Hallmark’s Kimberley Sustad on New Movies, Writing Success + Her Favorite Holiday Traditions (EXCLUSIVE)
The starlet has done double duty this season as both a writer and actress on the Hallmark Channel!
This holiday season, Hallmark actress Kimberley Sustad has been booked and busy, doing double duty on the beloved network both in front of and behind the camera. Earlier in the holiday season, she wrote and acted in Three Wiser Men and a Boy, a holiday film part of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas that served as the follow-up to 2022’s Three Wise Men and a Baby. Next on her holiday agenda is the premiere of her second film of the season, The Santa Class, which she will star in alongside Hallmark hunk Benjamin Ayres on December 14. In an exclusive chat with Woman’s World, Kimberley Sustad dished on her new films, the fan response and what she’s looking forward to most this holiday season.
MUST-READ: 10 of Our Favorite Kimberley Sustad Hallmark Movies, Ranked
Kimberley Sustad talks the ‘Three Wise Men’ films
In 2022, Andrew Walker, Paul Campbell and Tyler Hynes made magic in Three Wise Men and a Baby, a film about three brothers who are forced to come together and care for a tiny tot when he’s left at the firehouse that Walker’s character works at. Two years later, Sustad, who both wrote and acted in the film with Paul Campbell, had lightning hit twice when she and Campbell penned the second film in the series, Three Wiser Men and a Boy, which premiered in November.
“We anticipated just kind of doing the first and leaving it and walking away because we had kind of rounded out that whole journey for everybody,” Sustad said of being asked to write a follow-up film. “And then when they came to us and were like, we want to do a second, I didn’t have that movie in my brain. So it was working under pressure, and also going, ‘Can we do it again?’ It would almost be better if the first one was a flop, try to make the second one better, but it is hard to follow up a hit with another hit,” she shared. “It felt good to finally get it out there.”
As for the faces at the helm of these ships, the chemistry between Walker, Campbell and Hynes eased some of the pressure. “They are like my brothers at this point. I love working with them,” she shares of her relationship with the trio.
“They are like that in real life together. When we’re behind the scenes, all three of them have unique personalities and they all work together so well, it’s just hilarious being with them off-screen and on screen. They just have a musicality to each other. I just feel like I kind of stand back and let it happen, but it’s a joy writing for them,” she gushes.
What to expect from ‘The Santa Class’ on December 14
Sustad takes the lead in one of Hallmark’s latest cozy Christmas flicks, The Santa Class, where she will star alongside Benjamin Ayres as Kate, the owner of a school for Santas. When she and her colleague (played by Ayres) discover a man who lost his memory after an accident and just might be the real thing, they give it their all to put him through their training program in the hopes of him remembering his true self. Meanwhile, Kate is facing off against a rival Santa school that puts her already struggling establishment at risk of closing for good.
With her hodgepodge crew of Santas up against a ritzy Santa training program that resembles more of a high-end wellness retreat, the ride is sure to put a smile on our faces. “It’s a lot of fun to sort of take a collective group of people that don’t think they’re enough for anything and journey through a movie that in the end, find out that we don’t have to be anything else other than exactly who we are, and that that is enough,” she reveals of the film’s message.
How Kimberley Sustad celebrates the holidays with family fun
When Sustad finally has the chance to catch her breath this season, what she’s looking forward to most is time with loved ones. “I like making my family play ridiculous games on Christmas Eve, which they’re not really big game players, but one time a year on Christmas Eve they’ll do it,” she dishes. “They all kind of get out of their little boxes of comfort that they’re in, and you play really stupid games, lip sync ridiculous songs and do a talent show.”
With all of the joy Kimberley has brought us this holiday season, it’s safe to say she deserves the perfect Christmas celebration of her own. Don’t miss her in The Santa Class, premiering December 14 at 8/7c.
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