Andrew Walker – The Perfect Catch

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) Please tell us the premise for your film The Perfect Catch and about character Chase.

A) The movie is about a baseball player named Chase Tanner (my character) who blows Game Seven of the World Series and is bowed out of Boston. He decides to go back to home to kind of find himself again. He says that he is not hiding out; that he’s just kind of taking a break from baseball. Really, he’s hiding out. He feels like home is the kind of place where he’ll find himself again. He ends up meeting his high school sweetheart (Nikki Deloach) who is in the midst of losing a restaurant that has been in their family for generations. So, she is kind of in a tricky position in her life again. They end up finding each other and ultimately falling in love. They find each other in a pinnacle point in their lives. She likes to play it safe where he is more of a live by the seat of his pants kind of guy. He’s more of a risk taker. He helps her take a few more risks in his life and she helps him find a little more peace in his life and rekindle things with his father because he had a difficult upbringing with his dad as they always butted heads. It’s a sweet story and it is a really relatable film to what a lot of people tend to go through. Everyone hits a point in their life where they have to find themselves again and that’s what this film is about.

Q) What did you find the most challenging aspect of the role?

A) This is the second film I have done with Nikki Deloach and usually what I find difficult about these films is that they are such a short shoot. By the second to last day, you are starting to find stride with your costar and there are these funny moments and natural, organic moments happen, but then the next day you’re done. With this movie, it wasn’t like that. Nikki and I (like I said) have worked together before so we kind of jumped right into it and it was just a much easier process than other ones. Really, no. I guess the most difficult thing is I never want to judge a character I am going into because I am playing him. So, it’s something that I have to feel in whole heartedly. There were definitely some things I didn’t relate to as Andrew like getting paid millions of dollars for throwing a baseball and still finding things to complain about in life. [laughs] So, there were things like that I kind of had to look past. I definitely feel like it was kind of one of these anomaly projects where I didn’t have the kind of challenges I would have with other projects. It was a really seamless experience.

Q) Was there anything you added to Chase that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) I hope to have added some more relatability and a little bit more heart to the character. I really wanted to make people see that he was a  guy. I think a big thing is finding a humor where there may not be humor. I was definitely trying to find some of the funny in the character as well.

Q) Was there a piece of advice that director Steven Monroe gave you that you took to heart while shooting the movie?

A) It’s funny because I feel like I worked with Steven a hundred times before we did this film. It just felt like we jived really great throughout the entire project. I can’t think of one specific thing. Id o know that Steven and I really hit it off on our love of hockey. [laughs] He is a huge hockey fan and so am I. He’s a Nashville Predator fan and I am Montreal Canadian fan so the whole project long we were comparing notes. There was a big trade that happened with defenseman P.K. Subban who want to Nashville and we got this player named Shea Weber. So, we were talking about the strengths and weaknesses of both players. So, we more or less hit it off for our love of hockey and sports and general. He is a great storyteller and that is one thing that I realized pretty quickly working with him. When it came to the project, he knew exactly what he needed and what he wanted. I think that helps a lot, especially when you are working on a short timeline such as a project like this. You want someone pretty savvy with editing so they know exactly what they need in crunch time so we are not doing fourteen or fifteen hour days.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from shooting the film?

A) Vancouver is known as a rainy city and I’ve never actually been on a set there before where it rained every day that we shot. It almost became a joke because some days all we needed was like an hour window of sun and we just could not catch a break. So, my memories of this was it was the rainiest project I have ever been a part of in my close to thirty years of acting. I have also never worked on a project where I had two leading ladies so recently in back to back projects with such a short gap between project. Lisa Durupt, Nikki and I had just worked together six or seven months before so it was very memorable to be able to just jump right on set with them. I love both of them! They are so much fun to be around. We had a blast! We had such a great time and it was just great to be able to work with them. Also, to do a movie about sports that was pretty memorable. I never have done a movie where I played a professional athlete before and I came from an athletic background. Those three things stood out for me.

Q) Is there any chance we can convince you to return to Twitter?

A) [laughs] I may…

Q) What makes The Perfect Catch such a good fit for the Hallmark Channel?

A) Kind of what I said before, I think it is a very relatable film and it is very timely. I think people need to see a story about perseverance and about people really finding the good in a bad situation. So, I think it is just a very approachable film for everyone – for all ages. This is a true family film. It’s like what I thought of Disney movies back in the day when I’d sit down on Sunday nights to watch a Disney movie with my parents. It’s something that everyone can watch, young and old.