‘Christmas With the Darlings’: Katrina Law on Her Latest Hallmark Movie’s Romances
Preview
Katrina Law (Arrow, Hawaii Five-0) is back on Hallmark for her third movie, Christmas With the Darlings, Sunday’s offering for this year’s “Countdown to Christmas” event.
It’s her second for the network written by her sister-in-law, Tracy Andreen (the first was 2013’s Snow Bride), but their relationship is not why Law loves working with her. “I personally love my sister-in-law regardless of whether I was related to her or not,” Law tells TV Insider. “I think she’s brilliant, I think she’s talented, and I think she writes really fun, creative, heartwarming, funny stories. And to be part of it and to know she trusted me with her second movie was an honor. And to know Hallmark trusted me with a third movie was even more of an honor.”
In this film, Law stars as Jessica Lew, the executive assistant to Darlington Corporation’s CEO, Charles Darlington (Steve Bacic). She’s put in her two weeks’ notice, with plans to continue working for the company as a lawyer.
“There’s a lot of mutual respect [there],” she says. But “one of the best qualities about Jessica, and also the same quality that holds her back a lot, is her loyalty. She’s so loyal and so grateful to Charles Darlington and the Darlington Corporation because not only do they provide her with an amazing job and an amazing work atmosphere, they allowed her to go to law school and finish up her degree as she was working within the company.”
So for her, Charles is “a mix between mentor, amazing boss, father figure, [and] older brother,” whereas his younger brother Max (Carlo Marks), at first, comes across as “the charming, annoying brother.” But as she’ll soon learn, that’s not the case. (Cue the romance!)
Because when she learns that Charles’ orphaned nieces and nephew are going to spend the holidays at boarding school, she volunteers to watch them to ensure they “have a great Christmas,” Law says, and Max joins her. Then, the man she “has a fondness for” but who seemed to be “very unreliable” — Jessica’s reaction when he volunteers to help says it all — becomes “an absolutely wonderful uncle and is 100 percent in this project with her to create a great Christmas for these children.”
Throughout the movie, Jessica learns more about who Max really is, “which is this super-sensitive, vulnerable guy who really wants to be more responsible than what he’s perceived as,” Law says. The two of them help bring each other to the middle — with Jessica more Type A and Max more spontaneous.
(Bettina Strauss/Crown Media)
“It’s really lovely to see them interacting and compromising with each other, but doing it in a fun and loving way that ends up being quite wonderful for the children in the long run. And, he helps her to realize the joy in spontaneity,” she adds.
The other key relationship in Jessica’s life is that with her best friend, Zoe (Morgana Wyllie). Jessica enjoys playing matchmaker for her with the barista, Kate (Quinnie Vu), who’s clearly interested. Jessica thinks Zoe is “the world’s greatest catch,” Law says. “She’s smart, she’s beautiful, she’s confident. She is sensitive, warm, loving, open, a very successful surgeon, and yet, somehow, still so insecure and awkward at the same time, especially when it comes to dating and putting herself out there.”
Fortunately, Zoe has a best friend who looks out for her. Jessica thinks that with “Kate, who’s nothing but adorable, the two of them will end up being a great relationship,” Law adds. “By the end of the story, I think I’m right.”
Christmas With the Darlings, Movie Premiere, Sunday, November 8, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
