great at
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: finding the joke, finding the way the framing would really
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: enhance the actors and explaining that to them.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: It was just so such a great part of this.
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: But the performances, well, the actors deserve the line's share
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: of the credit, obviously. I don't want to miss a
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: chance to credit you know, are great, our great directors.
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: And it was fun to have a bunch of women
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: at the top of the help, you know, like female shrerunners.
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: And the set is the set is so different when
• 49:53
  Speaker 5: that happens, and it is a million times better. All
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: the sets that you're on, the ones that arerun by women,
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: you're so of like, oh god, thank god. It's just
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: exhausting otherwise because it's like, is there going to be yelling.
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: You breathe, Yeah, relax your job.
• 50:12
  Speaker 5: I'm not saying that that's not sure. Boy. In the
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: long run, you really feel the chance to go to
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: work for a woman who is a showrunner is Oh God.
• 50:24
  Speaker 5: If you're out there and you're hope like that is
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: the key to just making work work.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Well, I can say, well, I do.
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: I want to say that I feel like this genre,
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: this story meant a lot to me. I mean, I
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: was really hoping it would be entertaining and funny and
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: christmassy and cozy and transportive in the way the holiday
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: is or something like that. But I also wanted to
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: feel like real women and real people and the real
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: relationship you know, between all the different characters, the men
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: as well. And you know, I do think that we
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: had the benefit of being nuanced women and bringing all
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: these experiences about love and family and friendship to the story.
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: That was really it was just try not to be
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: cliche as often as possible.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: With the rom com you know, trips that we're so
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: familiar with.
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but I mean it's also this is the part
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: also that I keep finding, having now done rom coms
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: this long, is that they are Yeah, they are fantasy
• 51:24
  Speaker 5: in a lot of ways, but it's it's it's so
• 51:27
  Speaker 5: based in a truth of and like it's very specifically.
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: You know, the first year I wrote a bunch of
• 51:33
  Speaker 5: these movies, I wanted to be away from Christmas, and
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: Aaron turned to me on my way out and was like,
• 51:38
  Speaker 5: going to You're gonna fall in love while you're on
• 51:40
  Speaker 5: a trip away for Christmas, because now you've written this
• 51:43
  Speaker 5: for yourself, And like, no, I didn't, but I did
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: have the most romantic Christmas on record, Like we watched
• 51:48
  Speaker 5: Watership Down. There was a fire, it was snowing, and
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: it was very much but but but the idea that like,
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: you know, the tropes that you see in these movies,
• 51:58
  Speaker 5: like of course there's a confident on I have one.
• 52:01
  Speaker 5: It's Aaron, right, like I'm going to write these characters.
• 52:05
  Speaker 5: You know the reason that a lot of these stories
• 52:07
  Speaker 5: are like, well, someone goes home for Christmas. Yeah, you
• 52:09
  Speaker 5: go home for Christmas. That's the thing that happens every
• 52:11
  Speaker 5: year that you know, it's extrapolating on actual the emotional
• 52:16
  Speaker 5: lives of the people who are writing them. And so
• 52:18
  Speaker 5: I think this particular group of people who were assembled
• 52:24
  Speaker 5: to create that like at every level, I mean starting
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: in the writer's room, but then extrapolating it out. I
• 52:30
  Speaker 5: think everybody felt really comfortable bringing that part of themselves,
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: the rom com part of their own lives to this story.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: Well, before we go, what are you most excited for
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: viewers to see in the upcoming episodes.
• 52:44
  Speaker 5: There's a thing that happens to the Pear Tree that
• 52:48
  Speaker 5: I feel like I bullied into the story with Max
• 52:52
  Speaker 5: Handicrafts that it's one of my favorite things and I'm
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: dying to see because I wasn't there when it was shot,
• 52:57
  Speaker 5: but I'm dying to see how it turned out. So
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: there's a thing.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: I like all the kissing, Yeah, that's not to come.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited about.
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: And I think that every single time a date like
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: I you know, gets to come to life on screen,
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: I'm excited for people to see it and curious if
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: people think, like I wish I could do that and
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: go to that and have that. I also love the
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: sheep endlessly.
• 53:25
  Speaker 5: Love thee that car. That car is amazing.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: There was a I can't remember if you were there.
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: I got called to the art department one day and
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: they had a board full of car photos and they're like,
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: pick a car for Evelyn, and I was like.
• 53:40
  Speaker 5: That one fun.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was really fun.
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: That's so it's so fun to hear, like the inside
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: base car beautiful.
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: In the script, I think it was like a Volkswagen thing.
• 53:53
  Speaker 5: It was like a boxy like those years. Yeah, I
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: kept putting it in. They were like, that's an ugly car,
• 54:00
  Speaker 5: but it's beautiful what they got.
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: But I think I think that the conflict increases between
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: as like the day, you know, as romances develop and
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: there's more heightened sort of conversations. Those scenes are my
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: favorite is when May and Richard and Callum I.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: Just mixed the actors we do all the time.
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: We get to like take it one step further and
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: not it's not just flirting and it's not just lovely.
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: It's actually like digging into the relationships stuff.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: Those scenes. I really love those scenes.
• 54:31
  Speaker 5: Plus Delilah Delia, Oh.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Mary mcmary McDonald, Yeah, it's just the.
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: Greatest human ever to walk the planet.
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: Or any I guess we could just list all the
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: things we like about it. We're just never going to
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: stop this episode.
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: Well, why don't you tell people where they can follow
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: your work and keep up with you after this episode.
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: I'm simple, I'm just Instagram Aaron nine one seven.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: I'm going to post a lot of pictures of the sheep.
• 54:57
  Speaker 5: Go ahead, yah, I'm less Instagram. I you can find
• 55:00
  Speaker 5: mostly me at zach Hug dot com or story hug
• 55:03
  Speaker 5: writing dot com, where I do some consulting and such.
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: So great, amazing.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being here, for sharing your
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: time and your stories with us. Thank you to our
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: listeners for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark,
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: a Bramble Jam podcast.
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: We will be back next time with more Hallmark reviews.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: Goodbye bye Ye.
• 55:30
  Speaker 7: All right friends, before we go, just a quick heads up.
• 55:37
  Speaker 7: You're about to hear some ads. Thee little gems help
• 55:39
  Speaker 7: us keep the show running and the Hallmark love flowing.
• 55:42
  Speaker 7: So do with that info what you will grab us neck,
• 55:46
  Speaker 7: hit the skip button, or maybe just maybe listen in
• 55:49
  Speaker 7: and discover your new favorite product.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: Bye