Kathryn Davis and Markian Tarasiuk will star in “Welcome to Valentine” a new, original movie premiering Saturday, February 18 (8 p.m. ET/PT) on Hallmark Channel. We at Survived The Shows had the pleasure of chatting with Kathryn Davis about her experience in the making of the movie and what fans can expect. Check out the full interview in the video below!
What’s the main element in Olivia’s character and the movie in general that fascinates you the most and drew you to join Welcome to Valentine?
KATHRYN DAVIS: There are a few things within her character as a whole that really drew me into the script. I really enjoyed her resilience throughout the script. She’s so determined to pursue her passions and her career as an artist. And despite constant setbacks and struggles that you’ll see throughout the film, she’s on the verge. She’s on the cusp of giving up on her dreams, but she still has enough strength to hang in there. So, I really admired that about her in the script.
I also liked that, alongside the parallel of a budding romance that you see between Olivia and George, there’s also the story of Olivia’s path to finding herself and her inspiration.
So, for her returning home, equated finding herself and her identity and her uniqueness again within the art world, within her career as an artist. She does say in the movie that she feels that she’s not edgy enough, not unique enough. And I feel that when she reconnects with her strong hometown roots and the warmth that her family and her friends back there emulate, it starts to lead her on the path of what her art is and helps her to find herself again.
To all the fans looking forward to watching the movie, how would you describe Welcome to Valentine in just 3 words?
Hometown big love
What can you tease about Olivia’s and George’s journey throughout the movie?
Another thing that’s slightly different about this script is that, with the formula of these stylings of films – there is like sometimes initial attraction and then a little misunderstanding and then there’s along the way, the characters make amends and then the feelings grow. Then there’s a big misunderstanding. And then it’s the conclusion and the resolution pretty much of the film, This one, there’s several moments of that from when they first meet.
Olivia’s technically working at the time, she’s working as a different server. So they have this smash meeting, ‘Oh, we’re attracted to each other’. But she’s always pulled slightly to the side – she’s there working, she has her own career, her own goal in mind in that moment. And there’s a misunderstanding, and then they make amends, and there’s another misunderstanding, and then they make amends. So, it’s very much like a wave of storyline between them that goes on throughout the film of attraction but misunderstanding and back and forth. So, it makes it quite dynamic the script and the story between them.
What’s been the biggest challenge for you in portraying Olivia?
Yes, there was a challenge. The director on this movie Stefan Brogren, who I’ve actually worked with before. He was the very first director that I ever worked with on a TV show – I had a very small role with just three lines and I remember being a very new actor and showing up on set and coming from a theater background, you endow importance into everything.
Every word that you say, you’re like, when you’re on a stage, you’re like, ‘Why am I saying it? What is the character trying to portray? What did the writer put into the language?’ Like Shakespeare, there’s so many qualifiers. And then you’ve got to figure out amongst the beautiful, flowery language, what is the thesis, the objective of your character in that moment. And so even with a little role on the TV show, playing a waitress working in a diner, I was like, ‘I’m going to endow so much importance into this work’.
Then I remember working with him on set and I just heard him yell like, ‘Kathryn, just throw it away’. For me, I was like ‘throw it away?’. And it just means that in terms of TV, film, when you put that much importance into, it becomes a forced performance and it’s therefore less realistic. I managed it somehow, but I just remember in that moment of struggling.
And on this one when I got reunited 8 years later with Stefan, it was ironic that we were filming our first day in a diner, and so we’ve come almost full circle.
I had three lines in a diner eight years ago and now I’m the lead role in a diner eight years later with the same director. I remember him just challenging me with stillness on camera because I’m an animated person. I use my hands a lot, inherits from my dad. He just wanted me to just hold stillness but it’s frightening to hold that because you feel very vulnerable and there’s a whole amount of 60 to 80 people on a crew and cast all staring at you working and watching you on the lens and in the camera and everything.
So he challenged me with that stillness and to do less, because as a theater actor, again, I endow words. I put a lot of importance into the work, and to do less is more because the camera picks up everything. Not to say ‘not do the homework’, of course, but just to be there. It seems a little bit cryptic in how I’m describing it, but it was a challenge that he puts me on this and I’m forever grateful because I found a new wing in terms of performance and everything I think in this one.
If you could choose any other character from Welcome to Valentine, apart from Olivia, that you would have loved to play, which one would it be and why?
Oh well, I did love Olivia and I think I align a lot with her. A character that I think would be really fun to play at some point in my career or someone, a character similar to this that I’d like to play at some point was the role of Miss Hackey.
And you’ll see in the film, for those who haven’t, she used to run the annual Valentine’s Day parade in the hometown of Valentine and that year, when Olivia returns, it’s her sister’s first time to run it – Her sister’s name is Vanessa, played by Cara Duncan – And Olivia goes home at the right time to actually help her sister out and launch this, what they hope is a very successful parade.
Miss Hackey, along the way, continues to kind of show up at different venues. And they interpret her presence as a hindrance, not as a help and so she’s sort of perceived as the nemesis, but she’s the misunderstood nemesis. So she has held this position for such a long time that she can’t let go of it and doesn’t want to. Wants to help but just doesn’t know how to go about offering help the right way. And then the character of Vanessa and Olivia are misinterpreting her presence as being, oh, she’s just trying to ruin everything.
And so I liked the role of Miss Hackey, that she shows up and everyone sort of goes, you know, from the warmth of a diner scene and you’ll see it in the movie where everyone sort of, you know, jostling and oh having fun. Then Miss Hackey walks in, everyone’s sort of silence. hey’re. Nemesis, the troublemaker and so I I would like to play that kind of role at some point.
Could tell us something about your next project?
Yes, I have a project that’s coming out in a couple of months. I’m not entirely sure on the date of release yet. I will keep you posted on my social medias and so forth. It’s called All Aboard for love, and the story surrounds Alison Marlow, played by myself. She is an adventurous and determined young woman who’s about to step away from everything she’s always known. So her parents have sold a marina that she’s lived in and worked on since she was 10 years old and she’s packing up that handing over ownership and ready to go and work on yachts and travel the world and just gain experience and pursue the dreams that she’s always had of watching this, instead of staring at the horizon chasing it.
And she then crosses paths with a very handsome stranger called Joel, played by the Wonderful Ish Morris. The movie surrounds her struggle to whether or not to pursue what she wants to in terms of her passions and life, but also not to step away from a relationship that’s very meaningful and could potentially blossom to something a lot more serious.
The interview with Kathryn Davis has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. Check out the full interview in the video at the top of the article!
Welcome to Valentine, with Kathryn Davis & Sophie Bastelle, premieres Feb 18 on Hallmark Channel. Get a preview here below!
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