Actor Kristoffer Polaha had actress and executive producer Tamera Mowry-Housley on his wish list of co-stars before MISTLETOE AND MIMOSAS made the pairing happen — and the connection came quickly.
“And we walked on and immediately had great chemistry,” Polaha said in an interview with Movieguide®.
The actors play business rivals in the upcoming Hallmark Christmas movie, but getting along offscreen apparently took much less effort. For Polaha, the opportunity meant working with someone he already admired, not simply meeting his next romantic co-star.
“I respect her as an artist, as an actor,” he said.
The partnership had been on his mind well before the cameras rolled. When production began in August, Polaha explained to EntertainmentNow that he and Mowry-Housley had met during Hallmark’s 2024 Jingle Stop Tour, which brought the network’s stars together to meet fans.
“She is someone who is on my short list of actresses that I really wanted to work with,” he said.
Polaha said he had been preparing to suggest her name to Hallmark’s casting director when the offer arrived. The fan tour had taken them from Washington, D.C., to New York; now they had a three-week Christmas movie shoot together to look forward to, according to EntertainmentNow.
Related: Kristoffer Polaha Reveals Favorite Hallmark Movie He’s Starred In
Mowry-Housley also serves as an executive producer on MISTLETOE AND MIMOSAS, putting her on both sides of the production.
That producing role builds on an established relationship with the network. Hallmark’s biography notes that Mowry-Housley signed an overall deal in 2020 to star in and executive produce original movies; she also executive produced A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.
In the Movieguide® interview, Mowry-Housley summed up the ease of working with Polaha in a short sentence.
“It just felt so natural,” she said.
Their characters have a few more obstacles to clear. According to Hallmark’s official synopsis, Mowry-Housley plays Claire Bennett, a Manhattan business consultant who inherits her late uncle’s Christmas-themed bar, The Tipsy Reindeer, in upstate New York.
Claire discovers a business weighed down by debt and hopes to save her uncle’s legacy before selling it. Polaha plays Zach, the neighboring club’s part owner and manager, whose company wants to buy the bar to expand.
The solution? A competition built around 12 days of Christmas events, with the future of the business on the line and a growing attraction complicating the plan.
If Claire wins, Zach will help her find a suitable buyer through his contacts. If he wins, she will consider his company’s offer — not exactly a low-pressure way to get acquainted.
Yet Polaha’s hopes for the audience reach beyond whether the fictional rivals get together. Asked in the Movieguide® interview what viewers should take away, he pointed to a need that extends well past Christmas.
“I think one of the things that we’re fighting for in our society is connection and community,” he said.
For this pair, that connection began with a hoped-for collaboration that finally arrived. Viewers can see the result when MISTLETOE AND MIMOSAS premieres Nov. 15 at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel.
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