If you’ve been reading us lately, you know that we’re obsessed with The Hallmark Channel’s show, The Way Home. It’s a unique and different story for The Hallmark Channel. One that we have to admit we did not expect to love this much.
But we do.
And part of that is because of Sadie Laflamme-Snow, a Toronto-based graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and was selected as a finalist for WBTV’s Actors in Training Program last year. She plays Alice Dhawan, the youngest of the Landry women.
Alice is able to travel back in time and befriends her Mom. Only her Mom doesn’t know it’s her daughter or that she is traveling through time. Alice in the past becomes her Moms best friend and there is a lot that happens between the two.
It’s a complicated story, but one that will capture you from the beginning and make you wonder just what is going to happen next. We happen to love a show that leaves you with more questions than answers, because it makes us want to keep coming back.
The story and the acting on The Way Home will keep you coming back.
The season finale airs this Sunday on The Hallmark Channel. Read our interview with Sadie below.
Fangirlish: I’m going to ask you this first. Does the character at the beginning, the witch that was being chased by the people being lynched, does she play an important part in this story?
Sadie: Yes, she does. Very much.
Fangirlish: My first theory is that that’s Dell, and that she’s in the past jumping into the water. I just want to put that out there because someday if it comes true, I want to be the person who’s like, “I said that.”
Sadie: I like reading all the theories. It’s fun.
Fangirlish: There’s a lot of theories online about it. It’s very, very interesting. I think last night I was reading how somebody was talking about how Jacob is probably trapped in time somewhere, that he jumped into the pond and he’s trapped in time and it was too little to figure out how to get back.
Sadie: That would be interesting.
Fangirlish: Right? And that’s going to be the ultimate goal, to get him back. But I’m sorry, I went all in a tangent because I’m just obsessed, but what made you want to do The Way Home?
Sadie: Yeah. Well, when I first got the audition for Alice, I really felt for her. She’s going through a lot and at first glance, I think you can kind of be like, “Oh, she’s acting out. She’s being really difficult. And I don’t understand. She just needs to be nicer to her parents and grateful that she’s getting to meet her grandmother for the first time.” But I think that her trip to ’99, her first trip especially to ’99, reveals that she has this really soft side to her and that she really is a person who loves her family and fights for her family. And that’s partly why her parents’ divorce is so hard for her in the first place, and that is who she really is. And the warmth and the love of her family in 1999 revealed that to us as an audience.
But she has to work to be able to be that person in the present. And I think that that’s a really, really interesting thing as an actor and for her as a character. It’s just so exciting. And the time travel is such a fun thing to shoot and to kind of conceptualize as an actor and as a whole cast. We’re always trying to figure out, “Okay, what do I know? What am I just finding out now? What do I know because I’ve been to the past? What do I know because someone told me in the present?” And it’s just really a lot of fun.
Fangirlish: I can imagine. I was watching this week’s episode and when you were singing songs from 1999, I was like, “Oh my God, I’m so old. I grew up on those.” And then the other part of me was like, “Oh, resurgence. That’s exciting.” What has been your favorite thing to learn about the nineties? What’s been the most interesting thing to you?
Sadie: Yeah, I love the fashion, the nineties fashion. The outfits are always super fun. When I Alice gets to raid Kat’s closet in the nineties, I always think that’s pretty cute. And I also find it really fun in terms of… As an actor, taking away the technology and the instant access we have to each other with our phones and stuff, it kind of complicates things in a interesting and fun way that we don’t really have in TV that’s set in the present day where we can all just text each other and call each other. It just makes it like you have to be there in the present moment with each other to have conversations. And it’s one of the reasons why the relationship between Kat and Alice in the past holds up because Alice doesn’t… She’s not allowed to use the messaging chat service, or so she says, about her parents.
So the kind of keeping that relationship a secret and who she really is a secret is possible because of the technology isn’t all there to be in constant communication. So that’s also just been really interesting in terms of the difference between doing present day scenes and past scenes.
Fangirlish: It was also text messages could add up. They cost like a dime every time you sent them back in the day.
Sadie: Yeah, I guess so. And not the best cell phones in the show.
Fangirlish: But yeah, no, it’s different. And I think that’s one of the things that I love the most though, is that seeing Alice and Kat’s relationship in the past versus their relationship in the present is… Because it does hold up, because they get to know each other on a different, deeper level and stuff. And I feel like if I had to go back in the past, I don’t think I would want that knowledge of my parent. But if you had to go back in the past, would you want that knowledge of what your parents were like as teenagers?
Sadie: I have been thinking about this for sure with the content of the show. And what I’ve kind of thought about is that my mom and my sister are really similar people in just the ways that they are at their core. And my little sister is my best friend, and my mom is also my best friend. So I feel like if I went back into the past and met my mom when she was my age or the age that Kat is in the nineties, I think we would get along. So I think it would be kind of cute. It starts tipping over into being like, “Whoa, would I want to be there when Alice is on the double date with her parents when they first meet?”
Fangirlish: That was awkward. I was like “Oh.”
