By: Kat Harlton
All Media Courtesy of Crown Media United States LLC
The genuinely heartwarming love story of Norman and Rita culminates a week before their wedding when the POstables investigate a package for a young woman that holds the key to her missing mother in “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To the Altar,” premiering Sunday, July 15 (9 p.m. ET/PT) on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
Eric Mabius (“Ugly Betty”), Kristin Booth (“Orphan Black”), Crystal Lowe (“Smallville”) and Geoff Gustafson (“Primeval: New World”) return as The POstables. The movie also stars Gregory Harrison and Barry Bostwick, and features special appearances by Carol Burnett and Keb’ Mo’, marking both their returns to the “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” franchise.
We had the opportunity to catch up with star Eric Mabius to discuss his role, what type of character he’d like to portray next and his favorite scene from “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To the Altar”
Kat: Is there a type of character that you’d like to portray that you haven’t had the chance to yet?
Eric: I would love to play a spy and I haven’t been able to do that but I’d like to find a way to come up with a project that would work for Hallmark.
Kat: What was your favorite scene to shoot and why? (without giving away spoilers)
Eric: Being able to handle a thousand-pound cow, maybe she was more than that. This is why I love Kevin, the director. I said, “You know what, Kevin? We’re supposed to be preparing for the wedding, we’re supposed to be setting up the tables, you know what I’d like to do in this scene? I’d like to take that cow out of the stall and walk her out through the barn doors,” and he said, “Okay, why don’t you do it?” So, I did! It was fun. You don’t get to do this every day at work!
Kat: Do you have any role models that have particularly inspired you, either in your craft or personally?
Eric: There have been two very important teachers I’ve had along the way. One was my high school drama teacher who was really inspiring but in the end, because he hadn’t made it, told me in no uncertain terms that I should choose a day job because the chances of making a career out of acting is slim to none. After all that he taught me over the years I thought that that was almost a direct challenge and I thought, “Well, maybe I’ll be part of that smaller percentage.” And then the guy who helped me follow through on that, the teacher at Sarah Lawrence who taught me what real, hard work was. Spending one semester with a single monologue and trying to understand how to make a character tick. Gregory Harrison also has become a bit of a role model and mentor to me. He’s a guy who’s seen everything and still is one of the most gracious actors I’ve ever worked with. He’s just wonderful, has a calming influence on everyone even though he plays my TV dad, he has this very fatherly presence without ever being too forceful in his opinions. But really a wonderful person who seems to have figured some things out in life and it’s a really wonderful thing to have on set when there’s always something threatening to unravel.
Kat: Do you do anything unique to get into character, such as make playlists for them or focus on a specific trait?
Eric: No, the beginning and end work always starts with pulling apart the text. That’s the only thing you really have to go on so making that your own is the only way. After five years of playing this character we really do understand quite a bit about them. That’s what’s so great when they come together again to make one of these movies we come together to have a really good time. Even if the scene we’re doing is not a good time, it’s kids at play in the fields, right? It’s a wonderful gift to go to work.
Kat: What’s your favorite part of a wedding?
Eric: When two people turn to one another when the vows are exchanged because everything else melts away. I think the rest of the world doesn’t exist in that moment, so all the planning and all the ceremony and all the tables and the decorations and the dresses and whatever – all that stuff, just in that instant, nothing else exists except the two people that have come together to commit themselves to one another. That always chokes me up because in that brief 20 seconds, everything else is stripped away and it’s a purely beautiful moment, I think.
