Christmas In Tune

By starrymag | November 26, 2021

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

 

Q) Reba, it goes without saying and, John, you are certainly well known for your singing voice, can the two of you talk about singing together?

REBA MCENTIRE: I thought it was a lot of fun.  I had a blast singing with John.  I had a great time working with John singing.  He was fun.  He knew what he was going to sing and prepared and John and I had a wonderful time on the movie getting to sing together, act together, and he’s a lot of fun to sing with, and the songs we got to sing were marvelous, some of my favorite songs to get to sing.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: And what was so great about this is we got to sing in the studio, the real studio.  Before we filmed, we got to hear all the music and work on the music, and then we got to come to the set and sing that music again.  So, we really kind of had the opportunity to do everything that in the music world we’d been doing for decades, dare I say it, and it was so wonderful to sing with Reba.  I’ve never sung with Reba before, at least she didn’t know.  I mean, I was singing with her on the radio, but it was so wonderful to be singing with her on the same mic and on the same stage, wonderful to share a stage with you.

Q) Reba, Christmas has become kind of a tradition for you whether you’re doing a movie, or you’re hosting “CMA Country Christmas” or whatever. Could you talk briefly about your relationship with Christmas TV, your thoughts about it?

REBA MCENTIRE: I love it. I think it’s a warm, wonderful way to express your feelings.  Music goes along way with getting everybody in the holiday mood, and it’s also given us a chance to reflect on the year that we’ve had, all the wonderful things that have happened and our many blessings, and we remember the reason for the season. So, I love to be a part of television during the Christmas holidays.

Q) I wanted to ask you, I mean, this is such a beautiful story, by the way. You have a parent who was once a performer in the past, and now get a chance to reunite. Now for you individually, have you guys ever gone through anything like that where you had to reunite with someone from your past and try to get into a warm spirit such as this one in the film?

REBA MCENTIRE: I have

JOHN SCHNEIDER: I tried it once.  It didn’t work out so well for me.  It worked out much better in the movie.

[laughter]

REBA MCENTIRE: In those situations, it is pretty much like acting, and you have to move along with things to make it great for the rest of the family; yes.

Q) What is a good moment that happened between you guys on set? Like what is the most fun moment that you can give us?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: My most memorable moment was when we were doing that scene where we were being interviewed, and we started to look at each other.  Our timing became exactly the same, and I don’t think we realize it, but the crew breaking up because we were so funny together.  So that was my favorite part, kind of like doing what we’re doing right now, but the Zoom thing makes it a little awkward.  We’re much funnier when we’re not on a Zoom call.

[laughter]

Q) Talk about what’s so much fun, can you talk about what you found the most challenging doing this film?

REBA MCENTIRE: I think the most challenging thing that all of us can speak for was trying to film a Christmas movie in the heat and humidity of Nashville, Tennessee.  That was the hardest part, but we endured.  We got through it, and everybody had a wonderful time.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah.  The hours were not bad at all.  It was hot, obviously, but you always do a Christmas movie in July, as you always do a beach movie in November and December. I didn’t have any difficulty with anything except maybe not eating all the snacks, because they were great.

Q) Norm, your character is Duke who plays the musical director, and he also sort of plays the mediator between Georgia and Joe. Can you talk a little bit about your role?

NORM LEWIS: Yeah.  First of all, being in this movie was exciting for me with these two OGs right here.  And then working with–We’ve seen Candice grow up on television, and now she’s got her own family now, you know, with a blended family.  And then this amazing young man Justin, working with this great crew, it was so much fun.  But to answer your question, yeah, I was happy to be a yenta.  I was happy to be that person knowing that these two actually are meant to be together.  I’ve actually had situations like that before, so I pulled from those experiences to try to bring that into the movie.

Q) Candice, it’s so incredible to see you have these iconic actors as your parents. Talk about working with Reba and John.

CANDICE KING: Yeah.  I mean, that was one of the most exciting things when I was flying into Nashville to do this was just knowing immediately being in a room with so many talented people that I’ve admired for years.  It couldn’t have been a warmer welcome. I think that, the tone on set usually starts from the top, and the tone on set was happy, jolly, beautiful–all the Christmas feelings you could ever imagine, and I think that is attributed to Reba and John, the joy that you each brought to work every day.  So, and, honestly, I just had to try not to geek out the whole time every time they were singing live.  I mean, they had to rehearse in front of us, and it was so beautiful.  John was always just strumming his guitar whenever he had a guitar in the scene, and I think that it’s just imperative onsets that someone’s always in a room playing a guitar.

NORM LEWIS: Yeah.

CANDICE KING: I think that needs to be a new like rule because it is so soothing, and just it was a blast of an experience.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Good idea.

Q) Justin, you and Candice have such great onscreen chemistry as well. Did you feel that instantly as well, or did you guys spend some time together to flesh out this on-screen relationship?

