It’s hard to believe that Jennifer Love Hewitt has never acted in a Christmas movie (up until now). After all, the 9-1-1 star has a knack for holiday planning, as she details in her debut memoir, Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration and Making Everything Magical. Lifetime’s The Holiday Junkie premieres on December 14 at 8 pm ET/PT, and in partnership with Ferrero Rocher’s Add Your Golden Touch campaign, Hewitt spoke to What to Watch about the new film and how heavily it’s based on her real life.
“What’s crazy is that I’ve never been asked to do a Christmas movie, which is so weird, because hello, I’m a descendant of Santa. I am part elf. We know this,” Hewitt jokes with WTW. She quickly discovered that filming a Christmas movie meant more joy on set, even though it was the middle of June in Los Angeles.
The Holiday Junkie is about a woman named Andie who loses her mother, Mimi, and must experience Christmas without her for the first time — a plot that Hewitt knows all too well, as her mother, Patricia Hewitt, passed away in 2012. “I just think it’s kismet. I just think it’s perfect timing. My mom was a big perfect-timing person, and I look at it as like, this is the one I was meant to do,” she says.
Hewitt directed and stars in the Lifetime movie, alongside her real-life children and husband, Brian Hallisay, who plays Andie’s love interest, Mason, who’s experiencing a different kind of loss. Creating it was deeply personal and cathartic for the I Know What You Did Last Summer star, and it lent a hand to healing on her own grief journey.
It was really important to Hewitt to present a joyful story, but with the heart of it being loss. “I know even 12 years past losing [my mom] now, every Christmas is hard for me. I have that moment or moments where it breaks my heart that she’s not here to meet my kids or join in cookie-making with us or something. So, I wanted those people to be seen. And Brian’s character in the movie is having grief as well, but it’s the loss of a love and a wedding,” Hewitt says. “We really wanted to tell a full story for everyone who might feel joy and pain at Christmas.”
There are little Easter eggs throughout the movie that are a nod to Hewitt’s mom. When you see snow in the movie, know it was done by the same company that used to do it at Patricia’s house. When you see penguins, know it was Patricia’s favorite animal. When you see a glittery Santa, know that Patricia gave it to her daughter 20 years ago. Between the personal connection to the story, the dedications to a passed loved one and starring alongside her husband and kids, The Holiday Junkie is truly a family affair for Hewitt.
Still the movie is based, yet not based, on Hewitt’s real life; roughly 50/50. “The biggest difference is [the two lead characters] meet after her mom has passed. Brian actually did get to meet my mom once, and they actually slow danced together at my birthday party, which was such a weird moment and beautiful moment in hindsight,” Hewitt says.
When asked what she hopes viewers take away from The Holiday Junkie, Hewitt says, “That it’s OK to feel both in the holidays. That it’s OK to have magic come out of grief. That it’s OK to move on from grief into magic and love. That that’s what we’re supposed to do when we’re left behind. That’s what they want for us, and that it’s beautiful to do so. And that everybody should believe in the Christmas spirit somehow, however you choose to let go, let into it, give into it and let it fix all that stuff in your heart that you can’t fix the rest of the year. That’s what it’s there for.”
The Holiday Junkie premieres on Lifetime on Saturday, December 14, at 8 pm ET/PT. Watch on cable or through live TV streaming services like Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and Frndly TV.