Rochelle Aytes – A Christmas Tree Grows In Colorado

A) My character Erin Chambers is spending some time doing what she loves to do which is decorate.  She is at her friend’s house decorating her Christmas tree when she spots this amazing spruce across the street on Kevin Snyder’s (Mark Taylor) lawn who happens to be a firefighter.  She spots the tree first, which brings her outside because they are looking for the perfect tree for their tree lighting event in the town square.  Then, she notices Kevin and his daughter building a snowman that is completely lopsided and she needs to be in control of everything and she loves to just plan and decorate.  She goes over to him to basically tell him that it’s not right and they need her assistance.  That’s kind of how they meet.

A) That’s a good way of putting it.  Like a beautiful gift of as much love and laughter that you can possibly take.

This film is filled with so many special moments.  At the core of it I think it’s really about family and no matter how important you think Christmas is and decorating and the tree and gifts, it is so important to spend time with your family. Tomorrow is not promised and so I think that is a really important message. But it’s also a light hearted fun, funny film. The very first scene, as a matter of fact, I thought was really cute where they are in the office and they are always giving each other gifts, but Erin gets a candle where it is kind of like a running gag where somebody always gives a candle and she gives it to her father and he kind of gives it back to her.  So, I love the banter that her and her father have with each other.  It’s super sweet.  And just the other characters, there is so much love in young Claire who is played by Grace.  Grace was so sweet and so much fun to work with.

A) It’s all about this beautiful spruce that they feel is going to make or break for some reason their Christmas festivities.  It really is like this other character.  It’s funny because it was CGI so there was a lot of pretending to see the tree. We had to use our imaginations, but that tree is kind of the heart of the film.  It’s super important to Kevin as a firefighter because it’s his tree and it has been on his property for many, many years.  For us to want to take it down, I can’t imagine how hard and hurtful that can be.  The tree has a life of its own, and it plays a very important part of the film.

A) I guess that’s the professional part of it. We didn’t really get to meet until it was time to film.  We just kind of had to bring that and fortunately there was a natural chemistry between us.  He is a really great guy and hard worker.  We just got to it and we worked on our scenes together, we read together and we just spent time getting to know each other on set as well as in between takes.  He’s a sweet person. He’s a family man.  He’s got two kids.  It’s really nice to work with somebody who is respectable and a hard worker.  I think that chemistry shows on screen.

A) Yeah, I think there were a lot of moments that were fun to film.  One of the things I do enjoy was the gingerbread contest that we had between myself and Claire.  I had never actually built a gingerbread house, but it was fun to do.  The director Jason Bourque, he loved to let the cameras roll.  So, after the scene where we pretended to build it, we actually got the chance to continue.  Not even after, he just left the camera rolling just to get little bits of us having fun with the icing and the candies.  We were really going in and trying to make a gingerbread house.  It felt like I was a kid again and it was just so much fun letting go of that adult in you, you know what I mean, and just play.  It’s not often we just play and that was a great moment.

A)  I will definitely be modifying my Christmas activities.  I normally go to New York and spend time with family and friends.  My husband and I will just be here for Christmas.  We will make the best of it.  I think we will just decorate and get a tree.  I look forward to Hallmark movies. I look forward to that.  The Christmas festivities.  One of my favorite movies is A Christmas Story, so I will look forward to watching that as well.

A) I would just like to close by saying that I think that it’s going to be a really sweet film for people to watch and transport themselves out of whatever the stressors are that they are having.  It’s a beautiful film to watch, it will make you feel good I think.  People can walk away from it for an hour and a half.

I will also be working on a TV series. I recur on the show “S.W.A.T.” and it’s filmed here in LA with Shamar Moore.  I am working on that as well.