JUSTIN DAVID: I think right off the bat when we met each other we had a good relationship right there and just like also just getting to know each other on like a friendship level just because we’re going to be working so closely together, you know.  And it was very nice.  Like it flowed in the story and like, work alongside everyone, because it is essentially like a family that I’m working with, you know.  Like we got Reba being Belle’s mom and John being Belle’s dad.  Like it was really easy.  It was awesome, honestly.  Yeah.

Q) John and Reba, both of you have done projects where you’ve had to sing in them, and then other projects where there was no singing involved. When you have a role where you have to sing, does that feel like I’m going to do something with an old friend, and it makes it more comfortable? Or does it add another layer of, “Oh, my gosh.  I now have to not only know my lines and do the acting, but I also have to sing.”

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Well, I tell you, it was–thank you–it was, it truly was getting to work with an old friend. Reba and I met each other quite some time ago, and for me—because I’m a theater brat, I started doing theater like Norm.  I started doing theater when I was very young, eight years old–so when the opportunity came about for me to do this, this is actually the biggest musical production that I’ve ever done on camera.  So I very much looked forward to it.  It didn’t scare me.  It kind of wrapped itself around me like a warm, Christmas blanket, to be honest with you, and to be able to do it with Reba was icing on the cake, absolutely.

REBA MCENTIRE: Aww. I echo those sentiments exactly.  I had a wonderful time singing with John, adding music to the story was wonderful for me, and I totally enjoyed it.

Q) It is so great to be here with you guys. By the way, I must just first off say, I don’t think anyone has said this yet, you guys look phenomenal. You look amazing.    All holiday-ish.  I love it.  Reba, I want to ask you playing Georgia Winter in Reba McEntire’s “Christmas in Tune,” could you see similarities between yourself in Georgia as she’s also a country artist in this film?

REBA MCENTIRE: Definitely. And I think that’s what made it so much easier for me to perform and play that part, because a lot of the decisions that Georgia made are the decisions that Reba would make.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Uh huh.

REBA MCENTIRE: And the things that she would say Reba would say, so I definitely think there was a similarity there.

Q) John, we see Georgia and Joe have had some bad blood between them from years past as a singing duo, but eventually we see them rekindle their relationship in the movie through the power of music. What was one of your favorite songs to perform with Reba in this holiday movie?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Oh, it must have been “The Mistletoe.” Hands-down. What a beautiful song.

REBA MCENTIRE: Gorgeous.

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Got a wonderful meter to it.  I can’t remember who did the orchestration and the recording of the music, but it is fantastic.  And we talked earlier about it.  It’s very difficult to write and perform anew, great, Christmas song, because there’s a lot of wonderful Christmas songs out there.  I think that this particular song is going to withstand the test of time.  I think it’s going to be a new favorite Christmas song on radio for years to come.

Q) Candice, we will see your character Belle work with the U. S. Army to put on their holiday fundraiser for the Snowball Event. How important is it to think of our troops during the holiday season as they fight to serve our country every single day out of the year?

CANDICE KING: I think it’s incredibly important.  I mean, I think collectively, as a world, we experience what it’s like to be separated from family and not be able to immediately see people we want to see when we were all, quarantined last year.  And so those that are not only sacrificing their lives, but their time away from loved ones for very long periods of time, I think it’s important to just keep them in our minds and our hearts, especially– all year round–but also during the holidays.

Q) Reba, I was wondering if you could tell us who wrote the music, the original songs, and will there be an album from this movie?

REBA MCENTIRE: Ooh, we haven’t talked about an album for the music from this album–from the movie.  I’m trying to remember the lady’s name who wrote “I Needed Christmas Too.”  It’ll come to me about the time we all hang up, but my band and Doug Sisemore did all the arrangements and put the music together.  We went into Dark Horse Studios where we got to shoot part of the movie and record the songs there.  So, I’ll get back with you on that young lady’s name, and the other songs had been recorded before, but I think the selection of the songs were to the point and just wonderful.  Oh, her name was Trannie Anderson who wrote that song “I Needed Christmas Too.”

Q) Candice, you used to sing backup on “Hannah Montana” show. Did you have any spare time where you got to sing with these folks for fun?

CANDICE KING: Oh, no.  Oh, no.  Nope.  I save these dusty pipes just for my little baby.

[laughter]

CANDICE KING: They’re a little rusty –

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Dusty pipes. Dusty, rusty pipes.

CANDICE KING: Yeah.  No, in another life, yes, I was a singer and a backup singer for Miley Cyrus on the “Hannah Montana” tour.  So, it’s a great ice breaker, conversation starter but, no, luckily, I just got to listen to the legends.

Q) Oh, maybe a sequel movie where Candice gets to sing.

CANDICE KING: We’ll see.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*