Eric Hicks – Love in Harmony Valley

By starrymag | November 9, 2020

By: Robert Warren

 

 

Q) Please tell us the premise for the movie Love in Harmony Valley.

A) It’s about love… in… well…Harmony Valley. [laughs] The end. No, just kidding. Don’t you just love it when the title tells it all? Now, it actually is about love, and it does take place in the land of Harmony Valley. I have to return home from my career in Silicon Valley to take care of my sister (Nina Kiri) who’s rehabilitating after a car accident. In my spare time I start up a plan to reopen the town’s winery with the help of my friend Flynn (Andy Yu) and create a revitalization plan for the entire town. But in order to accomplish this goal, I need the help of my sister’s BFF Emma (Amber Marshall) who also was the one who caused the car accident and bailed on my sister in her time of need. Conflict ensues, feelings are hurt and lessons are learned. Everyone comes to realize that it takes teamwork to make the dream work. Catchy, huh?

 

Q) How was your character Will originally described to you? 

A) The first introduction to your character is most often very generic, things like handsome, hard-working, works in tech in Silicon Valley, moves home to take care of his sister and starts up a town revitalization plan. You start with basic generic concepts like that and then it’s my job to start filling in the whole world and doing my research. Every day I would come up with a new backstory for Will and he would start to make sense to me – the reasons why he does what he does. The audience will never know this stuff but here’s an insider – I made up my mind that Will lost both his parents in a car crash and it became his responsibility to raise his younger sister. So, when her friend causes a car crash and abandons my sister in her rehab, I take it very personally. It goes against all of Will’s family values. And so, when you first meet my character, he seems like a jerk to Emma but there is always more to the story than presented. It’s these types of things that bring depth to a story. The unwritten and unspoken.

 

Q) What was it about this role or even the movie that made you want to be a part of it? 

A) I had never been the lead in a feature film before so for me this was a milestone. Aside from the challenge, I read the audition sides and breakdown and instantly felt like, I understand this guy. If certain events had taken place in my life this easily could’ve been me. You know, that whole concept of all the different lives we could’ve lived based on every little decision we make, infinite possibilities of who we could be. I was excited to explore this man’s life. And on top of that, I had done two other films with this production company so there was a comfortability and familiarity with everyone on set so I knew I would have the freedom to take risks and play. That’s the kind of thing that gets me excited!

 

Q) Were you familiar with any of your co-stars before working with them on the film? 

A) Like I said above, I knew the whole crew essentially and one of the other cast mates. Nina Kiri and I had hung out before but other than that it was all fresh faces. I’m a country boy and I always said I would love to be on a show like “Heartland” one day. Lots of nature and wildlife, that’s my kind of thing. So, I was aware of my co-star Amber Marshall who is the lead on CBC’s “Heartland.” Pretty exciting surprise to get to work with the Legend of “Amy.” Amber really is a master of her craft, she made everything seem so effortless, it was beautiful to watch and to work with her.

 

Q) In what way would you describe Emma and Will’s relationship? 

A) Emma and Will have been friends since childhood. There is a comfort between them that only decades of knowing someone can allow. I have a childhood friend who is a girl and we grew up together since preschool. We are cool with being weird around one another, we could tell each other how we truly felt and if feelings got hurt, we always knew that the love was there. But behind it all was this unspoken sexual tension. We dug each other. Will and Emma are just like that – except in real life we never acted on these feelings. Well, one night we came close to kissing and the energy was so intense I had to pull back because, to me, kissing her meant everything would change and this was such a beautiful relationship we had I didn’t want to chance wrecking that… I ended up telling her she’s the kind of girl I would want to marry and Bam! I instantly, inadvertently changed our friendship forever. We live in different provinces so I never acted on those feelings. But, in this case, this magical fairy tale film world, these two have the courage to break beyond that friendship barrier and to…Well…you’ll have to watch the film to find out. I essentially got to live out my inner repressed desires through this character I got to play. That’s the beauty of art. It’s like therapy and you get paid to do it. Win-win!

 

Q) What advice did director Justin G. Duck offer that you took to heart while filming? 

