I believe it was Hallmark that originally introduced me to the work of Beth Broderick, but of course, the majority of my readers will know her from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and possibly other TV shows and films throughout the years as well. Albeit, I am grateful that she was able to take some time recently to chat with me about her tremendous career, and indeed, it was such a joy to discover that she is just as wonderful a human being as I hoped she always would be (even more so, truth be told). In honor of her Hallmark movie that premieres tonight, it is my privilege to share our recent interview with my readers!

Christmas Town

RH: Beth, I’m so glad that our mutual friend, Beth Grossbard, got us connected today.

BB: Same here, Ruth. I just love Beth.

Me too. I haven’t met her in person yet, but she’s amazing, and everyone who has ever worked with her says nothing but good things about her. And they always say they want to work with her again.

Oh, yes, I’m just like, “What are we doing next?” {laughs}

Now, I have been following you pretty closely over the past couple years, and I have watched your Hallmark movies for sure. In fact, I just saw you in a Lifetime Christmas movie. But I always watch every single Hallmark thing that comes in.

Aw, that’s so nice. Hallmark is pretty great.

Oh, yeah, I’m totally sold on them. They’ve done a lot for me. But I was reading up on you, and I have to admit that I have never watched Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. I am aware of the show, but it came at a time in my life where my daughter was little and I was not watching the kind of TV I do now. So I admit I still haven’t checked it out.

Sabrina

I fully understand that, Ruth.

I think I saw that it’s currently on Hulu or something like that.

It’s been on every day in every country in the world for the past twenty-five years.

Wow! Well, it’s definitely something my daughter–who is sixteen now–and I need to watch and discover together. I know that has been a massive show for everyone involved, and it still has an extensive fanbase. 

Yes, it does, and I hope you and your daughter get a chance to check it out.

Sabrina

Thank you, it’s now on my list. So as I was doing my research on you, I think I noticed you graduated from high school early. Is that correct?

Yes, I turned sixteen in my senior year…February 24th of my senior year.

Honestly, that is amazing. I know sometimes there’s a stigma attached to actors that they’re not too smart or they drop out of school and don’t go to college. Sometimes there is that perception out there that people are acting because they’re not very smart. Now, I know that’s not the case.

Well, I was just the kind of student where the teachers were like, “Okay, you’re killing it here. So we’re just gonna send you onto the next grade.” {laughs} I was not difficult, per se, but I was one who questioned a lot of things and was always ahead of the curve that I would just drive them crazy. So they just kept shoving me onward. I was taking college courses when I was in high school because I really wanted to. So everyone just considered it the best for everyone all around if I just got the heck out of high school. {laughs}

So were you always interested in acting and performing?

Yeah, I almost hate to say it, but it’s true. My dad was a member of community theater at Huntington Beach. I would go with him, and I was totally fascinated. I started doing their summer shows when I was eight or nine. And I was that kid in class who…all the other kids were like, “Please don’t call on me to read out loud!” And I was like, “Please call on me! I love this part!” So it was always something I was gonna do.

After you graduated early, you went right off to college?

Sabrina

Yes, I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena. I was on my own. I rented a room from a little, old lady name Mrs. Snyder, who was going blind. I helped her with her Braille. I graduated from the Academy when I was eighteen. I was the youngest person ever to graduate from there. And then I went out to the big wild world.

So it looks like a lot of your early work was on the stage.

Yes, I went off to New York, and I was struggling. If you’ve read my bio on IMDb, you probably know that when I was about twenty-three, I started reading about this thing called “gay men’s cancer.” So I decided it seemed really important for those people to have straight allies. There were these guys in the New York state senate that wanted to quarantine all gay men and lock them up. So I started to volunteer to help in this area. Then I met my partner, and we worked out of St. Lutheran’s Church. For the next five years, I helped her run the second AIDS program in the country. So I dropped out of acting for five years.

When I was growing up, I remember the AIDS crisis was just getting started. There was a lot of misinformation out there, and I was always paying attention to what the real story was rather than all the myths people were perpetuating. Too many people were all about being on the safe side and not going near people with AIDS.

