Kat Harlton
Brett Donahue stars in “The Love Club: Tara” a W Network Original that will air as the finale to a four-part movie special event on Friday, March 3, 2023 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on W Network and STACKTV.
The movie is also available on Amazon Prime, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies Now.
You can follow the lives of The Love Club by watching the four-part movie event sequentially or as stand-alone movies, in which each woman is the lead in her own romantic journey, helped by the rest of her friends to find their one true love.
At a New Year’s Eve college party, four women – Nicole (Bristow), Sydney (Gao), Lauren (Riley), and Tara (Stopps) – each dealing with their own dating disaster, take a vow to call on one another if they are ever in romantic crisis again. This vow has them resurrecting their “Love Club” ten years later as each of them search for their unique happily ever after.
Brett appears as Tara’s main love interest Noah, an aspiring singer songwriter who is travelling around trying to get discovered. This leads him to the bar Tara is running. She gives him a shot at a couple gigs throughout the week, and then pulls him into a charade of a situation which starts by pretending to be her boyfriend in a photo and ends in having to go through a fake marriage ceremony.
Filmed in the Hamilton, ON area, The Love Club also stars Canadians Marcus Rosner, Jesse Hutch, and Andrew Bushell.
I had the opportunity to chat with Brett about his role, what he hopes the audience connects with and what’s next.
Kat: You’re in an exciting new W Network Original Movie “The Love Club”, how did you prepare for the role? Did you find any similarities between yourself and your character?
Brett: I am! The casting process was pretty quick, so there’s never a ton of time to prepare. I had about a week between another shoot and the Love Club, and I had to get a few songs on the piano under my belt. So it was a bit of a hectic run up. These stories are pretty formulaic, and in that sense, it helped me in the rush of things. I’d say the best part of the preparations was getting to rehearse the music with Camille Stopps and our composer, James Mark Stewart.
Kat: Was there anything about your role that was particularly challenging?
Brett: The playing of the music while singing. I’ve played piano for many years, and can play some complicated pieces. But it always takes me a long time to get songs under my fingers, because I mostly rely on muscle memory. Having to sing on top of that, was a real extra challenge. For me, playing is something that I usually do on my own with no one around, so trying to do so, while trying to sing and while trying to act a scene was a new one for me. It was tough, haha.
Kat: What were some of your favorite scenes to shoot and why?
Brett: I got to drive an old VW camper van in the film. I love old vans and cars, so anytime I get to jump in one, even if only for a little stroll down the street, I’m down. I just wish it had A/C and wasn’t blazing hot those days….
Kat: Feel-good movies are more popular now than ever, what message do you hope fans take away from these types of movies?
Brett: It’s such an interesting thing being a part of these films, because they aren’t really what I normally look to. What I hope the viewers find in this film is a fun story, with some nice music. Something they can relax into and enjoy, while they escape the madness of their lives for a moment.
Kat: What’s next?
Brett: Apart from The Love Club: Tara, I have a film called Luckless in Love that just premiered on Uptv. You can find me in the hit series Three Pines on Amazon Prime, and a Québécoise series called Portrait Robot that’s about to start shooting is about to start shooting its third season.
Connect with Brett on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bjdonahue