Eric Mabius – Welcome to Christmas

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are some of the themes and undertones of the film Welcome to Christmas?

A) Well, like most Christmas movies it will check all the boxes. It’s really about the definition of family and what Christmas means to each individual. It’s about people who are really struggling in having constructed their lives from pain and loss that they haven’t made any room for anyone else. Jennifer Finnegan’s character comes along and the two are similar in many ways. They are good at what they do, but they each have distractions to stop them from connecting with their insides. It used to be that Hallmark was a guilty pleasure that everyone of that club who used to hide the fact that they wanted to stay in on the weekend and watch Hallmark movies. Now, everyone is unabashed about it. They are bragging about it! It feels like it’s really entered the cultural zeitgeist where when I first started doing Hallmark projects some of my friends didn’t understand why and it was really largely because of what I connected with and that was the show “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” The script that Martha [Williamson] had created and the character that Martha had created was like a doorway for me into the potential of what could happen. Certainly, you can’t look at social media or read a news site without some mention of Hallmark and what it does and how it makes people feel. The fact that other networks are trying to jump on that bandwagon and there is such an incredible place at Hallmark and the way that they do things that it kind of feels like a weak facsimile and it’s nice to be a part of the kindest network and group of creative people I’ve ever worked with. I was excited to be able to pitch this idea with my producing partner Jim Head.

Q) What is it about these holiday/seasonal movies that seem to add a little extra magic?

A) Not to get on my anti-capitalist bandwagon soapbox, but I feel that we all get caught up in consuming. We consume. We’re so excited that Amazon can get us our goods the same day. We’re so excited that we can be at the store at midnight on Thanksgiving to fight through crowds to save $7.98 on for something we don’t really need. I feel like Hallmark continues to connect. Even though we understand, like I say, that someone is going to get kissed by the end of the movie or someone is going to get in touch with feelings that they hadn’t been in touch with ever or in a long time, but there is a reason why. There is an algorithm in there certainly. Things are very divisive right now in our country and a more obvious statement hasn’t been spoken. I know, but I think there is an algorithm that opposes what is going on. The direr things seem politically or the more troublesome things seem I think people turn to Hallmark because they know what to expect. We saw the rise of really dark projects when Obama was in office because I think there was a bit calmer. I’m not choosing sides here. It’s just a statement of fact. It was years of very dark shows because there was an exploration going on that hadn’t in television really ever in that way. I think the pendulum is swinging the other way and Hallmark sort of stays the course. There are really important things to get in touch with that it reminds of us this really simple connection to family – whatever family is for you. I’m excited that Hallmark continues to realize they have to diversity their programming. They are going to have at least two or three Hanukkah movies next year and they have many more people of color on their movies and programs. It’s only going to continue and I just think it takes a while for those things to occur and they should have happened a long time ago everywhere, but the fact that they’re able to change and evolve with the audiences I think is really essential here.

Q) The hallmark of Hallmark movies is the great balance of heart and humor as well as love and lessons. How does this film stay consistent with that?

A) I pitched this book series with my producing partner, Jim Head, a year ago. That was really what, in all of the development meetings we had as the script evolved, to hang on to. That’s not to say it’s slapstick, but we wanted to hang on to the humor. Without the humor the heavy moments don’t land. You feel sort of bludgeoned. I think that’s really important and is a hard balance to find. So, like in life, you have to take the bitter with the sweet and I think having those elements addressed in a movie makes an audience member satisfied and full up. It’s a simple way of saying it, but the boxes are all checked. There was struggle to overcome. Granted, not too much because people don’t want to see how painful life is because life can be painful, our everyday lives – I think in a cathartic way and in a positive way as opposed to pretending that they’re not so many ills to cure in the world. It’s rare even now with TV programming that you can sit around television with your family. I have a nine and twelve-year-old (two boys) and that’s another reason why I really enjoy being in business with the network because I’m proud to be able to sit down with my family. I can send it to my godmother or my mom and not have to worry about there being something that they’ll find offensive (language and context). We know what those networks are if we want to tune in for that. But it’s nice that there is a place to go. People ask, “How many Christmas movies can you have?” Well, you can have a lot and people will still want more, which is why I think Hallmark does it so well. I’ve only done a few Christmas movies, but the show I’ve worked on for the last five years (“Signed, Sealed, Delivered”) for Hallmark has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life because you think it would be on some cutting edge network with world famous actors, but it’s really just about being put in challenging situations that you’ve never faced as an actor and/or life before. It’s exciting to be a part of this and I’m hopefully going to continue to pitch new ideas. If this movie does well, hopefully we’ll get to do another one. The author came to visit us. She’s done seven of these books in the series and if need be then she can always do more. It’s really just so much fun. It’s just such a joy to go to work every day. I haven’t been able to say that in quite a while (the last five years not withstanding). It’s been a struggle, but these are just such amazing people to work with. This was a new challenge. Some of this was shot seven hours north of Vancouver. We were so far up that it was just astounding. We were shooting in this amazing town called Revelstoke, which sounds like somewhere James Bond would live. It was this amazing, charming ski town in the middle of nowhere. I guess people are starting to find out about it more and more since they put in a world class ski mountain about ten years ago.