I know a lot of people were like that. I would get calls from people where they might say, “My brother’s been in the hospital for three days. The nurses won’t go in. The food trays are piled up outside the door. We don’t know what to do. No one will even come in.” And I would tell them that we were coming. We would call the police and let them know we were coming into this kid’s room in the hospital because the police needed to know that. We would go in, and we would essentially shame them into treating the patient. They wouldn’t do it, and these were medical professionals!

That’s really commendable that you did that, Beth. You put your acting career on hold to really make a difference in people’s lives. I know other people do similar things, but I don’t think we hear those stories enough. All too often, the bad stories are the ones that are told rather than the good ones. 

Yes, I think that’s true. There’s too much of “what can we nail you with?” And not enough understanding. And I think that’s across the board.

I agree completely.

Sabrina event

Which is one of the reasons I am so grateful for my career. To have been a part of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which has brought joy to young people all over the world. I remember once how I had been walking down the streets of Cairo when I did a movie there, and I saw these women running toward me with their robes flowing. They reached me, and I was thinking, “Oh, boy, what’s going on?” They reached me, and they just started kissing me because they love Sabrina, the Teenage Witch so much. What an amazing thing! I’m so grateful for that!

And then the fact that I get to work at Hallmark so often. And Lifetime too, in a lot of their holiday projects. That’s just a joy because it really makes people happy. I feel privileged to be a part of that.

What was it that drew you back to acting?

Sabrina

You know, it is really a long story, but to make a long story short, a lot of people in the theater community in New York felt that it was time that I let someone else take the reins. I was still only twenty-eight at that point. I hadn’t been on a date in five years. I just worked with people and helped them live in preparation for when they would die. Casting directors and agents got together and said, “That’s it, we’re pulling her.” They kept coming up to me on the street and telling me that it was time for me to act. But I was like, “You guys are insane! I haven’t done anything in five years.” So an agency pulled me up into their office saying that they wanted to represent me–even though they didn’t know me. The first two jobs I went out on, the casting directors were in on it, and I got them. And that was that.

Then I went to do a movie called Stealing Home with Jodie Foster and Mark Harmon and Jonathan Silverman, who’s still one of my dear friends to this day. They were playing volleyball and hanging out and having fun and partying. And I was like, “Oh my gosh! I need to get a life!” And that was when I decided it was time for someone else to take the reins and to go full-time into what I had always dreamed of doing. And it worked out.

Uh, yeah, I would say it definitely did! {laughs}

{laughs} Yeah, you can’t really ask for it to work out better than it did!

And according to what I have read, you are still active in all these charities.

Yes, this year is the thirtieth anniversary of something I had started, the Celebrity Action Council for City Light Women’s Rehabilitation Program. My sister has been a part of it all these years along with all our friends. It will be the thirtieth year that we will be providing gifts for women in these emergency shelters, the Good Shepherd Home for Battered Women and Children. It’s an amazing party. We all get together. We have these beautiful gifts, and we spend all night wrapping them lovingly. Making sure there’s no price tags and making sure that each of the thirty women get something that lets them know we really are thinking about them.  Then we deliver these gifts to the Good Shepherd shelter, and when women go to mass on Christmas Eve, and when they come home, on their beds are these beautiful baskets filled with all sorts of lovely things like soaps and shampoos and things they had to leave home without. It’s been a beautiful experience, and we are so excited to do it for the thirtieth year. I can’t believe it’s been that long. It’s a thing of grace that I’ve gotten to do.

That is something that really tugs at my heart because although I wasn’t in an abusive relationship, I could have been. I always say I got out before that happened. So there, but for the grace of God, it would be me in that situation. 

Sabrina

The Good Shepherd Shelter, they are so amazing. They also house women and moms and children, and there’s almost nowhere in LA where you can get a mother and her children housed. That’s how I ended up meeting Sister Joan all those years ago. I remember when they came to me and said, “We don’t have anything for the women in the shelter. We get stuff for the moms and kids, but no one wants to donate to the women. Would you guys take that on?” And we said, “Absolutely.” They say that every year, the women sob when they see these gifts because they can’t believe that anybody thought of them. So that’s very important and meaningful to me.

