Whenever I think of Andrew Walker, an enormous smile comes to my face. Not only was he one of the first Hallmark actors I ever noticed and knew by name, but he was one of the first actors I ever interviewed. He has been nothing but gracious and supportive in all the time I have known him, and a little over a year ago, we actually met in person in Vancouver (a memory I’ll never forget). Many did not realize that this past weekend and coming weekend comprise an unofficial “Andrew Walker Weekend” on the Hallmark network. Last weekend (October 10th), we got to see him in a new movie called Sweet Autumn, the last of the Fall Harvest movies for this season, and this coming Sunday (October 24th), his movie Christmas Tree Lane will kick off the Miracles of Christmas programming on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Network. Last week, Andrew took some time to chat with me about both movies, including what he and his family have been doing during the time of this pandemic crisis, and it is my honor to share our conversation with my readers today!

Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

RH: Andrew, it’s so great to hear your voice again.

AW: Thank you, Ruth; great to hear yours too.

I know it’s been a while.

It has been a while. Man, it feels like there’s been a lot going on since we last spoke.

Walker Family

Isn’t that the truth? Of course, the pandemic made this year a bit crazy.

Cr-azy, yeah!

But there have been positives that have come out of a really negative situation. 

Absolutely. I think first off, it depends on the circles of people you run with. I think some people will just find negatives in anything. But I also know that in my circles of friends, there’s been a ton of positives. Even in business. I know it’s been so tough on people in retail all across the nation. Small businesses have been closing down. But then you get the businesses that have pivoted and have put more attention towards their online sales and scaled back their employees while focusing a little bit more on the output of a few employees. And those employees have had an opportunity to step into bigger roles. And there’s also a lot of access to amazing people right now because many people were furloughed. So obviously, it’s been a tough situation for them. Still, there have been smaller companies like our juice company, for example, that has picked up really great and talented people that were working for the bigger beverage companies like Red Bull and others.

It’s also been good how it’s allowed everyone to spend more time with family. That’s been a big bonus for us as we just kind of hunkered down and were able to be surrounded by those we love.

I seem to remember when everything started shutting down, you guys were putting produce out and making it available to the community, if I remember right. 

Yeah, we were. We had just purchased 15,000 dollars worth of kale and apples and pears–like a crazy amount of produce for our production. Then COVID happened, and we were just sitting on all this produce. So we called all our friends and different people that we knew. We didn’t know how the public would respond to us doing our own free fruit and veggie stand, but we put it together. And people were beside themselves. They were like, “Oh my gosh, this is incredible!” Just to see how one apple would put a smile on a person’s face or some cilantro. People just started coming out of their buildings with their masks on and started doing their own little produce shopping. So it was great. It was really fun to be able to do that.

I remember you posting about it, but I didn’t know the whole story behind it. Interestingly enough, your juice business kept coming up in an online course I was taking from Paul Greene and his fiance, Kate Austin. My mom and I took the course, and members kept asking about Little West and posting the link. Then I brought up the fact that was Andrew Walker’s business, and they were like, “Andrew Walker? The Hallmark actor??” The fact that your company was shipping was a big deal. Celery juice was important in the course, and sometimes people were looking for alternatives to juicing themselves. 

Oh, celery juice can be pretty labor-intensive. There’s all the waste, and you’ve got to buy two and a half celery stalks to get about twenty to twenty-four ounces of celery juice. Fortunately, it’s got more water content than kale. You need five pounds of kale to make a sixteen-ounce glass of kale juice.

Wow!

Then you’re cleaning the juicer, and while it’s a labor of love, it can be difficult.

My mom and I took the class, and we now juice celery and drink it every morning.

Have you seen any changes or benefits?

Oh definitely! It has made a huge difference. We both have lost weight and have reduced our inflammation, amongst other things. Then we got a rebounder, and we both use that every day. And we’ve incorporated a lot of things from the course into our daily lives. 

