Hallmark Launches WHEN CALLS THE HEART
Attention, Hearties! Come Friday, WHEN HOPE CALLS will hit Hallmark Streaming, giving WHEN CALLS THE HEART fans something to satisfy their appetite for wholesome family content.
“It’s very much in the same world,” WHC actress Jocelyn Hudon, who plays Grace, told Movieguide®. “We have a similar town. We have a Mountie. We have the same kind of values and traditions of WHEN CALLS THE HEART, and a similar storyline.”
WHEN HOPE CALLS stars Hudon and Morgan Kohan as sisters who run an orphanage. The girls lost their parents when they were little. Kohan’s Lillian was adopted, while Hudon’s Grace was not. Now that the sisters have reconnected, they are learning the nuances of dealing with family history and expectations.
“It’s all about love and commitment, and everyone’s just trying to make the best out of it,” Kohan told Movieguide®.
Hearties first met Lillian and Grace in the WHEN CALLS THE HEART 2018 Christmas special when the sisters get stranded in Hope Valley with their orphans.
Now, WHEN HOPE CALLS explores Grace and Lillian’s backstory.
“At the beginning of the season, we do have a little bit of problem coming into the town where some people have a mindset against [the orphans]. They believe that the kids might be dirty or not as mannered, and the [townspeople] are a little against them. So [Lillian and Grace] are trying to integrate again into the town and show the [townspeople] that we are no different. These kids are no different, and they deserve just as much love and respect as anyone else does,” Kohan said.
Hudon agreed.
“The challenge is that we want to be accepted as a family. Eventually, they do see us as a part of the town and part of the family. With any orphans, we are pretty separate from the entire community, though. There’s not a lot of things where we’re like the other characters, but I like life in the orphanages, amazingly. We get a cow, and we all participate in milking her. … We help them with math and science. I tell them these bedtime stories all the time,” Hudon says.
However, the show’s not all about chores and milking cows.
Both actresses said hopeful romantics will eat up the on-screen chemistry between Grace and Chuck, played by Greg Hovanessian.
“I have an amazing love story in the in the series and I’m really excited for people to see that,” Hudon said. “They’ve already created a hashtag. It’s #TeamChase.”
Even Kohan said she loves the blossoming relationship.
“It’s so cute,” Kohan said. “Jocelyn and Greg are just so wonderful together. They have such an instant chemistry and just watching those two characters kind of try and figure each other out and get to know each other, it’s so fun to watch.”
At the end of the day, WHEN HOPE CALLS focuses on family.
“I hope that everybody has someone in their life or family members that they’re so close to that they’d really like do anything for,” Kohan said. “I think that that’s something that’s lovely to see on the screen. It’s not just people falling in love, but that family love, that family loyalty that is beyond anything out there really is what I hope people can relate to.”
WHEN HOPE CALLS premieres Friday on Hallmark Movies Now.
(Source: Movieguide via Charisma Media)