I love that you have all these positive stories to share, Beth. That’s what I want to put out into this world to share. 

It’s not just me. It’s my sister and my friends. There’s a big group of us that is dedicated to doing it together and doing it right. This work is really what Christmas is to me every year. That party is Christmas. I mean, it’s great to have all the food and family, but that party is the meaning of Christmas to me.

Sabrina

Thank you so much for sharing all this positive stuff, Beth. It means a lot. I get so tired of the negativity out there.

Yeah, negative energy can be very powerful. But positive energy is very powerful too. You just have to keep reinforcing it. I always tell people that when we first started to work with people who had this supposed disease called “gay man’s cancer,” the level of fear and prejudice and verbal and physical abuse heaped upon people who seemed different or seemed gay or like they could be ill was tremendous. And if you would have told me then that we would have made the strides we have made in society towards being a more loving and inclusive nation…yes, there’s a lot of things going on…there always have been, there always will be since the beginning of time. But there’s also a lot of good going on. And no matter what you say, we are still making progress towards a more perfect union and towards a more perfect world. I believe that strongly.

Always and Forever Christmas

I would agree with you completely. Now, I first became aware of you due to Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies. So how did you end up getting connected to Hallmark?

I think we just sort of stumbled upon on another. I did a movie called Romance At Reindeer Lodge, which was filmed and produced, and then Hallmark bought it. What’s great about Hallmark is they offer me roles that aren’t just the typical roles. They offer me roles that I can really bring my own style to. I tend to be the little driver in these movies. If you happened to see the Lifetime movie, Always and Forever Christmas, I’m kind of like the little engine. And that is a role I really loved doing, and I love exploring those kinds of characters. I don’t mind playing the mom. I enjoy that too. I am a mom and grandmother in real life, but it’s nice to have the opportunity to play a part that is a little more independent.

Romance At Reindeer Lodge

I did see your Lifetime Christmas movie, and I really enjoyed it. And I know you also have a very special Hallmark Christmas moving coming up today, December 1st. 

Yes, it is with the lovely Candace Cameron Bure. It was such a delight to work with her. I can’t say how much I loved working with her. In fact, I called Melissa Joan Hart and said, “Oh my gosh, we miss you so much!” It feels like home working with Melissa, and working with Candace instantly felt like home to me. And Tim {Rozon} is just a delight. Fantastic human being! So we had a really good time on that movie. And then with Beth producing, she was just a delight as well.

Candace Cameron Bure, Beth Broderick Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: David Dolsen

With this movie, Christmas Town, what first captured my attention in addition to it being Candace and the big draw she has for Hallmark, is that it is focusing on foster children and foster families. It is something we don’t always hear about. If we are not directly affected by or involved with that sector of society, we often forget about them. I know I have been guilty of that in the past. It is something I have been trying to be more aware of, and I’m glad Hallmark is starting to focus more on foster families as well.

Yes, it is good to see that. It is a crisis in our country. I think there are 150,000 kids in the foster program in LA/Southern California. And that is just not acceptable. We’ve got to figure that out and find a solution that works.

So your character in Christmas Town, what can you tell us about her?

Beth Broderick, Jesse Filkow, Tim Rozon Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: David Dolsen

Well, she kind of runs the town. Her name is Betty, and she owns the Christmas Cafe. I know all the people, and I know everything that’s going on in town. I’ve been the owner of the Christmas Cafe for years and years and years. It’s a darling little cafe with yummy homemade cookies and treats. But I’m always on the edge of failure. It’s not like I’m whistlin’ Dixie all the time. It’s more like I’m always scraping to get by. I know everyone in town. So when Candace’s character first comes to town, I’m the first person she meets, and I take a liking to her. I try to influence the situation to try to make sure that she stays around in Grandon Falls long enough to realize that we might have what she’s looking for.