Oh, Ruth, that’s so great to hear! It’s amazing how just incorporating some juice or just one little element into your life can have these drastic changes. It gives you more energy to do other things and take on other things in your life. So that’s awesome to hear. Congrats!

Thanks. And within the past month or so, I’ve not become a full-blown vegetarian, but I have reduced the amount of meat I eat to almost nothing. I’ve found I don’t even want to eat meat. So that’s been my newest thing, which is just wild because I’ve eaten meat for my whole life. 

It sounds like we probably eat the same amount then because I kind of eat the same way. When I do eat meat, I try to buy it from a place that I know–a reputable place or like a specific farm. I eat it more consciously. While I won’t turn it down if I’m at a dinner party somewhere and they serve meat…I’ll just eat it. But my wife and I have definitely cut back.

And we’ve also cut out sugar and desserts. Once we started on celery juice, our desire for sugar was gone. I certainly never thought this would come out of the pandemic. And now I’m working for Paul Greene as his executive assistant, and it’s been working out really well. 

I’m so happy for you. And I’m glad that Paul has been focusing on his music and building up that part of his career. He’s just so talented.

Walkers & Little West juice

Agreed. But now with you, Andrew, you mentioned how things were shut down for quite a while. But you got to spend time with your family. And since you had a new addition to the family…

Yes, on November 18th. We had the whole family here when he was born. My in-laws, parents, sisters-in-law, sister, niece–everyone was out here in California, and they had Christmas at my house. Then when everyone left, we got back into the juice business, and I had an offer to shoot a movie called Beverly Hills Wedding that I was going to shoot in February. But then the murmurs of COVID started happening. They pushed the project dates a little bit to see what would happen, and then everything just shut down.

So our business took a huge hit. Our big customers are Apple and Netflix. Seventy percent of our business is hospitality–hotels like Four Seasons and Fairmont and other places like that. And our business just stopped overnight. We pivoted and took the months of March and April to focus on our e-com and our online sales. And that grew exponentially, which was great. And we started focusing on grocery stores as well because that was really the only other place where people were buying things. So we got into more grocery stores.

And then I got a call to be in the first project back after COVID, Christmas Tree Lane. We were kind of like the guinea pigs for the industry. Alicia {Witt} and myself took it very seriously. We had a producer from Hallmark. We all drove to Utah; they wouldn’t let us fly. We drove so we wouldn’t have to quarantine. And you know, I don’t want to jump ahead if you have specific questions, but you know me. I’ll just keep talking.

Alicia Witt, Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

I remember when you were shooting that Christmas movie because I contacted you, and you mentioned how you were filming something. I was shocked. And then when I heard you were making a movie with Alicia, at first, I was like, “Oh my goodness, I wouldn’t have automatically paired you two.” I wouldn’t have thought of that combination, but once I thought about it for a moment, I was like, “Well, duh, of course! I could imagine those two together! It would be ideal!” 

So glad to hear you say that. You know, Alicia is just so talented. She’s just incredible. She was a child prodigy pianist, and then she started incorporating her singing about twenty or so years ago. She started kind of later in life with her singing, and she sings in the movie Christmas Tree Lane, which is just amazing. It’s a very quintessential Hallmark movie with the big developer coming in to take over some land. I play the son of this big property developer. Alicia’s family has owned this music store, and it’s been in the family for forty or fifty years in this area, and now the whole block will be developed by my father’s company. So she puts on a benefit concert to save Christmas Tree Lane.

We meet each other when I move back to town. I’ve been traveling across the country, developing properties for my father, mainly in Los Angeles. Then I decide I’ve had it with LA and want to come back and spend some time at home. I head back to Denver. They had Utah pose as Denver, which was very fitting because of all the beautiful mountains. It’s stunning. I make it back to town, and Alicia’s character and I meet at a coffee shop just randomly. We don’t know each other or what the other person does, but we are immediately attracted to each other. So my character has a growing, budding relationship with her. Then I end up finding out that one of her properties my father is going to assign me to is this Christmas Tree Lane project. So I am the one who has to deliver the news to Alicia’s character that I’m going to be developing the land.

