Kimberley Sustad Talks Game of Love, Writing Smash Hallmark Hits with Paul Campbell, and More!

Loveuary could also be over, however Hallmark reminds you that it is at all times time for love with Recreation of Love.

Kimberley Sustad and Brooks Darnell star on this cute Hallmark authentic a couple of recreation designer named Audrey and a venture supervisor named Matthew who should get previous their variations to ship a brand new recreation in file time.

We touched base with Kimberley to get the news on the film, step again in time to debate a bit Christmas magic, and discuss her love of writing and appearing.

Please benefit from the interview, which has been edited for content material and readability.

So earlier than we discuss Recreation of Love, we have now to revisit Christmas to speak about Three Sensible Males and a Child. I had no concept that you simply and Paul Campbell have been writing companions.

Yeah, we’re. That was plenty of enjoyable. They’re like The Beatles now, these three boys.

Proper. I imply, you have to be over the moon about that film’s success.

Yeah, it had plenty of issues going for it, and I knew that it will hit Hallmark audiences the best way it did. I wasn’t anticipating it to kind of break the glass ceiling and go right into a wider viewers house the best way that it did.

It is greater than you may hope for once you’re writing these items or making these motion pictures in order that much more folks can see them, get pleasure from them, and have fun the vacations over them. In order that was actually nice.

How did you get fascinated with script writing within the first place?

Paul and I did a film, our very first film collectively, which was Godwink Christmas, and it was extra of a sentimental film. And Paul and I are each humorous, as I found once we have been doing this film.

The film was actually sentimental, and we saved saying, oh, I want we had the prospect to do a romcom or one thing like that to actually check this power that we had. As a result of when the cameras began rolling, it was joke after joke, and we have been laughing hysterically, despite the fact that that was not the film we have been filming.

And I believe someday he was like, “Have you ever ever thought of writing one?” And I used to be like, “Oh, no, no, no, no. However I do have this concept.” And I smooth pitched him Christmas by Starlight, and he mentioned, “Oh, that is an excellent concept. Let’s write it.” I used to be like, “Are you insane?”

And Paul’s a kind of guys that, when he says one thing, he follows via. I believe it was 5 months after we completed wrapping that film, came to visit with cue playing cards, and he was like, “Let’s do that factor.”

We kind of bumped our means alongside, and we wrote this script on spec, and we walked into Hallmark once we had another occasion to go to. We requested, “Hey, can we are available in for a fast assembly earlier than the TCAs?” And we handed them the script and pitched them the film.

Nicely, we pitched them the film, after which we handed them the script, and so they have been like, “What? You wrote it?” And we have been like, “Yeah, yeah. So have a learn.” And so they did and liked it. And that is type of how we started.

It was extra everyone’s shock. I believe lots of people in all probability say, “Oh, I am penning this factor, or I am engaged on this factor.” We type of simply did it quietly.

I believe it took us in all probability 9 months or one thing like that, a very very long time — I assume not for lots of films. I believe it was a yr later we have been taking pictures it, and that was Christmas by Starlight, and we have type of simply saved going ever since then.

Wow. That is good to have someone you get pleasure from performing with who may also join with you on the writing stage.

Yeah, we have now very totally different abilities that work surprisingly properly collectively when making a film, which I did not know on the time. I actually did not know a ton about writing, however I did know a ton about story. After which, once we began placing these items collectively, it simply kind of was the right match.

Okay. I’ve to imagine you have bought much more on the again burner now.

Sure, we do.

I can not wait. I can not wait to see what you give you subsequent. I believe your expertise in making these motion pictures goes a protracted solution to making the content material exactly what works for the viewers.

That is proper. And what you discover is plenty of the issues that I do as an actor after I’m in a job or prepping one or filming one has plenty of parts wanted to make a script as properly.

Since you’ll see gaps or via strains, or I used to get in there, and simply type of negotiate my means round with the director and the producers and are available out with a product that I felt was a bit clearer, a bit extra streamlined, or a bit funnier or no matter it’s that the script could also be needing.

I had no concept I may switch a few of that to writing. I’ve discovered loads during the last couple of years doing it. Starlight was type of like a quick Masterclass as a result of what occurred was I do not assume anybody anticipated to make that film as quick as they did. As a result of as soon as COVID hit, I believe materials and all these motion pictures bought sidelined.

And right here we had our little Starlight. Randy Pope at Hallmark was nonetheless creatively working that finish of issues, and he mentioned, “We will do Starlight.” And we’re like, “What?”

Three months away from even having the second draft. And Randy is like, “We will make it occur. So what can we bought to do?” And we simply wrote madly. Even whereas we have been there filming it, ending issues in order that there was the present of COVID that gave us an opportunity and the stunning folks at Hallmark that gave us an opportunity.