Beth Broderick, Anne Marie DeLuise Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: David Dolsen

This movie has been on my radar for quite some time, and it sounds like we’ll get to see a good amount of you in the film. 

Yes, Betty is really central to what’s going on in the town. She definitely knows everybody, and she’s a great character. She’s full of spunk and full of life. I really enjoyed playing her.

We’re definitely looking forward to seeing you then. In addition to Christmas Town, do you have anything else coming up that you can mention?

Yes, I have another one coming out on Showtime called My Best Friend’s Christmas. It will premiere on Showtime December 3rd. Between these two movies this week and the Lifetime one, I think you guys are gonna get sick of seeing me! Like, “Oh my gosh, not her again!” {laughs}

{laughs} No, we don’t feel that way at all! I have had actors say that the viewers will get tired of seeing them in all these films, but the truth is, we don’t. I mean, I suppose, if you were a horrible person or something like that, we might. But Hallmark and all these other companies around hire only the best people. And this movie, My Best Friend’s Christmas, is one I just heard about from the executive producer, Autumn Federici. 

Oh, yes, Autumn. She is darling too. She’s just adorable.

Always and Forever Christmas

It’s good that we have all these things coming up for you. And there is Always and Forever Christmas which people can still catch on Lifetime if they missed it. 

I just loved playing Carol on that movie. I would love for them to bring her back in other movies. Carol could do movie after movie because she’s such a great character.

Always and Forever Christmas

I’d be all for that. Put Carol in another situation somewhere else.

Yeah, we always hear about the big guy from the North Pole, but we don’t spend any time with his wife. I think the fact that she does her own magic and has her own agenda is fantastic.

That was a delightful movie. I watched it mainly because my friend, Cardi Wong, was in it. He doesn’t usually get the girl, but he did this time!

Oh, Cardi and I had a lot of fun working together. I would hand him something and tell him where to go, and he’d be like, “I got it!” And he did it! He was lots of fun to work with.

Well, thank you, Beth, it was great getting to chat with you, and I look forward to seeing Christmas Town and everything else coming up for you.

Thank you, Ruth, for reaching out. It was great to chat with you, and I hope everyone loves Christmas Town tonight!

Beth Broderick Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: David Dolsen

There is not much I relish more than unearthing an artist like Beth, who not only is a skilled actress, but a phenomenal humanitarian as well. I know it can be so convenient to get caught up in work and forget about those less fortunate than us. But I appreciate it when actors make the decision to reach beyond the arts and use their platform to increase the awareness of social causes and remind us of those who are sometimes neglected and forgotten, especially at this time of the year. My respect for Beth has grown astronomically as I have read about the way in which she has served the community around her and even sometimes given up her dreams and plans in order to make the world a better place. She never regards her work as sacrificial in any way. She is merely a human being helping a fellow human being, and that is what makes her work extremely significant and extraordinary, at least, in my opinion. She absolutely loves what she gets to do for a living, but her heart is with these organizations and the people that she has been honored to help over the decades. Moreover, the fact that she is still doing it after all these years expresses her unwavering commitment and her philanthropic nature. Indeed, I am most inspired by her, and I am already determining how I can be of service this holiday season.

I hope that everyone tunes to the Hallmark Channel or the W Network tonight (December 1st) for the premiere of the movie that will assuredly be another record-breaker for the network, Christmas Town. Additionally, I would invite my readers to visit all of Beth’s links below and consider following her on social media. (Don’t forget to check out the links I have provided to her charitable work as well.) Beth is living proof that one person can make a difference in this sometimes despondent, gloomy world of ours, and I hope that everyone is motivated by Beth’s example. While we cannot all make the selfsame sacrifices she has, I believe that each of us can make a difference in our unique way, and that would be my prayer for everyone reading this article. I am eternally indebted to the lovely and kind Beth, who has shared her heart with my readers and me today, and I greatly anticipate what the future will bring for her both professionally and personally!

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Beth Broderick Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: David Dolsen

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BETH’S CHARITY WORKS

The Momentum Project

The Good Shepherd Shelter

Beth’s Article for the HuffPost

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