Alicia Witt Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

So you get an opportunity to see Alicia play the piano and sing in this movie, and some are her original songs.

I’m so glad Hallmark is going more towards that because they didn’t feature music in their Christmas movies as much as other networks did a couple of years ago. And then the fans kept asking, and I think Hallmark decided they had better start putting music in their Christmas movies with the stars singing. Alicia was in a Christmas movie last year with music, and now here she is again! I’m so glad they have her singing again. 

You know, there are so many talented musicians in the Hallmark family that they get to work with. Like Kristin Chenoweth and others who have done these amazing Christmas movies. So it seems like–why not showcase these stars with vocal and musical talent? I’m also thrilled to see them do it too.

Had you and Alicia met previously?

Alicia Witt, Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

We had met briefly at the Hallmark parties, but it was more just like a nod. But it was great to get to know her on that level, especially since we were really on the front lines of this whole new world of filming during COVID. You know, it was mostly just us with our masks off most of the time. As much as you build a relationship over a fifteen-day shoot with somebody, I think this was much more unique because of the challenges we were facing.

Alicia strikes me as one of those people that seems like she can do anything she wants to. I’ve seen her featured in so many different genres. 

Yeah, she is. She really is.

And yet she comes off as being this genuinely nice and authentic person. She’s this incredibly talented person who can do anything that she wants to, and yet she still is this down-to-earth, kind, normal person who is nice to everybody and so kind. At least, that’s my perception of her. 

Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

She is so kind. And you know, admittedly from her, she says, “I’m kind of quirky because I was homeschooled and my parents are hippies.” She says she has this different perspective on people and life because of the way she grew up. She didn’t associate with a lot of kids growing up because she was a child actor. She got into acting at a really young age and was never around a school atmosphere and other kids. Her first acting gig was in the movie Dune. She was like six or seven years old, I think. She was a very unique little girl. They were looking for a particular type of person in that movie, so I think from that role onwards, she just had this amazing trajectory with her acting career. And she continues to have it to this day. She’s like a chameleon. She does all different types of movies. She had like a five-episode arc on Walking Dead. And then she’s done thrillers and dramas and romantic comedy.

Alicia Witt, Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

Oh yeah, it’s amazing! My mom has gotten into watching her on The Mentalist. Alicia had an important arc on that show where she played a blind lady who plays the piano and sings. It’s amazing to watch her in that. My mom can’t easily reconcile that role with her Hallmark stuff. But we are both amazed!

It’s actually pretty rare to find someone who can do that many different genres because often they have one or two they do well, and they don’t step outside those very often. But Alicia can do it all. 

Now, to Christmas Tree Lane, is this the first Christmas movie of the season?

The first one for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

How cool! We just saw you in a new Hallmark Channel Fall Harvest movie this past weekend, and now we see you again! Two weekends in a row where you’re in a new movie!

Andrew Walker, Nikki DeLoach Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

Speaking of Sweet Autumn, didn’t you recently finish filming that one?

Yes, we wrapped just a little over three weeks ago. Maybe four now.

That’s what I thought!

Yes, they just cut it all together in true Hallmark fashion. But this movie is special because it’s Nikki {DeLoach}’s and my third movie together. We are friends in real life. In fact, her husband is my entertainment attorney. We’re very intertwined. I haven’t always been physically by her side, but I’ve been very active in her life, with her son being immune-compromised. So I think when we get to work together, her mind is at ease. She was so happy to hear that I was coming on board. It can be tough to break in a new leading man, especially when he doesn’t know about her son’s heart condition. I know all leading men she’s worked with have always gone above and beyond what was expected to make her feel comfortable, but with me, she was even more certain that I was gonna take all the COVID tests necessary for her to feel safe and secure.