After which Paul and I lastly bought to do a humorous film collectively as a result of we wrote it. After which it was all these three issues aligned rather well. And I believe audiences actually favored that one loads.

And who is aware of your strengths higher than the 2 of you? So you may write what you knew would match the invoice.

Nicely, I am an encyclopedia of ’90s romcoms, second to second. I really like them a lot. I grew up watching these time and again. These are extra my Disney than Disney was. So I can pull again each element, each scene of all of them. I am a giant fan, and so I believe you are profitable on the issues that you are a fan of.

I used to be watching a grasp class on-line. I believe it’d’ve even been Spielberg. He was saying, and I am not placing myself on his stage in anyway, however I believed that is a very good level. He mentioned, “If you go in to jot down one thing, beginning someplace that you understand nothing about is not normally the place. I write issues that I am a fan of.”

And ever since he was eight years previous, he was a fan of struggle. He simply had all these little plastic toy troopers. He would arrange these epic landscapes filled with them and dramatize the entire thing endlessly for 20 years doing one thing to the extent of that.

And I used to be like, “Yeah, that is so true.” As a result of I have been watching these motion pictures for therefore lengthy and am such a fan of them, with the ability to write them and convey them to life now’s so enjoyable and pleasurable and loads simpler as a result of I am a fan of it.

And is not that why you watch a Masterclass? Since you need to get these nuggets of knowledge that type of bolster your ideas.

Sure. How do you do it? How does it work for different folks? And you discover like, wow, no marvel you are a fan. With the flicks he comes up with, I believe he is greater than only a fan of one thing.

Nicely, by now, sure. Nevertheless it needed to begin someplace.

Yeah, you are going to begin someplace. And that, I assume, is the place I began and the way I began.

You are additionally a prolific actress. You are still appearing in different folks’s work. How do you see writing and appearing working collectively as your profession continues?

I actually do not discover it bizarre to jot down the issues that I am in. I believe Paul and I are taking a look at a film for us to be a pair on display screen collectively. That is plenty of enjoyable being concerned with that. And creatively and behind the scenes, it is actually satisfying.

I haven’t got an issue handing it off and letting different folks do their jobs with it. I really like the collaborative course of, and in order that’s the way it actually works after I’m engaged on issues that I’ve written. I additionally love watching different folks deliver these characters to life, as properly.

That’s terribly satisfying and a lot enjoyable, particularly if plenty of the time you will have these voices in your head, after which an actor will do it, and you may go, “Wow, that is means higher than it was in my head. That is wonderful.”

I assume after I’m not writing them, I attempt to do the identical justice to these scripts or folks’s exhausting work when it comes to writing and dig into greater than what’s on the web page and make a completely rounded character or a completely rounded individual, actually not a personality. And that is type of how I’m going at it as properly.

So I need to dump this on you since you’re a fan of 90s Romcoms. I hope that as Hallmark has been altering up their content material fairly a bit, you type of go into the straight Romcom and never simply do vacation themes or seasonally-themed motion pictures.

So I believe that you simply and Paul ought to write one. It is like a conventional rom-com for Hallmark in order that we are able to get that ball rolling. I think about you.

Do not you are concerned. Do not you are concerned. I believe so too.

Good. I like speaking to individuals who can get issues carried out. [laughs]

Three Sensible Males rode a superb line. They did a ton of Christmasy issues, nevertheless it did not should do with Christmas. The story itself.

I agree.

It came about at Christmas. And so we’re regularly getting there. And there was plenty of dialog and a little bit of fear on the manager facet as a result of the departure from that may be a scary one, particularly once you’re coping with their Christmas, which is their large time of yr.

I will have handy it to them like, “Okay, Christmas is not ruling this factor, however the story is, and we’re superb with it. We will let it go.” And I believe they noticed the ability of that.

Proper. And now that different networks like Netflix are pulling out these sorts of films, theirs are far much less Christmas pushed, but additionally round Christmas. I believe Hallmark can transfer in that path and get again a few of that viewers.

Yeah, a number of of them. If you do a story-driven script, it is bought to be absolutely rounded. It is not simply the sentimentality of Christmas anymore.

It is no matter’s occurring in these folks’s lives and that story that is entrance and middle. And so it takes a bit bit longer and digging into plenty of, “what is that this film about? And what’s the story we’re attempting to inform?” Difficult.

At first, Recreation of Love looks as if a Valentine’s kind film, however I do not assume that it is nearly love any greater than Three Sensible Males and a Child was about Christmas.

That is proper.

What about that position appealed to you?

