How ‘ER’ Stars Gloria Reuben & Eriq LaSalle Reunited for ‘A Second Chance At Love’ (VIDEO)
Like everyone else hunkering down last December, Gloria Reuben (Mr. Robot, City on a Hill) needed something fun to look forward to in the new year. Her manager rang: After pairing Desperate Housewives’ Teri Hatcher and James Denton in a holiday movie, Hallmark Channel wanted to reunite her with her former ER love interest Eriq La Salle for a spring romance in A Second Chance at Love.
“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s wild!’” says the actress, who earned two Emmy nominations playing physician assistant Jeanie Boulet opposite La Salle’s Dr. Peter Benton on the hospital drama 25 years ago. “I needed to feel good. Something light and flirty? Yes, please!”
In A Second Chance at Love, the two star as divorced couple Brenda and Jack, whose adult daughter Alicia (Alvina August), a self-proclaimed “love doctor,” signs them up on a dating app to find new matches. The exes, who haven’t seen each other since Alicia’s wedding years prior, unknowingly begin exchanging messages. “They choose to wait until they meet in-person before revealing their faces,” explains Reuben (who admits her own attempt at joining a dating app, about a decade ago “incognito,” was a fail).
After their initial shock, Brenda, a university dance and art department chair, and Jack, a retired lawyer, see an opportunity for the closure they never had — and maybe even a new beginning. “Dancing was their thing,” Reuben teases, citing a salsa-like number as her favorite moment in the film. She had to be convinced that independent Brenda would allow Jack to lead, but ultimately let La Salle spin her as many times as he wanted: “Man, we flew! It was amazing!” Whether or not the exes reconcile, Reuben fell in love on set: “The blue dress [above] is mine now,” she adds with a laugh. “I said, ‘That’s going home with me!’”
A Second Chance at Love, Movie Premiere, Saturday, March 26, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