A) I asked him what direction we were taking the film and he said, “We’re gonna go a little darker with this one, lots of steady cam and long lenses so you can go deeper if you’d like.” It was music to my ears. Normally these types of romances are complete fluff and fairytale everyone is perfectly happy all the time and smiling. Well that’s not the kind of film either of us wanted to make. We wanted to get to the core of this story and show all sides of it. The heartbreak, the disappointments, the frustrations and obstacles that life can overwhelm us with, we wanted to live it all. I knew I couldn’t cop out. I would have to “go there” emotionally. I made sure to give it my everything. I really appreciated that from Justin. Every film he makes he’s getting sharper and sharper in his storytelling. He recently just shot his first horror film I believe, Anything for Jackson. I haven’t seen it yet but really excited for him to be exploring new genres, can’t wait to watch.

 

Q) What were some of your favorite scenes to film for this movie? 

A) This one scene we had a pony, goats, cats and rabbits all let loose on the set and it was absolute chaos. Hysterical chaos. The goats were jumping off walls and off the pony’s stomach doing 360 jumps off him, eating the decorations off the walls, knocking over pots, etc. etc. It was insanity. We were trying to get all this dialogue out in this six-page scene shooting one takes with very specific blocking and transitions and well…Imagine trying to get any kind of continuity out of that many animals. They were just messing with us. The goats keep “screaming” and I don’t say that lightly. The sound they make sounds like a small child yelling. It was extremely hard to keep a straight face through that scene. During one take I had one of those hysterical contagious laughing attacks. I could barely breathe. I was laughing so hard and Justin was off set being like, “Ok, stop laughing, keep rolling, let’s go guys,” and I couldn’t compose myself. Eventually, I heard everyone off set who was watching the monitors start laughing and that added fuel to the fire. It was a heck of a good time!

 

Q) How did you shake off a long day of being on set? 

A) They put me up in a hotel with a pool and hot tub. I’m a water guy. I would get back from set, hit the gym and then take my scenes for the next day with me and go melt in the jacuzzi while running lines in my head. I’d then cool off in the pool and swim some laps and just float under the water. There’s nothing like floating underwater, the best. I would then go up to my room and continue prepping the next day’s scenes. This routine seemed to do the trick. If I’m somewhere without a pool then I’ll just have a two-hour bath and work my lines from there.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. What kind of fan feedback did you receive to Love in Harmony Valley?

A) Well, before the film released the Amber Marshall “Heartland” fans were concerned that their favorite character Amy would be falling in love with another man other than Ty (Graham Wardle). I actually made a post about this for the fans: “P.S. to all ‘Heartland’ fans, I know I’m not Ty, Ty is frickin awesome and nobody can replace him, I just hope we can all enjoy the film without thinking of ‘Heartland’ 🙄😂 good luck am I right?! Seriously though, warning: this is not ‘Heartland!!’ 😅 🙌😊🙏.” And so the fans really appreciated that and decided to give the film an honest chance. And Graham himself reached out wishing the both of us the best of luck with the film and gave his blessings and so the “Heartland” fans were fully on board! After watching the film, they became the most raving fans of the film. They absolutely loved it, although they thought it was weird seeing their “Amy” kiss another man but the love in the film was so powerful and so they gave me a passing grade, thank God. [laughs]

 

Q) What is it about this movie that will make it a fast fan favorite rom-com? 

A) I personally don’t think it’ll be a fan “favorite” rom-com to be honest with you, BUT… what it does have is:

Abs – and we made sure they were popping, always thinking of the ladies…and gents.

Crying – lots of crying, everyone loves a good cry.

Laughter – the film has its childish goofy moments.

Animals – Ahh man, the cutest animals, goats and a pony. Come onnnn… instant love.

And… of course… ROMANCE! – really great heartfelt scenes that leave you feeling warm inside. That’s the good stuff. That’s what we nailed here. LOVE in Harmony Valley.

It’s a great feel good kind of film. There’s a LOT of heart in this film and it translates through the screen. The “Heartland” fan club is obsessed with it and I would love to do a sequel to this film and explore this world and these characters much deeper with Amber and the team. Fingers crossed baby. Check out the film and let’s make it happen.