Sadie: Those things are like, “Whoa, would I really want to be there?” But at the same time, I think if you were given the opportunity, it would be hard to say no. And I think that that’s something that Alice goes through a lot, is that she ends up in these situations where the curiosity and the fact that she has the opportunity means what she’s going to say no to having that experience, to being there and it just would eat away at her if she said, “No, I don’t want to come on this date” or “No, I don’t want to go to this party” or “No, I don’t want to… I don’t know, meet Jacob” or, “No, I don’t want to meet Colton.” She really just keeps saying yes. And obviously it’s going to become more challenging because she’s getting super attached to her life in the nineties. So we’ll see as we go along what that means for her. But I think if any one of us fell in a magical pond, it would be hard to say no to meeting our families and getting in there and seeing what’s going on.
Fangirlish: Yeah, that’s true. When Alice met her dad and her dad was such a jerk as a teenager, I didn’t really have any emotion except for, “Oh, what a jerk.” But then when Kat went back in time and saw her dad and her little brother, I lost it. I was full on bawling and crying my eyes out. And I think that that the quality of a good show to me is something that you fall in love with the characters and you really are rooting for the characters all the time. So what is the quality of this show for you that makes you root for the characters in it?
Sadie: Yeah, I think for me, and it’s a huge theme in the script and in just the conversations that I have with Andy and Chyler, but just that all three of the women in the Landry family, even though Alice is a Dhawan, but all three of them are… You can kind of see… They’re all kind of doing things that from the outside you’re like, “I don’t know if that’s the right choice. You’re going to hurt someone’s feelings” or “Maybe you shouldn’t have said that” or “That’s really risky”, but you’re getting to know them and you can kind of see where it’s coming from. So what draws me in is you want to root for them, but also you’re seeing that they’re more than just one-sided people who are making the most obvious choice. They’re very complicated and governed by some pretty difficult situations and feelings about their family and their relationships.
And so not only is that super interesting for us as actors to explore and have a big well of things to draw on, but I also think for the audience, it’s like you never really feel like you’ve got them all figured out. And so I think we get to know all these different sides of these women, and they’re not put in any particular box, each of them. And I’m just really enjoying that. And I think it’s something that is probably resonating with mothers and daughters in the world, at least that’s what I’m hearing from the people I’m talking to. So it’s really been nice.
Fangirlish: A hundred percent. When I watched the show, when I first got the screeners, I literally called my nieces and I was like, “You have to watch this show with your mom.” And they were like, “Erin, it’s Hallmark. I’m not going to do that.” But it’s so different than anything that Hallmark has ever done, and it’s so beautiful. I don’t know. It’s so beautiful. Also, because I think for me, my mom passed away when I was young. And so for me, it just shows that you need to live in the moment. Being in the moment on the set, what has being there in the show taught you the most? What has it taught you, but what do you also feel like you’ve given others on the set and taught them?
Sadie: I think that it’s kind of going back to that intergenerational theme. But everyone’s been saying, “Wow is it to work with Andy and Chyler?” Because they’re such iconic actors and people. And I think what I’ve really taken away from that experience is just that yes, they’re so iconic. They’re so talented. They have these really, really infamous roles that we all know and love, and they’ve also just been so human and generous, and that both of those things can happen at the same time. And so that’s been a huge lesson. They just have been so welcoming to me into the world of the show, into the family. And I really feel like there’s a mentorship in a industry sense and an actor sense, but there’s also just a friendship.
And so I think that there’s really an understanding between the three of us that mentorship and friendship goes in all directions. And I think that’s really beautiful. I feel really taken seriously and really supported by them, but I’m also learning so much from both of them. When Alice storms out of a scene, I’m running back to the monitor to watch the rest of what’s going on. I wonder what the scene’s going to be like and watching and learning about how they approach the work. And it’s just been really fantastic.
Fangirlish: I hope you do realize that you do hold your own against two very iconic actresses.
Sadie: Well thank you. Very kind.
Fangirlish: Last question. What song from the nineties has been your favorite to sing so far? You have a beautiful voice, by the way, but what’s been your favorite song to sing so far in the show?
Sadie: I loved doing the Britney song from episode three, and it was just such a cute scenario. You’re at a beach party and you’re flirting with a cute boy. But Alex Hook and I, who plays teen Kat, we did that New Kids on the Block song.
Fangirlish: The one from episode four. Yeah.
Sadie: Yeah. And it’s really silly. The lyrics are so out there. And we recorded it separately, and so we kind of had to play it as if we were in the same room. And so it was really fun to finally get on set and hear it and just be like, “Oh my God, that’s what you did. That’s hilarious. You’re so cute.” And wasn’t so serious. I think the Baby One More Time, I’m like, “I want him to think I’m talented and cute”, but that one, we were just having a total riot. So it was really sweet. And I don’t know. All the musical scenes have been really, really, really great so far.
Fangirlish: I remember when that song originally came out. It’s by LFO, and we had no idea what the lyrics meant in the nineties. We were like, “This is nonsense.” But to this day, I can still sing every single word, so I totally get it.
Sadie: I know. I have it stuck in my head because I’ve watched that episode a couple times this week, and it’s really hard to get out of your head. And Alex and I had a lot of trouble getting it away. Once we had filmed the scene, we were like, “Oh my God.” And so that’s been great. And it’s such a gift to have the music be a part of the show because that’s my first love has always been singing and everything, so I’ve really enjoyed that experience.
