A One Tree Hill reunion, a celebrity couple starring alongside each other, new Tyler Hilton music, a Ryan Cabrera cameo, and holiday cheer – welcome to A Christmas Wish! While each year we’re seeing more and more holiday movies being made, you’ll definitely want to make sure Lifetime’s A Christmas Wish, starring Hilarie Burton and a few of her One Tree Hill costars is on your list.
This is not the first time Burton and Hilton have shared the big screen but, this is the first time that Hilton’s wife actress Megan Park joined in on the action!
“I wanted to do a movie where Megan and I play sisters and it just so happened Tyler wasn’t on tour, so I thought, ‘Let’s get the whole family together,'” Burton tells SheKnows. Adds Park: “Hilarie reached out and said, ‘Hey, do you want to come be my sister in this movie?’ and I was like, ‘Duh, obviously.’ Then she was like, ‘How do you feel if Tyler plays my boyfriend?'”
Unfazed by the prospect of her husband and bestie playing love interests, Park encouraged the casting. The Canadian actress portrays Maddie, who convinces her sister Faith (Burton) to place a wish for love into their town’s Christmas wishing box. Handsome bachelor Andrew (Cristian de la Fuente) turns up the next day, but over time Faith questions whether it’s actually her best friend, Wyatt (Hilton) who’s her soulmate.
When it came to flirting and making out with Hilton on-set, Burton insists there was nothing awkward about having Park around. “Megan knows that I want to kiss her more than I want to kiss her husband!” Burton laughs. “I’ve been friends with those guys for so long now that it doesn’t even register. And, Megan is one of the most magical people I’ve ever met and when she’s around, you know something hilarious will happen, so that energy is fun on-set because we consistently surprise one another.”
“Normally when you do a job, you’re meeting strangers and immediately have to act like you’ve known each other forever, so it’s forced,” Burton continues. “But with these fun family projects we’ve been doing with our One Tree Hill family, we have a shorthand and immediately pick up where we left off. I think the audience can see that.”
For Hilton, the idea of reuniting with Burton for another Christmas movie had been floating around, but having Park involved too made it a “dream project,” given the couple haven’t acted together since they met on the set of 2007 film, Charlie Bartlett. Park won Hilton’s heart during the film’s shoot and clearly, she has since won Burton’s, too!
Hilton says it was Burton who was the first to welcome him into the tightknit One Tree Hill cast, “like that first friend you have in a new school,” during his first day on the series.
“He was the cutest, youngest little thing I’ve ever seen!” Burton recalls. “He was coming in to play a very cocky character, and when a new, cute boy shows up you expect him to embody some of that bravado and instead Tyler represented a team player. He wanted to learn, was friendly to everyone, and there’s not an elitist bone in his body, so that good nature won everybody over. Everybody was vying for his friendship!”
“We always had this special bond,” adds Hilton. “I did Extant with her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, so Jeffrey and I became friends. Our families got close and her and Megan became better friends than Hilarie and I! We’re similar people with similar values, so if I’m doing movies with her until I’m 80-years-old, I’ll consider myself super-lucky.”
Hilton says the cast “got crazy” during their downtime while shooting. “It was summer camp vibes,” he says. “It’s funny because when we were younger, we were partying, but now we’re chilling in the parking lot of Sonic or in somebody’s room laughing until 3 a.m. I have the best abs after this movie because I laughed so hard!”
Hilton is not only an actor but a singer whose own music will be featured on-screen.
“They were looking for someone to be the singer and I had been hanging with Ryan [Cabrera] a lot, then he was on tour with Avril Lavigne and I was like, ‘Do you want to be in this movie?'” explains Hilton. “He was like, ‘Dude, Avril and I are obsessed with watching Lifetime Christmas movies. I would love to do it!'”
Two of Hilton’s Christmas songs will be heard, plus a new track, Drunk on Christmas which debuts today.
“It’s a really jazzy, fun song,” Hilton says. “Everyone’s asking me, ‘Why are you writing a song like ‘Drunk on Christmas’ when you’re sober,’ but it’s just about how Christmas is an excuse for everyone to have the drunkest parties with their family and co-workers. No one’s having a Fourth of July drinking session with co-workers or drinking with their family on Halloween, but on Christmas, everyone gets hammered… in sweaters.”
“This is going to be a special Christmas,” Hilton says. “Every time this movie airs on Lifetime I’ll probably watch it because it’s my favorite movie I’ve ever done and every scene will have somebody I love in it!”
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