NÃO PERCA: ‘The Way Home’ Cast On Andie MacDowell’s Long-Awaited Jump Into The Pond: “It’s Finally Time” 🍿
As fans of The Way Home prepare to say goodbye to the hit Hallmark Channel time-travel drama, series stars Chyler Leigh, Sadie Laflamme-Snow, and Evan Williams are bidding farewell to the show’s signature pond that grants their characters the ability to time travel—and all the wildlife they encountered there while shooting.
“We always kind of laugh about it because we’ve definitely learned the entire life cycle of frogs,” she quipped during a recent visit to DECIDER’s midtown NYC studio, adding that they witnessed “real frogs, real leaves” and of course, “real bugs.”
Williams added, “You got that verisimilitude.”
LaFlamme-Snow teased, “You can’t be a princess on The Way Home. Gotta get in the pond.”
Since its debut in 2023, The Way Home has followed three generations of the beloved Landry family—Del (Andie MacDowell), Kat (Leigh), and Alice (Laflamme-Snow)—as they navigate love, loss, and growing up. Both Laflamme-Snow and Leigh could resonate with the growing up part, as they reflected on letting go of their characters ahead of what they described as the show’s “bittersweet” end. Meanwhile, Williams teased what viewers can expect from his character Elliot Augustine’s long-awaited “mission.” Check out our full conversation below.
DECIDER: Before we dive into the new season, there are some things I’d love to chat about from the end of Season 3, starting off with Del (Andie MacDowell) finally taking the jump into the pond and time traveling back to 1975 to see her and Colton’s wedding. What was it like for you, Chyler and Sadie, to shoot this scene with Andie MacDowell, and what has your experience been like cultivating this family dynamic over four seasons?
CHYLER LEIGH: Well, I kind of feel like we have to address the elephant in the room, which is the pond. So jumping into the pond, given it was Andie’s first time […] it almost seemed like she schooled us in a sense, because it’s so cold, the water. She gets in and is like, “Oh, this is great!” We’re like, “Oh no!” But no, that was a great day. That was a lot of fun and such a big moment for the three of them to be able to jump in together. It was pretty iconic, I think.
SADIE LAFLAMME-SNOW: It was a lot to look forward to because I think we could kind of see it coming, that there’d be a moment where Del would finally want that experience, because she knows about the pond in Season 3, but she doesn’t want to jump until the end. And so when we finally read that in the scripts, we were like, “Okay, bring it on. It’s finally time.”
Can you tell me some more about this experience? What it’s like, whether it be the costume changes, do you save that scene for last when shooting those pond scenes? How does it work?
CL: Well, we had an incredible stunt team. It was actually quite funny because you’d see, like, three Sadie’s walking around, or three Chyler’s walking around, or double Evans. If it was a jump, they’d have to see us jump in last. So if it’s ever behind and you see someone jumping, it very well could just be the stunt double. Because if we get wet and then we have to redo something, that’s a full reset, a full change.
SLS: And we learned that the hard way in Season 1.
CL: We did, we did. So they were very technical days. But you know, after Season 1 when we kind of did all of the troubleshooting, Season 2 was so much better because we were more prepared, for sure. But I always joke. We always kind of laugh about it because we’ve definitely learned the entire life cycle of frogs.
SLS: Up close and personal.
CL: Yep. Real frogs, real leaves…
EVAN WILLIAMS: [Ribbits]
CL: [Ribbits back] … and real bugs.
EW: You got that verisimilitude.
SLS: You can’t be a princess on The Way Home. Gotta get in the pond.
EW: All of our stunt doubles all have different jump styles. It’s interesting because when it’s not us, we’re just watching the monitor. And sometimes, […] they do, like, the Mario jump. We know the different stunt performers by now, so we can tell their jump styles. But it must be interesting for the audience, because every once in a while, you know, Alice will jump like an action hero jump, and sometimes like a little hop.
SLS: I’m the little hop.
EW: And discerning viewers might be able to tell when it’s us, and when it’s the stunt doubles.
I want to watch it back and see if I can pinpoint it now.
EW: The more heroic, the less chance it’s us.
Noted. I love the casting on this show. Not only from a talent standpoint, but also in how closely each character’s younger selves resemble their older selves. For Evan and Chyler, did you get the chance to work at all with the actors that played your younger selves on any mannerisms? What was the experience like getting to meet them, if you did get to interact with them at all on set?