Q) Quite often for films the setting can feel like a character in itself, how does this hold true?

A) That’s what is so great about my producing partner Jim. Jim tends to find locations that haven’t been used before. Hallmark shoots a lot in Canada because of the locations but trying to find something the audience hasn’t seen before (streets or similar backdrops) is exciting. I think that taking the cast and crew away from the comfort zone into the Winter wonderland…I mean, it even snowed when we were there shooting in September. It’s sort of like going to Summer camp. You’re fully immersed so some of the character rubs off on you and you are in the environment so you’re walking down the street, but this is a street and not a movie set. It’s a new street to you so it makes our job as actors much easier, I think. Jumping fully into this environment you believe the situations you’re in. Of course, my character was familiar with that town, but I certainly imagined it would have helped Jennifer because it was a place she never visited. I think the whole nature of this movie is about the town reconnecting with traditions that were lost – trying to impress this woman who has the decision-making power to bring about complete prosperity. Putting in a high-class ski resort on the mountain would change their lives. My character, as the town sheriff, was sort of taking a stand back and wait and see attitude whether this was a good thing or bad thing. It was interesting to play someone – I wouldn’t say aloof, but observing and supportive of the local businesses that were failing yet at the same time was also sort of the glue that was holding the town together. And his job really is to, in a small town like that, see that everyone is at least somewhat content in their lives. A lot of inner conflict in the town – how do they want to define themselves and trying to impress this woman Madison (Jennifer’s character) with how quaint, full of tradition and how Christmas-y and how perfect this town is that they actually started to remember what they had lost. So, everyone sort of gained from the process. It’s a really wonderful ending without anyone selling out.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming the movie?

A) The seven hour drive up. It could be seventy degrees in the city and there is a mountain pass that you go through that lasts probably thirty miles where it’s always colder. We hit the most unbelievable snow storm when it was seventy something in the city. We were down to driving five miles an hour for a couple of hours, but that was definitely memorable. I think how welcoming the people were. I think it was funny that one day it would be snowing and the next it would be sunny. There would be like little bugs that were hatching that floated around in the air. They looked like snow, actually. I think there are a few scenes where they actually left them in – these fuzzy…I don’t even know what they were. It was like they showed up on cue. It was perfect. It was really interesting to watch how they would dress the set. They trucked in so many trucks of snow to create the effect. I just think it’s funny that it’s cold when we don’t need it to be and hot when we need it to be cold. It was really interesting how well, after having seen the movie now, it works because they put huge snow blankets that are really just sheets of fuzz and they dress the edges with real snow from ice rinks in the area. When we were up there, they actually had to truck it down, which was kind of neat. It was just such a new process for me seeing that because being producer and acting in it I was much more aware of more things than I would have been normally.

Q) What do you think it is about the movie that will really resonate with Hallmark channel fans?

A) Without being a downer, there are people dealing with loss. The sheriff lost his wife, but they don’t dwell on it. There is the lingering effect that it has on my older daughter and how he tries to handle it in a very calm, kind way, but the introduction of Madison…She sort of arrives at the right place at the right time because as a thirteen year old daughter there is a teenage problem coupled with the loss and her feeling the loss around holiday times and the fact that she feels like a fish out of water in some ways, missing her mother, and Jennifer’s character Madison also feels like a fish out of water. So, they end up commiserating and she provides comfort and pulls her out of her shell in the most unlikely of ways that she creates this new version of family. That is the important thing that we learn. We are finding that there is no traditional “family” iteration any longer and it’s really about what you fashion along the way. There is that old quote, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” I think it’s really uplifting, but it’s grounded and that’s something that we really tried to do – to make sure that people felt transported, but at the same time that the resolutions and the process of finding happiness and feeling like one belongs and getting in touch with old traditions yet defining them in a new way. I think these are all things that resonated with people because we all lose people we love. Either they die or divorce happens and separation happens in family. We move through different iterations for this and I think Hallmark touches on that and makes it clear that it is all okay and that is, in fact, real life. Even though people accuse them of a solid wrapping things up in two hours, but that’s the point of a movie.