What I liked about Audrey was that she’s extremely aggressive to a fault. However we come to seek out on the market’s simply this must show her value. And I believe it is one thing that we are able to all relate to.

I believe we get a bit misplaced in issues, typically attempting to determine or be recognized by one thing which may give us worth, and discovering that you simply is likely to be sufficient simply as you might be, isn’t solely horrifying but additionally relieving.

And so I believe folks will bumble alongside along with her, combat for that, and see it immediately, but additionally utterly relate when that each one involves a head. So she’s a really relatable character for all of us.

Nicely, you understand what I associated to? Her carrying a hoodie. I used to be like, I’ve by no means seen anyone in a Hallmark film put on my garments. I am at all times in a t-shirt and a hoodie.

Yeah. Converse. I do not actually look nice within the hoodie as a result of I am tall. And after I noticed that, I used to be like, oh. [laughs]

You regarded so cute.

The petite women get away with the hoodies. However then I used to be like, nah, tall women can put on them too. So right here we go.

Yeah. I am tall. That is my staple if I am not doing one thing, simply one thing comfy I can dart round in and have a pocket.

Once I initially learn this, they’d her type of amp up her wardrobe towards the tip. The stylist ended up serving to her. And I did not should combat that tough, however I mentioned, “Hey guys, it is 2023. Can we not change the lady to look higher so she will get the man?” Thanks.

Thanks for that as a result of I seen.

And so they had it in there. And I used to be like, “Guys, that is not the story.” That is not her journey for her to undergo this entire factor after which present up having modified the factor she fought for.

Proper. Like Sandy from Grease.

She’s okay, simply as she is. And perhaps the extra she will settle for that, the extra she will let go. Proper?

Proper. And he or she did. She wore one thing apart from a hoodie, which was nonetheless comfy and properly inside her model vary. It made sense. So you may change on the within.

Precisely. They have been like, “Nicely, we won’t have a hoodie all over.” I used to be like, “We’ll discover it. We’ll discover it.”

Proper. And you’ll change on the within. She grew and accepted a special facet of herself, and that is way more necessary than altering her garments.

I had a enjoyable interview with Brooks this vacation season. What was it like working with him?

Oh, he is pretty. Once I first met him, I used to be like, oh, that is going to work as a result of he is so cool, and I am not. Instantly, he simply has this actually chill, cool demeanor in life too.

I’m 100% extra like Audrey. I’ve no cool issue. So I believed, oh, that will probably be an attention-grabbing power on display screen. And we’ll see how that works. I believe it really works fairly properly.

It does. It really works out rather well.

Nice. He did not should play cool. He’s cool.

I believe it is his voice.

He simply bought this actually sturdy, grounded presence, and he does not should assume too lengthy about his phrases, or he does not attempt too exhausting. He is not attempting to win folks on a regular basis. He is very current and grounded. And that may be unnerving typically once you’re like, “Like me, like me!” Extra of my power.

I believe you are past that now. I believe folks know you sufficient to love you simply by your motion pictures.

I do not know if that ever modifications, although. That is the bizarre factor. I’d like to be extra, “yeah, I am so assured.” Nevertheless it’s one of many causes I’ve by no means even gone out to do a kind of Christmas conferences as a result of I am terrified.

Oh my gosh. Of all folks.

I do know. Is not that loopy?

They’re the most effective folks, Hallmark followers. They might embrace you so warmly. I have not been to at least one, however I am like in a Tyler Hines Fb group, and oh my gosh, they’re simply over the moon with him and his work. Simply so many type phrases to say and such caring folks. And so they all care about one another.

It is not simply motion pictures. It’s bought a little bit of a motion in the direction of group that individuals are discovering. I believe that’s actually particular. I am actually for that — folks from all around the world.

It is like players. They join with folks in every single place and get collectively on the web to play these video games. After which they get to know one another, take journeys collectively as a bunch, and all have this one factor.

Otherwise you go to Comedian-Con. And these folks have been constructing costumes of their favourite recreation characters for a yr. Then they get collectively. They’ve this unbelievable time in San Diego and have the most effective time of their lives. They’re a part of one thing, a part of a group.

I believe that Hallmark hat is providing that. And that is turning into extra, and extra of what is transpiring are these folks. The followers are connecting and discovering a group. And I believe that’s so lovely.

What else do you will have in your plate in the intervening time?

Paul and I are writing a script known as My Week in Wyoming, which goes to be an incredible story. It is nearly like a Metropolis Slickers. And it isn’t Christmas, nevertheless it’s actually humorous.

We’re additionally engaged on a Christmas film that we’re writing, and I am not allowed to say something about that one, nevertheless it’s additionally going to, I hope, blow the doorways off as properly. So we’re having plenty of enjoyable doing that concurrently, truly.