Brittany Underwood on ‘Crossroad Springs’ Finale, Jonathan Stoddard & Christmas Movies

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you’re Brittany Underwood. For more than a decade the busy actress has been a fixture on holiday flix. She joins fellow yuletide screen queen Danica McKeller for Great American Media’s The Greatest Christmas Gift premiering November 27. It’s one of many others expected down the pipeline. 

The network also serves as the home for the popular series Crossroad Springs where Underwood plays Daisy Mae Cafe owner Maggie Johnson. She is at the center of a complicated romantic story with town pastor James Hamilton (Jonathan Stoddard). It comes to the forefront during the Season 2 finale, available first November 5 via streaming through Great American Pure Flix. Interestingly enough Stoddard and Underwood have been onscreen partners for seasonal movie favorites including A Royal Christmas Holiday, A Royal Christmas Ballet, and A Royal Christmas Tail with a Royal Christmas Tree soon to follow.  

Here Underwood talks Christmas movies and working frequently alongside Stoddard, as well ass teases what’s ahead for Maggie at Crossroads Springs. 

Having done so many of these movies, do you suffer from Christmas exhaustion by the time it reaches the actual season?

Brittany Underwood: No, I actually don’t because then it’s the chance for everybody else to join in the Christmas spirit and the Christmas vibes. I feel so blessed that I get to live in this joyous world where everything is magical. I get to live in it for way longer in the year than most people, but then, when it’s actually Christmas time, I feel like it’s so special. I see everybody else’s joy from it being the end of the year where it’s all about family. That wonderful time where everyone can kind of take a pause from the busyness of their daily lives to just rest and enjoy their loved ones.

You’ve worked with Jonathan on a number of your Christmas movies, and your characters are intertwined on Crossroad Springs. How is it having the same scene partner in different roles and stories?

It’s interesting because we do try and kind of make it slightly different between each of these Christmas movies. There is different motivation for these characters, even though he’s usually a prince, and I’m usually that girl who maybe doesn’t believe in love at the moment. Then she meets somebody who changes her mind. It’s really great to work with someone who knows you so well because we trust each other. There’s that sense of familiarity. I think as an artist, when you feel safe and you feel comfortable, that’s when you tap into your inner child and another level of creativity that makes you feel sure about yourself. I think Jonathan and I are really good about supporting each other and making each other feel safe to come out and play.

What do you think it is about the two of you that producers and directors want to pair you guys together so much?

I think we just have great chemistry. We are willing to let each other into the depths of our soul. We’ve bonded so greatly on how we view life and how we work creatively. I think when there’s a commonality in our beliefs, the way we think the world operates, and the way we want to treat other human beings. I think finding that common ground just allows us to really tap in and connect. My mom is also a huge fan. She loves Jonathan so much. She’s always asking about him. I think people think we look good together. I think we feel good energetically together. We just have really good chemistry.

Then there is Crossroad Springs where your characters are having this sort of slow burn romance. We’re heading into the Season 2 finale. Maggie is seeing her food pantry project come to fruition. She became even closer to Pastor James in the process. What do you make of their dynamic?

I think it’s such an interesting journey. During Season 1 we were like, “What’s going to happen with our characters? When are our characters going to get together? Are they not? Is it going to be a tease? Is it gonna be a slow burn?” So, it has been an interesting journey for Jonathan and I as actors to navigate the character journey because sometimes we don’t even know. Sometimes we’ll read an episode and we’ll go, “Oh, we’re going there right now.” So that’s interesting because then it forces us to make these really creative decisions and think, “Okay, well, what justifies that? What from the past and what from the future can we kind of pull in. We need to know how we’re going to play this so it doesn’t contradict anything that might be coming down the pipeline for our character’s trajectory. So that’s when we ask the upstairs [writers and producers]. It’s good to be in communication with the higher-ups. They help guide us so that we can kind of make it a seamless through-line from one moment to the next with our characters.

At this point each feels torn. There is this built-in history with a longtime love, yet other interests are thrown in the mix.

You know what I love about their relationship? It’s messy, and life is messy, and sometimes it’s complicated. Sometimes the heart is very complicated, and there might be multiple people that if you’re not in a committed relationship and lines are very blurry, sometimes it’s very difficult to navigate. It’s scary to be like, “This is how I’m feeling about you.” And then not know if that person’s going to go, “Oh, I actually don’t feel that way about you.” So, if you’re holding out hope for somebody, and then they actually don’t feel that way about you, then you feel stupid. No one wants to feel that, but you also don’t want to miss out on a chance to take a risk. Love is about risk. I loved that Maggie kind of put herself out there, but it was complicated in that James already had his other thing going on. Then there was Cody, another energy trying to come in and who’s interested in Maggie.

So, maybe he does not want to be vulnerable and risk Maggie not wanting to be with him if she chose Cody. It was kind of almost Shakespearean in this way. It’s just messy, and it’s complicated, and that’s life. So I think it’s fun to play these moments of a conflicted heart. Sometimes you find yourself in those situations where you’re just like, I love this person so much, but also sometimes when you love someone so much, you don’t want to cross the friendship line. You think, “What if it doesn’t work out?” Then you can’t ever go back to friendship, and then you lose that person forever. Those are all really terrifying, real feelings. It has been interesting to get to play that journey for Maggie.