You two are one of my all-time favorite Hallmark duos. And the movie was amazing. For anyone who may not have seen it, what can you tell us about the movie?

Andrew Walker, Eugene Baffoe, Nikki DeLoach Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

Well, it was great to work with Nikki and with director Gary Yates again. Gary and I have worked together six times before. In fact, Gary, Nikki, and I have worked together on one movie together before this one. So this was our second film all together. We took sixteen hours on zoom while I was in quarantine to rewrite the script. It was incredible. And Hallmark allowed us to do it, which was amazing. Not many directors would take time to rewrite scripts or even care enough to take the time to do it. But Gary’s a real actor’s director. A lot of what you see in Sweet Autumn… we were literally rewriting the scenes right before we went to shoot the scenes. We were doing the polishing and the fine-tuning and whatnot of the writing we had done right before we jumped into many of the scenes that we did. It was really kind of off-the-cuff, and you had to have somebody you trusted to make that work. Thankfully, I really trust Nikki, and she trusts me.

Nikki DeLoach, Eugene Baffoe, Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

I think Sweet Autumn is more of a two-hander than many Hallmark movies that I’ve done. I’m usually the number two guy who comes in, and oftentimes, they use the females a lot more than they do the males. But this one was different. With this one, it was really Nikki and I throughout the entire movie carrying the whole movie together, so that was a lot of fun. It had its own challenges, but I’m really proud of our accomplishment, regardless of how it turned out. I’m proud of what we were able to do over the time that we were given.

I had no idea this one was coming, and then suddenly, Hallmark was showing previews. I think it might have been mentioned during the Virtual Christmas Con in August, right?

Well, that was actually an allusion to the mystery wheel Nikki and I are supposed to be doing for Hallmark.

Oh, that’s amazing!

Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

The mystery wheel is going to happen…knock on wood. I think they’ve already greenlit it, but they haven’t mentioned it much yet. I know anything can happen these days. I count my blessings as they come. Sweet Autumn was a bonus project that just came together on its own. I came back from Utah, and then two weeks later, I was asked to go to Winnipeg and quarantine for a couple of weeks. It was definitely a tough job to take during COVID. I was leaving my wife with our two kids by herself and the business. My wife’s not the kind that ever thought she’d even consider hiring a nanny. But while I was gone to Winnipeg, my wife called me and she goes, “Are you sitting down?” I said, “Yeah.” She goes, “Well, we finally got the call that we are going to be launching in Whole Foods in the next two weeks.” This was while I was gone! She ended up securing sixty Southern Pacific Whole Foods, so our juice has just launched on the shelves of all those Whole Foods.  They should be in Arizona, Nevada, and all of Southern California.

Oh my goodness, that is fantastic, Andrew, and so exciting! Congratulations to you both on that!

Thank you. We’ve been working on this for about three or four years now. And so it just happened while I was gone, but it was a really nice thing to come back to. And these next few weeks, we are going to be focusing entirely on Whole Foods. Meeting with the community members and posting about it on social media to push for the fans to go out and support us.

I’m just so happy for you!! Now, let me tell you what I said when I first saw the promos for Sweet Autumn. When I saw that you were both in this film, I told my mother, “I really don’t care what the story’s about. I don’t care what the dialogue is. I don’t care about anything except that these two are in this movie. I know it’s going to be my favorite.” Then I went onto say,” These two are so talented they could just get up and totally improvise a story, and the movie would be fantastic.” So when you told me about how you rewrote the script, it seems like that’s exactly what you did.

Oh goodness, we improvised about eighty percent of that movie.

Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

I had no idea that’s what you guys did! But if anyone could do it, you two could! For those who haven’t seen it yet or aren’t familiar with it, what’s the basic storyline of Sweet Autumn?

It’s about the matriarch of the family of Nikki’s character. The matriarch passes away about a year before, and this is the year she wanted everybody to come back to town to hear the announcement she pre-recorded. It is an announcement about divvying up her estate to different family members.

