Ashley Newbrough and Stephen Huszar star in “Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance”, premiering Saturday, January 28 on Hallmark Channel. We at Survived The Shows had the pleasure of chatting with director Christie Will Wolf about her experience in the making of the movie “Love in Glacier National. A National Park Romance” and what fans can expect. Check out the full interview in the video below!
What’s the main element in Heather and Chris’ characters and the movie in general that fascinates you the most and drew you to join Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance?
CHRISTI WILL WOLF: I would say that it’s exciting because it’s set in the mountains and the premise of it is that he is a mountain operations expert. So, for a living, he measures snow and avalanche safety so people can come in off the mountain and then she also does it. But she does it from the more scientific side with computers and setting up a weather station where data comes in and can predict an avalanche.
So the most exciting thing about the movie for me is that both the actors did a lot of their own studying on it as did I with avalanche experts in both the fields. Like people that go out and just measure the snow, feel the pact physically and then also that takes scientific readings of patterns coming in and can predict when a slide is going to happen. So I think that was kind of the most fun, interesting part for both of their characters.
As we know quite well so far, Hallmark movies and shows always feature well-shaped and relatable characters.Where are you and the characters of this movie most similar and where most different as human beings?
My colleague Keith wrote this and then as a director I come in and do an entire directors pass. So I punched things up and changed a little bit and add some comedy that suits me and suits the actors that I’m working with. And I would say the similarity would be one because it is set on a mountain and kind of the premise around it. My father owned a ski shop, so I was born and lived above a ski shop for the first, you know, 10 years of my life. So I’m a natural mountain girl at heart. And the lead, Chris kind of shares a little bit of the same sensibilities as my own father and then Ashley. She’s a mountain girl herself. And I ski and I’m on the mountain a lot, so I think there’s similarities there.
But then also, the character of them, like some of the jokes that I brought to it and the sister, played by Tegan Moss, about their chemistry, how they go back and forth, I wrote in a lot of those jokes and a lot of the dialogue. So that also feels very personal to me because obviously that’s my sense of humor coming through. And then of course the young actress playing Chris’s daughter Samantha is played by my own reallife daughter, Emily. She was cast by our casting director and my colleague and I wasn’t planning to cast her, but they kept saying, ‘Come on, Christy, can she be in it? She can be in it’. So we went ahead and had her in it. And so that of course makes it a little bit more feel connected as well.
What’s been the biggest challenge for you in directing this movie?
The biggest challenge was be shooting on the mountain itself. It was -20° and -21°. So we are at high altitudes and very cold weather and the cast and the crew would get very, very cold. And myself, like I couldn’t even have a chair up there. And some days I would be wearing ski boots and just putting my boot-heaters on because it was the only way to stay warm. So the biggest challenge was making sure that everybody stayed safe and healthy while we were shooting. So every probably about 15 minutes when we are on the mountain, we would have mandatory warmups, which I’d be like everybody’s going in as soon as I would see people just chattering. And that was from every department working on the movie.
To all the fans looking forward to watching the movie, how would you describe Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance?
A loving romance with family values
What can you tease about Heather’s and Chris’ journey throughout the movie?
Well, I can tell you they start out with antagonistic and against each other, but there’s an actual chemistry that happens right away. However, the thing that they do, we don’t learn until the end. And that’s where the real heartwarming piece of the story comes through. When you learn why they’re actually budding, why he’s adverse to her technology and it’s really beautiful at the end when we find out why.
If you could choose a character from Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance that you would have loved to play, which one would it be and why?
I think I would have liked to play – forgetting all my characters name – the antagonistic character played by Tegan Vince. She’s going to be the one with the red snowsuit and it’s because she’s very comedic, a little bit over the top. So that actress got to have a lot of fun with that character. And I gave her the freeway. I was like go have fun with her, so I would probably want to play that character.
The interview with Christi Will Wolf has been edited and condensed for lenght and clarity. Check out the full interview at the top of the article!
Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance, directed by Christi Will Wolf, will premiere January 28 only on Hallmark Channel.
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Desirèe
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