Janel Parrish and Parker Young Talk Epic Stunts and Singing Carols In Christmas On Duty

When a snowstorm stops presents from being delivered to base, two bitter military rivals are forced to team up to save Christmas in Hallmark Channel’s Christmas On Duty. Janel Parrish and Parker Young spoke with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado about filming the festive mission.

“I loved it,” said Parrish about tackling the stunts in Christmas On Duty. “It was the first time I got to do anything like that. [I] got to do these stunts and wire work and things like that. There were a few times I was like, ‘Oh boy, I'm psyching myself out. I'm pretty scared right now, but I'm going to try it anyway.’ And I did.”

“And that scream that you hear when I fall from the top of the beam was a very real scream. I didn't know I was going to fall that fast,” she continued. “But I was really proud of myself after ‘cause I was like, ‘Hey, I did something I've never done before.’ And I actually really loved it. I was like, ‘Oh, adrenaline. I'm ready now. Let's go.’”

Young revealed he was “nervous” taking on his first Hallmark movie. “Obviously I knew who Janel was and I was a little bit nervous because she had done 15 Hallmark movies and this was my first. I didn't want to let her down and she was going to compare me to all her other love interests,” he laughed, with Parrish saying they had a “natural connection:” “When you find that and you get to set, everything else just falls into place. We were always laughing, always having a great time. I think that's just where all the magic is. When you watch it, I think it translates. You can really tell that we had a great time making this together.”

“Even the executives, everybody at Hallmark when they were on set, they weren't sitting there with clipboards trying to nitpick things. They were there to support us and help us to have a good time and they showed up with a smile,” Young agreed. “It just felt like everybody involved was trying to get into the Christmas spirit so that we could ultimately convey that in the movie and hope that that translates into this beautiful fun story. So yeah, it was just a blessing.”

They expressed their gratitude for being a part of the film. “We both agreed that priority number one is to enjoy this process. We're so blessed to get to do this and how dare we try to show up and take ourselves too seriously and make anybody in the anybody's lives in the crew miserable because we're being divas,” said Young. “Like that's just not in either of us. The whole experience was just so much fun and I feel super grateful to have been a part of it.”

The film also finds Parrish showing off her vocals with some Christmas carols. “I sadly was sick when we filmed. But I was like, ‘Oh man, I'm such a perfectionist.’ I was like, ‘No, no, I'm a singer and I'm sick,’” she shared. “But at the end of the day, once we got to the scene, I had to remind myself to just get out of singer brain and just be in actor brain and enjoy the intimacy of this moment of all of the sitting around opening Christmas presents together and singing. I think I really tapped into like a different appreciation of singing acapella, which would normally terrify me while sick.”

“I just got to say, Janel’s voice is incredible and everybody on set was blown away,” added Young. “She was sick and she could hear the difference between sick Janel and healthy Janel, but, to the rest of us, she was angelic.”

Christmas On Duty even explores some non-traditional holiday traditions. “I'm from Hawaii and every other year I do go home to celebrate it there. That feels non-traditional to some people if you're not from there [because] it's so very tropical. All the decorations are Santa Claus in aloha shirts riding a dolphin, but it's my favorite,” shared Parrish. “It feels like home so it's very special to me.”

“We usually go get Indian food. It's one of the few restaurants that are open,” said Young. “My mom's dad grew up in Pakistan, so Indian food was just something that came naturally and now it's a funny tradition.”

It’s been 18 years since Parrish made her feature film debut in Bratz. She shared what she learned from that experience that she takes with her into every project. “I learn something every single time I'm on set. Truly, I think that's what's so fun about our jobs. There's always so much more to learn and discover and come away with a new skill or just one little thing that you can do that you didn't know before, right? [I’m] always learning something on every set,” she told me. “But on Bratz, [I learned] the more fun that you have on set and the more of yourself that you bring to the role, the more it's going to translate into something special when you watch it. So, I think that's maybe what I learned from that.”

Christmas On Duty premieres on Hallmark Channel on November 1.