What do you want to tease about the Season 2 finale?

I don’t want to give too much away, but I think they do a really good job of making it so that every character’s trajectory is at a fork…a crossroads. Actually, it ends at a crossroads, ends at a fork in the road, where you don’t know this character could go down this trajectory, this other character could go down this trajectory. I think they gave everybody kind of that moment of what are they going to decide for their life. I think that makes it very interesting because then the possibilities are endless for a Season 3. I think they left good little nuggets for everybody.

Do you have any hopes for Maggie moving forward?

I think that continuing to see how she navigates this difficult situation of feeling her heart being pulled in one direction, but life is handing her a situation where she might not be able to have what she wants. I don’t know whether I want Maggie and James to get together in a Season 3 or Season 4 or Season 5. The longer we keep it going, the more runway we have. So it’ll be very interesting because I actually genuinely don’t know. They might get together or they might push it. So I’m excited as a viewer. I know my mom is rooting for us to get back together. She’s like, “Oh Brittany, please tell me you’re going to be with Jonathan. So for the sake of my mother’s heart, maybe.

How was it working on The Greatest Christmas Gift alongside Danica? 

That was actually such a dream to get to work with Danica, and I feel like we manifested it in a way. So I met Danica at the Movie Guide Awards backstage. She knew who Jonathan and I were from our Christmas movies, and I obviously knew who she was from everything including The Wonder Years. She is such a presence on Great American. She was like, “Oh, I’d love to be in a movie with you guys.” We were like, “We’d love to be in a movie with you.” So, the fact that we kind of put this little energy out there makes it great to work together. When they called me about this movie with Danica McKellar and Brett Varvel, who’s become a dear friend. 

It was just so great because I played the supporting role in that movie. To have such a wonderful leading lady with such experience that I get to be a part of that story and work to support that as opposed to playing the lead of these movies. It was a great position for me to be in. She also said that it was wonderful to have a supporting character that’s used to playing the lead because we have a certain level of awareness of the way everything works and the way that story needs to be told. We both worked a lot for many decades in this industry, so we were able to trade a lot of secrets both on set, whether it was  with camera, with makeup, and with skincare. We were each sharing each other’s skincare routine. It was actually an amazing experience. She is wonderful

Another movie you’re in this season is Christmas at the Zoo for Tubi that premieres November 10. That must have been quite the experience to film considering you never know what you’re going to get with animals involved. 

It was so cool! We were feeding the penguins, and some of the other zookeepers were like, you don’t understand, they don’t even let us do that. We were like, what? They were like, oh no, this is a huge deal that you’re feeding the penguins. It felt so special, and everybody at the zoo was so awesome and cool and fun. They were just as excited to have us there as we were excited to be there. They took us on a tour to see everything kind of behind the scenes, and the great thing I love about [the Brookfield Zoo Chicago] is they are one of the only zoos that’s actually endorsed by these animal organizations and sanctioned. They actually take care of the animals. We saw that they do these programs called enrichments. They take time to make the play and the feeding fun for them. 

We got to see these gorillas in their enrichment. We had this one moment where we timed out this wide shot. For when they did the feeding, we saw all the gorillas come in and get super animated about this food. This gorilla comes up, and he just comes up in the tree, and he just looks right at us. He just kind of moved and was like, who are you, and are you cool? I could feel him reading our souls. That was the first time I kind of felt that kind of connection to such a big animal that was really reading you. It was wild. 

Soap fans remember your time on One Life to Live all those years. Would you ever go back to that world again?

I would because I love the family dynamic. I literally prayed to be back on a show before I got Crossroad Springs. Being a part of a TV family, it’s just different than doing a movie. A movie feels like the last two weeks of high school when everybody gets super close because it’s going to end soon, and then everybody goes home. I end up taking a lot of people with me in my friend group. But when you’re on a show for a long period of time, it’s so special. And so I’m so grateful for that for Crossroad Springs. But even Crossroads Springs, we have seasons. With a soap, you’re all year round. And I got my best friend, who is my forever sister, Kristen Alderson. from being on One Life to Live, because we got so close doing so many episodes together for years. I think eventually I would love to go back to a soap, whether it’s for a short stint or a long stint because having that family dynamic is amazing. Plus, the fans are wonderful.  They just will support you in anything. I miss soap fans.

Soap fans are similar to those Christmas movie fans in a lot of ways. They’re very dedicated. 

Yeah, a hundred percent. You feel the community and the support of that community. It’s beautiful.

Crossroad Springs Season 2 finale,  November 5, Great American Pure Flix (Linear Airings Coming on Great American Family and GFAM+ January 2027)

Christmas at the Zoo Premiere, November 10, Tubi

The Greatest Christmas Gift premiere, November 27, Great American Pure Flix

The Greatest Christmas Gift premiere, November 29, 8/7c, Great American Family & GFAM+