Brooke Nevin – On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) Please tell us the premise for your movie On The Twelfth Day of Christmas and about your character.

A) It was a really sweet script and when the offer came in as soon as they mentioned a kitchen table filled with arts and crafts and puzzles I was like, “Sign me up!” It just played to all my indulgent Christmas-y traditions. I play Maggie and she wouldn’t be the first to admit it, but she has held a candle for Mitch O’Grady (Robin Dunne) ever since her Freshman college Winter Break when he helps her get home for the holidays. Mitch makes sure Maggie doesn’t miss Christmas and he turns this trip home into one of the most magical holiday adventures. Flash-forward ten years and Maggie is a reporter for her local newspaper when she moves back to town. She turns on the radio and is surprised the DJ is none other than Mitch O’Grady. He had completely disappeared after that fateful Christmas Eve. He’s now not the same Mitch O’Grady and is kind of a grinch. She makes it her quest to reawaken his Christmas spirit doing Secret Santa. It seems to be working well until the boss at her paper has her cover this big time DJ in the small town because of the Secret Santa mystery. She is in kind of a pickle because she is torn between helping Mitch with this quest to reawaken the Christmas spirit or her journalistic integrity. So, comedy ensues and some awkward situations ensue. It’s really fun to see their relationship unfold and the mystery of the Secret Santa adventure unfold at the same time.

Q) Was it easy or hard to get into the spirit so early before that time of the year?

A) It’s kind of funny. We filmed it near Toronto in a town called Hamilton. The cool thing about going back to Canada to film was that it felt like going back home for me. My best friend from childhood lives in Hamilton so I was kind of getting warm fuzzies getting to come home to film the movie. On the day where we did a lot of exteriors, it was 90 degrees and we were doing all of our snow angels, tobogganing and building a snowman. We were in full on sweaters, scarves and boots. So, it was sort of a mind trick that we had to play on ourselves. They would be blowing this foam fake snow from these huge fans and we would be making snow angels in this strange concoction that was supposed to be like snow. Meanwhile, we were sweating like crazy and Robin and I would look at the crew and they were all in shorts and flip-flops. Sometimes we would joke, “The crew is wildly underdressed right now! I don’t’ think they realize it is cold out!” Except it was ninety degrees out and I was in a cashmere sweater. It’s a little bit of movie magic that we were able to pull off.

Q) Was there anything you added to your role as Maggie that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) What I enjoy as an actor is finding maybe some of the humor is involved in the awkward situations. I love that in most of the scenes with Maggie and Mitch she has a secret. It’s really fun as an actor to figure out how that secret gets in the way of all sorts of things. Sometimes it gets in the way in a comedic way, an awkward way or an a really heartfelt way. So, it was fun for me to play with that aspect of the storytelling because the audience knows what Maggie knows, but Mitch doesn’t. It’s a really fun scene to play with.

Q) What scene are you most looking forward to fans watching?

A) There are moments where we see Maggie and Mitch getting closer as he is tasked with carrying out these Christmas activities to get him into the holiday mood. You know Hallmark is going to add lovely holiday music and I just love montage sequences. I’m sure that will be a really cute moment in the movie as he checks off all the Christmas to-do’s on the list.

Q) What are some of your personal favorite holiday traditions?

A) I am a Christmas baby so December takes on a whole extra mythic element. My birthday is December 22nd so December is all a happy time for me! I love putting up the tree and normally I do it the first week of December because I like to have it up for as long as possible. Sometimes I like to let the tree stay up for as long as Valentine’s Day because I love Christmas so much, but I think that is taking it a little too far. My boyfriend and I joke that we will keep the tree up and just take the Christmas decorations down to make it a Valentine’s tree. That could happen this year, but it depends on when we get to taking it down. A tradition of ours is every year we’ll get a new ornament and that is always one of the most fun things to do when I was a kid. I would go to the craft store with my mom and she would let me pick out a new one. I was very, very specific about what was going to be the new ornament that year, which was of course added on to the ornaments I had made as a kid and my sister had made. We often will pick out an ornament that represents a travel adventure, an accomplishment or theme of the year and then the tree becomes not just a tree of ornaments but a tree of memories. It’s a nice way to look at something beautiful and back at the year and the memories.

Q) What do you hope fans take away from seeing the film?

A) To me, all of the Hallmark holiday movies are like turkey legs and stuffing to me. It’s one of those comforting staples of the holiday season. To me, I would just want fans to have an excuse to have a reason to snuggle up and watch a really feel-good holiday event. I think Hallmark does a nice job. It’s a format that we all recognize and that we find familiar and there is comfort in that. It is so perfectly indulgent to get sit on the couch with some hot chocolate, mint tea or whatever and sit and watch and enjoy.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you will receive?

A) It’s a much more effective way of connecting like minded individuals. You’re also getting instant feedback from your audience. There is nothing you can do to change the performance, obviously, or play with nuances because the project has already been shot, filmed and edited. It is certainly an instant feedback loop, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. It certainly fun. I will be live tweeting the movie! I’ll jump in with some tweeting and some fun Christmas trivia about the movie or behind the scenes shots.

Q) How were you reached out to for the “Bring Back The 4400” Campaign?

A) I certainly signed the petition an retweeted a couple of the campaign hashtags. I was involved in one of the live Q&As, which was really fun. They put together a video of a lot of the actors form the show and unfortunately, I missed the deadline, but it was so well done. I was actually filming On The Twelfth Day of Christmas when they were doing the video. I just had some crazy shoot days and I missed the deadline, but I thought they did such a great job with it. It was so fun to see everybody talk about their characters again and the world of “The 4400.”

Q) How feel about revisiting  the show and the campaign?

A) I think it is like Jenny and Jackie say in the video that there are more stories to tell. I think it in some ways “The 4400” was a little bit ahead of its time, in terms of now we’re seeing “Resurrection,” “The Leftovers” and “The Returned.” A lot of these other sci-fi mysteries have a lot to do with people being reintegrated into life. “The 4400” was kind of like “The X-Files” meets “Heroes” meets “The Returned.” I think it is a really great time to re-explore a lot of those themes and certainly because the show has been off the air for so long there is not only a chance to revisit the characters, but their past . Knowing that the show has been fast forwarded maybe ten years t would be interesting to not only dive into new stories, but what has happened to these characters meanwhile. Maybe the Promise City has been taken over and become a new world order. Who knows?

Q) What do you think about the online resurgence of interest?

A) I think it is a really exciting time in terms of content providers being able to listen to an audience base. If an audience base is loud enough then there is no telling what could be created from that outreach and outpouring of fandom. I think it is a really interesting time for that.