The Cats of Three Wise Men and A Baby co-writer Paul Campbell and his two co-stars, Andrew Walker and Tyler Hynes, shared their views on the evolution that has happened in Hallmark movies compared to the past as of now. During the same interaction, Paul Campbell shared a not-too-safe joke for Hallmark.
The co-writer and actor of the Hallmark hit “Three Wise Men and a Baby” shared the experience he got while using his creativity and the way he processed that the network has evolved a lot in comparison to the earlier days. According to the stars, the portrayal of the story by the network has also evolved.
The Revelation of the Hallmark Evolution
From Paul Campbell’s point of view, the network has weaved important storylines and storytelling formulas into its scripts by referring to Three Men and a Baby as an example of the evolution as his characters go so far in their actions that they have been shown taking anxiety medication on the screen.
Campbell said, “To see him actually take the pills means you have to acknowledge that his disorder is a real thing,” to Vulture. While putting his idea upfront, Campbell said, “If he doesn’t take the pills, you can kind of go, ‘I don’t know. He’s got some stuff going on,” to Hallmark, in response to which they said, “Yeah, absolutely. We’d like to see that. That’s a big part of his journey.”
This was quite surprising for Campbell to hear, as for him, three or four years ago, this would not have been considered to be a part of the edit. Later, he added that Hallmark told him, “There are still some restrictions.” He added, “I can’t write ‘sucks.’ I can write ‘jerk,’ which seems indifferent and funny for Campbell, and it feels like some doors of evolution have opened now.
Campbell recalled a moment of recently time when he wrote a script that included a joke about marrying a cat, where his character goes like, he says, ‘Marriage is different for everybody. Love is different. I love my cat, but I wouldn’t marry my cat.” to which the other character says, “Yeah, because of the legal red tape.”
Hallmark, while making a comment on this script, said, “We can’t tell a joke about the only reason he’s not marrying his cat is because legally he can’t marry his cat.” They had walked that one back and said, “That was a good joke, though.”
In this interaction about the evolution of Hallmark Campbell’s characters, Hynes and Walker also made comments. To which Hynes says, “There’s no reason why you can’t represent more versions of love. I think the network feels the same way.”
A note of promise for the hopeful, happy-ending movie delivery has been noted by Walker. Later, he added, he did a movie this year called Christmas Island, and at the end of the movie, our characters were like, ‘They don’t know how this is going to work, but they’ll try to make it work.
Then, the female lead goes off as a pilot, and he has to stay on the island. This is unlike the typical Hallmark ending to a movie, as there still remains an essence of uncertainty in the air.
Three Wise Men and a Baby will mark the first of Hallmark’s evolution-era movies, with three men as the lead, along with the central theme of the male characters’ self-discovery. They also encounter the responsibility of taking care of a baby as Christmas approaches.
While talking to people at Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas” event in October 2022, Campbell revealed a thing he learned about Hynes during the shooting of the film as he said, “I think the most surprising thing is how good Tyler was with the babies. He was just like a natural-born baby whisperer,” and laughed. Campbell also said that, “Tyler would take the crying baby, and he would just walk around whispering things to it.”
While sharing the bleaks of the movie, Campbell said, “It’s a love story among three brothers… these three guys are rediscovering each other.” He also added that the emotional and character arcs are very similar to a traditional rom-com.
They can’t stand each other at the beginning of the movie, but by the end, there are three of us crying in a minivan and talking about our feelings.” In this conversation, Walker added, “It’s the funniest project I probably have ever been a part of, but it’s grounded with so much heart.”
