TV viewers often imagine the stars they see acting onscreen are friends with their co-stars.
Of course, that isn’t always the case; over the years, there have been numerous reports of actors in film and television who famously didn’t get along — even if their fictional characters did.
However, Nikki DeLoach is here to tell Hallmark Channel fans that when it comes to her and her fellow Hallmark stars, the friendships are real.
Girl Talk
That was certainly clear when she hosted the Hallmark Stars Live Tour, in which she and a group of fellow Hallmark personalities travelled to multiple cities by bus to hold Q&As and panels with fans.
While being in such close quarters aboard a bus certainly placed them all in closer physical proximity than they’re used to, DeLoach explains that they got along so well because she and her co-stars have formed a virtual support group for each other
“Many years ago we made a decision, especially the women of the network,” DeLoach explained in an interview with People. “I started a text chain called ‘Girl Talk’ and put all of the Hallmark girls on it to bring us together, so we could cheerlead for each other.”
Girls Nights
According to DeLoach, that group chat resulted in she and several other female Hallmark regularly getting together, which proved to be a game-changer on multiple levels.
“We then started doing girls’ nights,” DeLoach divulged.
“It changed the actual fabric of how connected we all were, so that we could show up for each other, post about each other’s movies, help each other get through hard things,” she added.
‘Joy and Warmth and Happiness’
These days, the popularity of Hallmark Channel’s films and TV series is undeniable, and growing ever day.
It was returning to her hometown in Georgia that really opened her eyes to just how deeply Hallmark’s productions connected with viewers — and gave her the impetus to get involved.
“The reaction that I received from my hometown — shoutout to Blackshear, Georgia — I have never really felt anything quite like it,” she explained in an interview with IndieWire.
“I mean, it was joy and warmth and the happiness that they exuded when they were talking about these movies,” DeLoach continued. “And I sat with that and thought, ‘There’s something happening here’ because back then, it wasn’t in the zeitgeist yet.”
She then began taking a deeper dive into the kind of fare Hallmark Channel had been producing, which opened her eyes even further.
“So then I started watching Hallmark and going, ‘Oh, I see what this is.’ They get to watch it with the whole family. It’s safe. You want to live in these places, you want to go there for Christmas, you want to be their friends, you want to kiss that guy,” she added. “There’s always a happy ending, and in a world where so much is unknown, audiences want to be able to turn something on and know that for those 90 minutes, they can escape into a world that is full of love and hope. And honestly, that’s magical realism.”
