Who doesn’t like some Christmas spirit even now that we’re in the middle of the summer? Hallmark Channel calls it Christmas in July and Jesse Hutch couldn’t say now to play such a fun and spontenous character like Grant on Christmas in Toyland.
We at Survived the Shows had the chance to chat with Jesse Hutch about his upcoming new role in Hallmark movie Christmas in Toyland, what’s been the biggest challenge in that and how was it like to work with Vanessa Lengies. Check out our interview below!
What’s the main element in Grant’s character and the movie in general that fascinates you the most and drew you to join Christmas in Toyland?
JESSE HUTCH: Well, a few things came together quite quickly. So first, you know, my agent gets an e-mail to see if I’m available and then at that point I usually ask ‘well, who’s doing this movie and what is it?’ And as soon as I found out the team – I had worked with them before, so I already knew that I really enjoyed working with these people.
So my next question was ‘Well, who’s going to be in the movie?’ And then they told me Vanessa Lengies, which was awesome because her and I actually worked together 20 years ago on a series called American Dreams which was on NBC and that took place around American Bandstand, and it was all like a period piece that took place in the 1960s, so I haven’t seen her since the 60s and so, for us to be able to do a movie together, I thought, ‘well, that’s cool’ and I like the fact that my character owned a toy store. And they told me that I was going to have a slide in my toy store. So I was like ‘I’m in, That’s great’. I said, yes, I’ll do this movie.
And you also asked me about just the script in general.
I mean, I like the aspect of bringing humor and comedy to my movies as much as I can. Sometimes they’ll say ‘No, that’s too much’. You know? It’s too Jim Carrey, or sometimes they’ll say ‘Oh yeah, go for it’. And so this was kind of a fun script because I was able to be a kid a little bit, you know? I mean, yes, I’m a business owner, I own a toy store, but the point of owning the toy store is so that kids can come and buy toys and enjoy Christmas and enjoy their experience of finding a toy.
As well as drama roles, comedy roles are also challenging for you, actors. What’s been the biggest challenge for you in portraying Grant?
JH: It was just the right amount of fun challenge. I mean, Vanessa and I were really able to communicate well and you know, we both had our own character’s points of view that we wanted to bring to the film, and so we wanted to like in a way stand our ground. But we were both very open to comedy, of course, and Vanessa is really good at comedy as well. So it was fantastic for us to be able to find moments where we ended up kind of coming up with a little bit of a game on set that was – We sort of discovered that our characters were kind of like ‘cat and mouse’.
It was like, OK, let’s use either the physical set, like maybe there’s shelves or there’s trees or whatever it is and we were always trying to sort of turn our scenes into this. ‘I’m going to go over here and then maybe you’ll follow me and then you go over there and I’ll follow you’ and so it was really fun to work that in. It was kind of an unseen challenge, I suppose, which is the beauty of, I think, being a performer.
It is that you don’t know really what’s going to come out of the work, do you?
I mean, yes, you show up and you’re prepared and you do your work – so that you know you don’t show up and you’re like ‘I don’t know my lines’, it’s like you show up and you know exactly what you’re doing – that allows you to play, it allows you to discover and it allows you to sort of come up with new things and new challenges that you never never even thought of.
If you had to describe your character with three adjectives for the fans that are waiting for this movie, which ones would you choose?
JH: Fun. Spontaneous, like he doesn’t fit in the box of a normal average business owner. Caring, because he actually does care about the people that work for his toy store. He wants to also protect them and help them to feed their families or keep their relationships going, or pay the bills, you know.
Is there any feature in Grant’s character that you see in yourself?
JH: I think definitely the fun, loving kind of goofball that comes out. I enjoy, as you mentioned earlier, playing all aspects of characters, from dramatic and serious to funny and comedic to sad or angry or I even play the villain. But I think for this particular character has, definitely, just a bit of a goofball attitude always trying to find ways to kind of push the envelope of just being a leading man that’s comfortable with not getting it perfect and not always saying the right things or doing the right things. I think that’s humanity, right? It’s a little more grounded.
It doesn’t always have to be like the perfect angle and the perfect look.
And I think you just have to be – You got to screw it up sometimes. I mean, that’s just natural and normal and I think people connect with that and I love it. I think it’s fun. Being a goofball, I mean, going down slides, playing with toys, throwing things, dressing up.
Talking about the environment on set, how would you describe your experience?
JH: It was fantastic. I mean, everybody’s there to make a Christmas movie, so it’s not heavy. It’s not serious. There’s moments that we push those borders like ‘OK, this is kind of an emotional moment’. But we’re not making anything that everyone’s going to like have to turn the movie off after and go have a good cry or watch a comedy to try and recover. It’s a very fun, lighthearted, grounded toy store ride. You know what I mean? And so everybody on set was extremely cordial. Everybody did their job well. Everyone was was having fun. I mean, you know we’re decorating places and singing Christmas carols. And how can you not to be happy to some degree?
How was it like to work with Vanessa Lengies again?
JH: It was fantastic. It was really cool because we did work together and even though it was 20 years previous and I hadn’t seen her since then, It still allowed for some form of work ethic and history to just kind of be there automatically. It was, you know, how it is when you see an old friend and you haven’t seen them in a while and then you come back. You’re like able to pick up a sort of a friendship, you know, in a work relationship that doesn’t seem totally brand new and foreign, so it was nice to have some familiarity there.
I’ve seen some of her work over the years, and I’ve always known that she is great at comedy as well as drama.
I mean, people have probably seen her on Disney’s Turner and Hooch. And so I was like, alright, this is gonna be fun like we can bounce stuff off of each other and we did. We were constantly able to communicate and discuss. You know what we wanted to do or not do? And I think that really helps. A film is if your leads can come together and lead together and I would say it works most of the time, but not always, you know, and everybody’s different.
Everybody has a different work ethic, but she was always good. If I had a question or I was like ‘I don’t like this line, I think it’s ridiculous, what do you think?’ She’s very open to that, so that made it super easy. We just, you know, say what’s on our mind. Say what’s in our heart and do the job.
Christmas in Toyland is part of the ‘Christmas in July’ schedule on Hallmark Channel and premieres July 23!
Keep following us for more news on Hallmark Channel!
Chiara
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