EW: Yeah, well, I think the show began so quickly, as every show will. We hit the ground running. And so Dave Webster, who plays the younger Elliot, we definitely had a few Zooms where we figured out some mannerisms and some sort of ways of talking, the cadence. I think that really helped us both get grounded, because at the beginning, you didn’t really know what you were going to work off of. But it was really fascinating to watch. As we got to see each other’s performances, you’d see sort of little nuggets they were hiding, and then you’d pick them up, and it was almost like we were having this game of telephone through the screen. And as the seasons went on, even into the second season, that stuff sort of grew even outside of us having an explicit conversation about it. So it was weird. It was like a cool game.
CL: It’s an interesting experience to—at least with Alex Hook, who played my younger version, we looked so similar, like when I was her age, or the age that we’re supposed to be at that time. It was wild to see that. And she’s so lovely. We had a brief conversation, but it was pretty quick where the the youngsters started filming [laughs].
EW: [Aged voice] Hey, youngsters!
CL: So I didn’t have too much time to be able to go through everything with her [..] But no, also it’s a testament to their work, because for them to be able to see our mannerisms and the way that we physically move and things like that, they picked up on it so quickly that it was, I felt, pretty seamless for anybody who had their younger version on the show. I call them kids because, you know, Sadie’s still a kid to me because she’s my little baby bird.
EW: We did luck out with the casting, though. Like, you are rolling the dice any time you’re trying to do a younger or an older version of an established character, and the fact that our show managed to nail it so many different times. If you had a really weak link, it would be glaringly obvious. And I think that there’s some magic there that we really benefited from, and the audiences get to enjoy it as well.
Definitely. Another thing from last season was Jacob’s return to the present day. It was obviously fraught with emotion, and Chyler, Kat’s relationship with him becomes complicated after she reveals her role in their father’s death. What was it like exploring this dynamic, and also acting alongside Spencer MacPherson, both in the present day and also when the show was set in the 1800s?
CL: Spencer is unbelievably talented and he is so wildly prepared when he comes in. I’ll constantly see him and he’s going through his script, and the amount of just the notes and the nuances that he puts into every single scene is just so wonderful. And he and I would get in trouble a lot on set, because it was hard for us to make eye contact and not try to laugh. Or at least, not actually laugh in the scenes. He’s a lovely human being and it emanates right out of him. And he just did such an incredible job taking this wildly complicated character, especially out of the 1800s, and to have to transition to the modern day. It was actually fun watching him in the beginning, just because the language that they used was so different. And so it was really cute to to watch his journey and going into how to become this man now in this place, and still be treated like a child by Del, who still sees him as her baby boy, in that sense. Remy [Smith], who plays young Jacob, standing the two of them next to each other was a trip. Their piercing eyes, their facial features. It was pretty trippy. But I think his storyline is so beautiful as well. He just came right into the fold like right off the bat. Again, he’s a lovely human being and you can just see all the work that he puts into it. He’s a fantastic scene partner.
EW: Didn’t you cry when he showed up in the trailer the first week?
CL: I did… We were in makeup and hair and these were exhausting days, because it was all the 1800’s stuff at the beach when Jacob first arrives and all that. I hadn’t met Spencer yet. I was over in the hair side, and he comes walking in on the makeup side all the way over. We had done so much about Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, I’ve got to get to him. Super deep emotions. And I’m getting my hair done, and I’ve got my eye patches on, and I look like a mess. And he walks in and I look down and all of a sudden it kind of hit me that this was our Jacob. And it was like, on a soul level. I lost it. I said like, “Oh my God, we found Jacob!” And it was immediate, like I lost my mind. My patches are going down like this, on my face… I’m like, “I can’t believe you’re here.” I told him I was like, “I probably look crazy. I’m so sorry.” He’s looking at me. He’s like, “You’re good, you’re good.”
And his first day on set was actually the day where he comes on shore, on the boat, where we have him turn around for the first time and go like, “Oh my God, that’s Jacob.” It was literally, that whole day was, “oh my God, that’s Jacob.” So it was actually quite quite cathartic in that moment and pretty wonderful how it happened to work out.
I love it. It’s like life imitating art.