My character’s name is Dex, and he wasn’t a family member, but my father and I owned a farm, and we were very close with this woman named Rose, Nikki’s aunt. So she treated us like family and thought of us like family. So I was invited to hear this announcement. I had seen Nikkie’s character at the funeral about a year before, but I don’t know her, and she doesn’t live in town. She’s moved away a long time ago, like they do in Hallmark. She moved to the big city.

Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

The announcement is made, and we find out that Nikki and I have inherited this candy shop. It was the one business she held very close to her heart. She built this from scratch. She incorporated a lot of elements from our farm into the candy store. I make maple syrup on the side. She had started using some of my maple syrup in different products that she makes. So it’s basically about Nikki’s character and my character finding common ground in building the business together and our different business approaches. And how we want to grow it and what we think Rose wanted for the business.

That’s what’s really great in this story too, which is a really cute, underlying kind of plot. We have these little letters that she’s written every day leading up to the Fall Harvest Festival, the yearly festival she had put on herself every year until she passed the torch to Nikki’s sister. Nikki and myself help put on the fall festival, so every day, we wake up and open another letter from Rose. These little notes give us these life lessons, ultimately leading to some matchmaking on Rose’s part.

Andrew Walker, Eugene Baffoe Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Steven Ackerman

You know, that sounds similar to other Hallmark movies, but enough of a different twist in there that I think it’ll be fun. And we fans just love seeing you and Nikki together in movies. 

You know, I feel good acting with Nikki. It just feels right. We both have a passion for life. We joke with each other. When we text each other, we put exclamation marks at the end of everything and happy faces. We’re both just happy people in general. We’re very passionate, happy people. So when we’re doing a movie, we just have a comfort level now with each other that I think really transcends the camera onto the screen. I’m hoping people respond well to it. We definitely had a good time shooting it.

Well, you guys are ending the Fall Harvest Hallmark movies. Usually, we end with a Good Witch film, but they couldn’t make that happen this year. But what a way to end Fall Harvest with you and Nikki. And then having Miracles of Christmas kicking off with you and Alicia. I can’t get over all this terrific programming despite COVID.

Drake Hogestyn, Andrew walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

I’m with you there. My hat really goes off to the crews that are doing this because these guys are working their tails off. Perhaps you’ve heard it from Paul and others. They put in an extra two and a half hours per day with COVID regulations and protocol. These guys are wearing masks all day and night in the smoldering heat. They are wearing masks and shields and going above and beyond what’s expected. So I really appreciated the crews who worked so hard and how everyone still had a smile on their faces.

And that’s another thing. When you talk about how there’s been some positives. I think people just felt so fortunate and grateful to be working, and that’s all you can do right now. Just be grateful for what you’ve been given, and if you’re able to work, that’s the greatest gift ever…to be able to provide for your family.

I am with you there. We all loved the movie this past weekend and are looking forward to this weekend. Of course, I’m excited for all the Christmas movies. There are going to be some fantastic ones from Hallmark this year. Lots of new actors to Hallmark too. But I’m so glad you have a movie in there, Andrew.

Me too. I am counting my blessings.

I know the fans are always happy to see you pop up in movies.

Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

That’s good. I’m happy that they haven’t gotten sick of my face!

Nope! They haven’t! And now you have all this great stuff going on with your juice business too. And fingers crossed for the mystery wheel with you and Nikki too. So is there anything else in the works for you that you can mention?

Well, basically, I know that I am continuing to produce a few projects. Nothing that I can mention just yet, but I have some ideas that I’ve been knocking around with some different networks. My goal is to continue working with Hallmark and keep putting out this great, positive content. I’m really excited for the new landscape of Hallmark and what they’re doing. I actually wanted to be in the first biracial movie, but I think it ended up being filmed too close after Sweet Autumn. But I’m excited for the new storyline.

