Jonathan Keltz – Once Upon A Prince

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you have been working on?

A) On the acting front I got to do I got to do the second season of a show called “Cardinal,” which is on CTV in Canada, BBC4 in England and Hulu here in the states. It was a lot of fun and we shot that last summer and that just aired earlier this year. I got to play a recovering heroine addict struggling with some poor life choices so that was fun. Then, I’ve been busy on the producing side of things as well. I got to make a movie with a bunch of friends that we’re in post-production on now called Acquainted. We should have the film fully finished in the next few weeks. Rachel [Skarsten] and Adelaide [Kane] are both in the film and Adelaide executive produced the film as well. So, it is a nice “reign” reunion as well.

Q) Please tell us the premise for your film Once Upon a Prince and about your character Prince Nathaniel.

A) The movie is called Once Upon a Prince and it follows Susanna (Megan Park) and Nathaniel. Susanna and Nate have a nice little meet-cute as she gets a flat tire. After spending some time together and sparks begin to fly, Susanna finds out that unbeknownst to her that Nate is a prince from a land called Cambria. Although the tradition is for Nate to marry a woman of Cambria and preferably an aristocrat, they have to find a way for love to conquer all and wind up together in the end.

Q) Were you familiar at all with your costar Megan Park?

A) Thankfully, I was. We have known each other for some time. We have never worked together, but have come close on a couple of jobs and have been friends for about fifteen years now. It was a really nice way to get to reconnect and spend some time to finally work together, which was great.

Q) How did you get into character? We know you had experience with the accent at least from being on “Reign.”

A) [laughs] Thankfully, I was already familiar with the accent. Cambria could exist in the UK and be a very, very small country there. The accent was obviously something I had to practice with, but as you know on “Reign” I was never quite of royal lineage, so I got to play the other side on this one.

Q) What did you find the most challenging part of filming?

A) The character was a lot of fun and he was someone who was so true, loyal, committed and always trying to do the right thing and try to live up to the pressures of his family. He has recently lost his father So he’s grappling with that and trying to honor his father’s memory as well. Although there wasn’t anything particularly challenging about the role it was certainly a lot of fun to play. The thing that is sort of tricky about this was that they are fast. We shot the whole thing in about fifteen days on Victoria Island. I’d say the break-neck pace was the most challenging thing we had to deal with was doing a Spring/Summer movie in the Canadian Winter.

Q) What advice did the director provide during filming that you took to heart?

A) The thing that was super lucky is that he’s actually from England originally so he was able to guide the accent or catch me if I slipped up. The thing I admired most about him was as I said we were working at a break-neck pace that we shoot so much and he had the ability to pivot on a dime to make sure if we were running out of time he was able to shift his ideas and what he was doing to make sure we were able to get what we needed done. I definitely thought he did a great job making it come together.

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

A) We had a lot of fun. There are some ballroom dancing stuff, which you can see in the trailer. So, we got to have some fun rehearsals with that as we grappled with my two left feet and Megan’s two right feet. Somehow, we got through it and were able to make it work!

Q) How do you plan to celebrate the film premiere?

A) Well, as long as we are both still in town we are planning on getting together to live tweet, which would be great! We would do the West Coast airing, since we’re both in LA.

Q) What do you think it is about Once Upon a Prince that will make it a Hallmark fan favorite film?

A) I really hope people connect to the characters and also relate to them – see the dreamy quality to it all. It’s definitely supposed to be a larger than life love story, but it’s still something relatable and what we hope happens to us. With the down-home nature of her family and the over-the-top nature of Nate’s upbringing and they way they sort of find that connection anyway. I’m hoping that’s something people can connect to.

Q) Were you happy with the “Reign” series finale and where we left Leith?

A) I must say yes and no. I’m definitely happy with what ended up being my final episode and everything that went on in 406. I do think that when speaking with the writers that if we had a little bit more time there could have been some other things that happened for Leith and Claude (Rose Williams). So, I’ll leave it up to the fans to decide what it might have been.

Q) Have you kept in touch with many of your “Reign” costars?

A) Yeah! We were so fortunate that on “Reign” we were able to make such great friendships and have such a great time working together. Adelaide and I are quite close. Like I said, we made a movie together. The same with Rachel. Torrance [Coombs] is a great friend of mine. He’s actually shooting a Hallmark royal movie in Ireland. Anna [Popplewell] lives in London, but when ever she is over the pond we try to get together as well. We have a really great bond and friendship between us all. Ben Geurens and Will Kemp – when ever we can we try to get together. Rose is bouncing all over the place so we don’t get to spend as much time together, but we do see each other when we can.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) I could not express my gratitude any more. The support I got through “Reign” and all these other projects has just been overwhelming at times. I’m so overjoyed to see it in places all over the world. I love my Brazilian fans, especially because my girlfriend is Brazilian. I got to go to Brazil last year. I know there is a large contingent of fans in Brazil that watched “Reign.” We got to do a convention in Paris last January where we got to meet a lot of fans. It was just really special and I couldn’t express my gratitude more.