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Andrew Walker and Lacey Chabert
Longtime Hallmark star Andrew Walker has achieved lots of career milestones at the network, from starring in the successful “Curious Caterer” mystery franchise with Nikki DeLoach to appearing in the most popular cable movie of 2022, “Three Wise Men and a Baby,” with a 2024 sequel on the way.
But Walker’s still setting his sights on other goals, he revealed on the “Swing My Heart” podcast in April. The travel buff has been inspired by how often prolific Hallmark actress Lacey Chabert — his co-star in 2018’s “My Secret Valentine” — gets to film her movies in faraway places. Walker said he’d love to do the same.
“I love location shooting and, you know, I’ve always wanted to follow in Lacey’s footsteps,” he said on the podcast.
Andrew Walker Loves the Change of Scenery When He Films in Distant Destinations
HallmarkBrittany Bristow and Andrew Walker in “A Safari Romance,” filmed in South Africa
Walker, who grew up in Canada and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two young sons, often shoots Hallmark movies in Vancouver — a hub for Hallmark’s movie operations. All of the “Curious Caterer” movies are filmed there, and he just finished filming “Three Wiser Men and a Boy” in Vancouver with Tyler Hynes and Paul Campbell, Hallmark recently announced.
“I’m always up in Vancouver, you know, which I love,” Walker said on the “Swing My Heart” podcast. “I love Vancouver. I’m a big outdoors guy and whatnot. But you know, we’re shooting in a lot of the same locations here and I’m sure, as a viewer, that viewers notice there’s a lot of the same places that you might notice in a lot of these movies. So just being able to get out of Vancouver is so nice.”
Walker is starting to spread his wings some, though. He recently shot his newest movie, “For Love & Honey,” in Malta, set to premiere in June. And in 2023, he traveled to South Africa to film “Safari Romance” with Brittany Bristow.
On the “Swing My Heart” podcast, Walker said he’d love to be thought of as Hallmark’s “destination male” because Chabert “gets to go to all these great places as a female, you know, shooting in Ireland and all these other places, these other great destinations.”
Chabert has starred in dozens of Hallmark movies, with many of her most recent movies filmed far from Vancouver, in various destinations around the world. For example, she just filmed her 15th Christmas movie in Iceland, opposite Kristoffer Polaha. “The Christmas Quest” will premiere during Hallmark’s 2024 Countdown to Christmas movie lineup.
The six “Wedding Veil” movies that aired in 2022 and 2023 allowed her and her co-stars to film in Greece and Bulgaria, she told Forbes.
She also filmed 2023’s “Dancing Detective” movie with Will Kemp in Malta and 2018’s “Love On Safari” in South Africa. And, though less exotic, the cast of Chabert’s “Haul Out the Holly” movies were shot in Utah.
Andrew Walker Says He Loves Working With Actors & Crew Members From Other Countries & Cultures
Walker said on the podcast that another reason he loves filming on location is the chance to work with people from other cultures toward one common goal: making a Hallmark movie. No matter where he goes, he said, there are cast and crew members who are great at filmmaking.
Filming in other cultures, he said, is “just with different people that have found this love for what
they do. And it’s just an you know, it’s in a totally different place in the world.”
“We’re all passionate about creating and telling stories … because I think acting is (about) telling these stories. It’s all about connecting with the people in front of you and connecting with the people around you and especially (with) Hallmark movies, you know. It’s all about heart and connection and joy and escapism, and we’re all there telling this story together.”
“It’s different cultures and different people growing up in a completely different part of the world,” Walker said. “But we’re connected, you know, and so that’s my that’s one of my favorite things about working abroad.”
Liv Lane is an entertainment writer who covers the Hallmark Channel, HGTV, American Idol and The Voice for Heavy. She has three decades of experience as a local and national radio host, columnist and publicist, interviewing and working with a wide range of celebrities over the years, from Deepak Chopra to Lil Nas X. Liv is also an accomplished watercolor artist whose intuitive art is sold across the U.S. and Canada. Liv attended the University of Minnesota and is based in Minneapolis. More about Liv Lane
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