Exclusive Interview
Inside the Newest ‘Holiday Touchdown’ Movie With Robert Buckley, Lyndsy Fonseca & More
After scoring big with Touchdown tales built around the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills, Hallmark Channel is spending this Christmas in Bears country!
“Football and Hallmark movies have a lot [in common], one of the biggest being the sense of community they create,” says Robert Buckley, who stars in Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story as Chicago firefighter Matt Donnelly. “It’s [also] a smart, sneaky way to get people who may not normally watch Hallmark movies. Once they’ve watched one, you know they’ll be back for more!”
When they’re this charming, who can blame them? In the film, which premiered on October 17, the ridiculously appealing Buckley’s Matt sparks with Lyndsy Fonseca’s Avery Clark, a plucky on-the-go freelance reporter assigned to do a story on Matt’s beloved grandma, Darlene (Marsha Mason). A diehard Bears fan with a romantic backstory, Darlene is about to attend her 500th game. Her ties to the team’s charity and outreach programs help Avery see the importance of connection and family.
“It was really wonderful to see [these Bears charities] have such an intimate relationship with actual professional players,” notes Mason of the team’s inspiring devotion to helping Chicago-area families. “The organization itself was fantastic.”
Hallmark Media / Jacob Funk
“And it’s not just words they preach, they actually do,” continues Fonseca, explaining that Hallmark and the Bears made sure to spotlight real-life locals involved with their various programs. “We had about 50 kids in the movie that are a part of a Bears organization raising money for schools that are not given enough funding for the arts. They are actually in our movie singing. It wasn’t just performative. It was actually very much a part of the film.”
Fittingly, it was the Bears’ Windy City works — and all-over awesome vibe — that really won over the actors, as well.
“I was a free agent for 45 years and showed up into Chicago and I fell in love with the city,” raves Buckley while promoting the just-released film with Mason and Fonseca recently. “And then I started working with the people from the Bears organization, and I loved them. I already knew some of the Bears players, and it just was like this perfect confluence of events where I was like, ‘Oh, this is meant to be. I’m a Bears fan now!’ And so I’ve drank all the Kool-Aid.”
“I loved working in Chicago,” echoes Mason. “I now have this whole love thing going for Chicago. It’s a fabulous city and also the Bears organization and the Hallmark organization that made me feel really welcome. They took wonderful care of us. We were treated beautifully and we had a lot of fun. The director was fabulous and so were all the producers. It was real lovefest.”
Buckley points out that the “city is stunning and showcased heavily,” and reveals that one onscreen stop definitely made his season bright. In addition to sharing the screen with Bears tight end Cole Kmet and coach Ben Johnson, “one of my biggest pinch-me moments was doing a scene with [former defenders] Mike Singletary and Peanut Tillman in a skybox overlooking Soldier Field. All my brain was doing was screaming, ‘How is this my life?!’”
Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story, Hallmark Channel