CL: 100%.
And Evan, this season, Elliot’s origin story is explored even further as more becomes revealed about his mother, Tessa, leaving him behind. What was it like being more of the focus of this season’s storyline, and what can you reveal about what’s to come for Elliot this season?
EW: It was really cool to have Elliot have a mission. I think we’ve seen the last couple seasons, he’s really up in his head and he’s worried about what the worst case scenario is, and that’s how he is communicating his love and trying to keep people he loves safe. But it’s really exciting to sort of be a dog on a bone a little bit. And we’re hoping that it’s going to be really revelatory for the audience as well, because we’ve seen these characters kind of grow and we’ve seen what’s happened underneath the surface. But Elliot’s always been a bit of an enigma […] there’s like a pain corner that we haven’t really gone into. And so it’s nice to be able to shine some light and bring some healing, and that’s something that the show does really well.
I love the role that music plays in this show, especially seeing you, Sadie, get to perform. Can you tease your favorite musical moment from the upcoming season, or maybe a song that you get to perform?
SLS: I think Alice is really looking to her future. [At] the start of Season 3, she was really convinced that music was going to stay in the past, and she maybe started to change her mind at the end of Season 3. I think spending so much time with Colton changed her a lot and reminded her that that’s what connects her to her family and it connects her to Port Haven, too, which is kind of what brought her out of her shell. So I think for this season, there’s a little look to the future with Alice’s music, and always that connection to Colton, which I think is one of my favorite parts about the story. That relationship that Alice and Colton have through music. And so there’s definitely more moments to look forward to in that department.
Fans still have lots of questions surrounding who Casey (Vaughan Murrae) is and whether they could be Alice’s child from the future. Will fans finally learn the truth surrounding who Casey is this season, and are there any Easter eggs or hints that fans should be on the lookout for this season?
CL: No Easter eggs. We can’t give any on that one.
EW: Easter’s past.
SLS: But Easter eggs in the past seasons have had it. They can go rewatching and looking.
CL: They’re in there.
EW: There are clues hiding everywhere.
SLS: Our showrunners and writers are so, so careful to plant those details right from the beginning. It’s really, really impressive.
CL: It’s very sixth sense kind of level, where you go back, once you see it. Then you say, “Wait a minute, I feel like I saw something that’s very close to this. I got to go back.” And you watch. Then you start to pick up on those little things. So you will be able to do that. You get to see more connections this season, like connecting a lot more dots.
With this being the fourth and final season, how does it feel to say goodbye to these characters?
EW: [Fake cries]
SLS: It feels like that. [At] the start of the season, Alice is graduating. I feel like for me that felt very, again, life imitates art because I feel like it’s been sort of a growing up experience for me, and then also for Alice. So it was really emotional to do that first episode back because it was feeling like a little bit of a graduation in a way. That bittersweet feeling.
CL: I was just going to say that word, as well. Very bittersweet. I personally, in my life learned so much from Kat and in a lot of ways, art imitating life for that, as well. I was able to grow in ways that I wasn’t anticipating were going to be that profound. So in that sense, I’m so incredibly grateful because I feel like Kat’s sort of helped me off a little diving board to kind of go into the next phase of my life. But at the same time, I love her so much and I love our cast so much and I love their dynamics and whatnot. So it is hard to let go for sure.
If I can squeeze in one last final question for you, Chyler, outside of the show, last fall marked Grey’s Anatomy‘s 20th anniversary. How does it feel to be a part of this show’s legacy, as well as the legacy of this show, The Way Home?
CL: I am incredibly fortunate to have been a part of really strong, followed series. So to see that, 20 seasons, I can’t even imagine, like I can’t fathom that. But to have been a part of it, I will be eternally grateful. And that will run right into my gratitude throughout my career. I feel like I’ve been very, very fortunate, very blessed to find these characters and just be part of kind of more of like movements, because with Supergirl, it was the same thing. To kind of be able to be in all these different footings, it’s been awesome. I’ll always be grateful.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The Way Home Season 4 premieres on Sunday, April 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel. Next-day streaming is available on Hallmark+.
📢 Gostou da notícia? Compartilhe com os amigos!
Este artigo é uma tradução automática de uma fonte original. Para ler o conteúdo na íntegra: Clique aqui.