Originally, I think Hallmark would have about fifteen of their movies during the past few years their movies that were more outside of the box storyline, and that featured other actors that hadn’t done a Hallmark movie before.  But now I think they’re breaking it up into more of a fifty-fifty type thing where they’re gonna explore a little more with different storylines and whatnot. And I think the other fifty percent will remain more traditional Hallmark storylines. They obviously are doing something right, and they need to maintain their great, consistent product. But it’s good for them also to spread their wings and try to find other viewers and feature other people that could draw them to the network.

My goal is to be on a series with Hallmark and have more consistency. I always think that’s best. But I’m very grateful for everything, and thank you too, Ruth. You’re such a huge part of me continuing to work. You’re such an amazing support. Every time I have a movie, you reach out to me, and you’re so caring and giving with your time. I know you’re busy, and you could be doing this with a ton of other people. So I really appreciate you every time you take an interest in my movies. So thank you.

Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

Well, I’m glad to do it, Andrew. My pleasure. It’s nice to see you continuing on with Hallmark because sometimes that doesn’t happen with actors. You know, I was thinking about the movies you’ve done over the past couple of years with Hallmark, especially. And I’m like, “Oh man, that one was my favorite.” “No, that one was my favorite.” It’s so hard to choose my favorite Hallmark movie of yours. Every time a new one with you comes on, it instantly becomes my new favorite. So it’s nice to see that they’re using you in more diverse roles. And I like how Hallmark’s storylines are becoming a bit more diversified. We always know it’s gonna be a happy ending and who’s ultimately going to end up together, but it’s the journey that makes it interesting. Their movies are a lot less predictable than they used to be. And that’s great. 

That’s good to hear, Ruth.

Well, Andrew, I think we covered everything. Thank you for your time today. Sorry that the Christmas Cons got canceled this year, but I look forward to seeing you at both Christmas Cons next year. 

Definitely, Ruth. I look forward to seeing you in person again. And thank you for the support. Enjoy Christmas Tree Lane this weekend.

As I implied during the introduction of this interview, it honestly doesn’t get much better than Andrew Walker, and this interview is prevailing proof that this man is the very epitome of everything wonderful, uplifting, and charming in this world of ours. No matter the movie or show in which he appears, he invariably elevates the storyline and never upstages any of his co-stars. His very presence on-screen prompts the entire viewership to collectively sigh with a tremendous smile on their faces because of his authentic prowess and genteel demeanor. Furthermore, what you see on-screen is exactly who he is in real life. He is committed to excellence in every part of his life, and I shall always treasure our first in-person meeting last fall (with more to come for sure!). He is a gentleman to the core, and I am infinitely exhilarated that Hallmark adores him as much as the fans do!

If you have not had the opportunity to watch Sweet Autumn this past weekend, you have one more chance to catch it tonight (October 22nd) on the Hallmark Channel before Christmas programming takes over for the next few months. {Watch Sweet Autumn again on the W Network in Canada this weekend, October 25th.} However, be sure to tune in to the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Network on Saturday (October 24) for the premiere of the highly-anticipated kickoff to the Miracles of Christmas programming, Christmas Tree Lane.  {Christmas Tree Lane will premiere on the W Network in Canada on November 13th.} Additionally, I would invite you to follow Andrew via his social media links below so that you never miss one of his timely updates. If you happen to live near a Whole Foods store that carries Little West juices, I would encourage you to visit that store and support your local Hallmark celebrity’s business endeavors! Or you can also visit Little West’s website and order online. No matter what your plans, I know that all of you generous fans will join me in doing all you can to see that this amazing artist will remain in the Hallmark family for decades to come! We couldn’t ask for a more talented, more compassionate, more remarkable human being to grace our screens and live in our hearts for years to come!

Alicia Witt, Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

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Alicia Witt, Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

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Alicia Witt, Andrew Walker Credit: ©2020 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Fred Hayes

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