Exclusive Interview
Emilie de Ravin Talks Taking on ‘The Reluctant Royal’ in Her First Hallmark Movie
Royal life continues to stay center stage in Hallmark Channel‘s newest original movie The Reluctant Royal. Once Upon a Time alum Emilie de Ravin steps into her first Hallmark movie as Prudence, a dedicated advisor to a duke (Simon Coury). When Philly mechanic Johnny (Andrew Walker) discovers his long-lost father is the duke, Prudence helps him navigate this new world. Along the way, sparks start flying between Prudence and Johnny.
“There’s such a big evolution for many characters, but predominantly for Prudence and Johnny, and also for the duke,” de Ravin teased. “Even though it’s a love story between Prudence and Johnny, it’s also a love story between the duke and his son, and also between the relationship that I have with the duke. He raised Prudence since she was quite a young girl. It’s such a beautiful study on how differences don’t have to equal conflict. There was a little bit of that initially, but if you’re a good person, differences don’t matter.”
Johnny is unlike anyone Prudence has ever met before. The actress pointed out that Prudence has been “stuck in this bubble” of royal life for years, and while she loves her job, it can be “quite isolating.” When she meets Johnny, he has a “completely different outlook and experience on life,” which excites her.
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As Johnny figures out whether or not he’s going to take on the responsibilities of royal life, Prudence is right there beside him.
“She is very well trained and understanding of the pressures, so she’s sort of going gentle on him but also making sure he really understands what is required of this possible change because he’s not all in right away,” de Ravin admitted.
Through Johnny’s journey of finding his place in this new world, there’s a “slow burn” situation going on between Johnny and Prudence. “They’ve been put in a position to spend a lot of time together very quickly, living in the same giant castle,” she told Swooon. “There’s a lot of close proximity, and you’re finding out a lot about each other right off the bat, which is not usually the way that you would enter into a friendship, relationship, anything, really. We’re finding out all the nitty gritty right away about each other, so the nitty gritty ends up being what they fall in love with.”
The Reluctant Royal was filmed in Ireland, with the movie’s castle being the stunning Luttrellstown Castle in Dublin. De Ravin gushed that she fell “completely in love with Ireland and the people.”
For her first Hallmark movie, the Lost star got to work alongside one of the network’s veteran stars. “We hit it off right away, which is always a good thing, because you never know when working with someone new,” de Ravin said about Walker. “We had a lot of fun. We laughed a lot.”
Is The Reluctant Royal the beginning and end of Prudence and Johnny’s journey? We’ll just have to wait and see, but de Ravin hopes this is just the start of her Hallmark story. “Everyone I worked with I’d work with again a million times, especially Andrew,” she said.
The Reluctant Royal, Movie Premiere, Saturday, March 8, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
