Part Two Of Our Exclusive Interview With Tyler Hynes

Read the first part of the interview here!

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The last time I interviewed Tyler, it was with his partners in crime, Paul Campbell and Andrew Walker. During the interview, he sipped a few times on a drink, which turned out to be cold pressed juice from Little West, the company owned by Andrew Walker and his wife, Cassandra. Tyler asked me if I knew that Cassandra was his cousin.

I didn’t know.

“Andrew is married to my cousin, Cassandra Walker, who was originally Cassandra Troy, who is one of the very few cousins that I have. They started this business together, Little West, named after their son, West,” he says.

As much time in my life as I spend writing about entertainment, the one thing I can’t ever bring myself to do is to learn about a celebrities family. There is no shade to anyone who does it, but I feel like I am intruding on something. But then again, I now understand a lot of Instagram posts.

The more you know.

But from that last interview that I did, he had influenced me to try Little West and I would suggest the Pineapple Kale Tumeric. I wanted to try Watermelon, but it has Strawberry in it and I am allergic, so I passed on that one. Their OJ is also top notch. But that being said, those are the only two I tried and they are delicious.

I tell Tyler I will use that part of the video on social media, “Oh. I’d promise to use that video as an ad for them, but like you don’t get paid.”

He’s their biggest hype man, but that is part of what I love, because family is important.

We talk for a bit about somethings (they are all in the first part) when Tyler suddenly asks if I hear that.

I heard nothing. I live next to the train in New York, and I tune everything out. I’m used to noise. But Tyler starts to move and look out his window. The anxious part of me starts to go, oh shit, I am doing a bad job, he wants off this. But I quickly reign myself in.

I wonder if time stands still for anyone else when they are speaking. I’ve always had anxiety to the extreme, which is why I hate doing interviews. But as I am sitting there, staring at the screen, where I am judging myself, and I realize Tyler Hynes makes me forget my fear and I am just here.

In the moment.

He notices something out the window and says, “Oh, it’s one of those like helicopter planes. It has wings, but then it’s got two propellers that are sitting upright.”

We talk about it being so low and I forget that I am interviewing. He doesn’t forget much though and talks about his culinary skills (which just FYI, I asked about them because of his character Jake) and then I ask him about Taylor Swift.

I ask him because of the Just Jared article, but also because my friend is messaging me about me going to see Taylor in Vegas and is asking me about getting her a sweatshirt. Why is it that everyone messages me when I specifically told them I couldn’t talk?

“Your co-star outed you for being a Swifty, which like I can appreciate. I have to ask, why do you only know one line in Anti-Hero? She said you only sung this line, “It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem. It’s me.”,” I ask and then add, “Are you really the problem?”

I can’t help but laugh at this moment. I can’t believe I am calling him the problem, but also am laughing because he seems to find my question funny.

“I think it’s generally known that that’s the case and I think I was just owning up to that reality and maybe those lyrics cut to the core of me in a way that I didn’t expect,” he says, smiling his trademark smile, “I think Rhiannon is just toying with me in the press. I saw that as well and I thought, well done. She knows what she’s doing.”

My mind is wandering a bit, Rusty moving a bit in the background looking at his Dad with that look of, hey Dad, pay attention to me. And I get it Rusty. Trust me, I get it.

Tyler and I continue talking about Taylor Swift for a bit, but it’s mostly about me going to see her in Las Vegas. He is completely supportive of my ‘you only live once’ attitude.

I can’t tell you what came over me, because at this point I am fighting tears. I’ve messaged with Tyler a few times over the past few months over DM, and the past week, I had sent him a message and unsent it a few times..

You know how you want to tell people the difference that they’ve made for you? You may not know them directly, but just something they’ve done has been a significant moment in your life? I felt like a cheeseball telling Tyler about it and so I kept recalling the message.

But I felt like here we were and I just was found myself word vomiting. While I don’t want to talk the specifics of what happened in my life, he’s been there for the worst day of my life and the best. See the worst day of my life, was the day I interviewed him and his partners in crime previously. I was miserable, I’d been crying, and I gathered myself up for the interview.

And they’d made me laugh. They made me laugh so hard that I felt like I could get through.

And the best, well on my best day, I was told I would be able interviewing Tyler and then 15 minutes later got the call that made it my best day.

I’m fighting tears as I tell him this. I see him staring at the screen and he’s listening to every word I say. I move past my story and say, “You’re so important to so many people and you spend so much time on social media making sure that you relate to people and that you give them your time. Why is that so important to you, regardless of what project you’re working on, to spend so much time with your fans?”

Before he answers, he asks me for a zoom hug and we both hug our computers. He says, “I had not idea.”

I tell him, “I kept taking it back because I was like, ‘I’m being a sap and then I’m not being a sap.’ I just really honestly wanted to let you know that I appreciated at the worst time in my life, you made me laugh and forget about the worst things. I think that’s why I feel like after that, I started noticing how much time you spend with people and how much time you really spend investing in your fans. I realized, like so many people asked me to ask you like why do you care so much? Because people who have achieved your level don’t really spend as much time as you do. I was like, “Well, I’ll ask him, but then I’m going to be a sap and tell him my–“”

He doesn’t take what I am saying the wrong way, he’s visibly moved by the question and really, you can tell that every single person in the world is important to him. He’s a person who wants to leave the world a better place.

He says, “There’s no sap here. No. I’m really glad that happened that way. Erin, I’m really glad to hear that you’re doing good. This is really, really nice. I understand. I empathize deeply with that circumstance. It seems all too common that we’re all going about things. Meanwhile, there could be something very, very real happening that not many people know about it. I’ve been on my own journey and perhaps may have come to the conclusion of that myself.”

I’m praying he can’t see the tears that are starting to fall. I keep thinking back to the little girl that didn’t think she’d ever do the things she wanted to – work in the entertainment industry. I think to the woman I am and the way I have paved my own way, regardless of the circumstance. I think to him, who made a difference to me, but also to so many.

I love to spend time in his fan club group on Facebook and see how passionate people are over him and the impact he’s made.

My mind quickly returns as he continues, “To answer your question, I don’t know that there’s anything else in life more important than that. I don’t think that there’s anything else as valuable as appropriately acknowledging somebody for the circumstance that they’re in and truly being a human being. I think a lot of life can seem like we’re aspiring for a lot and trying to do a lot. Certainly, I know that I have a lot on my plate, but I really do make it a true point because I think that is the point, to put the value where it belongs, and it belongs in someone like yourself, spending a real honest moment, I think.”

We talk a bit about me and my circumstances. He’s listening to everything I say, and I feel like he’s looking me dead in the eyes. I can’t look away. I’m appreciative of his heart.

I try to pivot and ask him if he ever sees himself directing a Hallmark movie. He just looks at me and in reference to what we were talking about he say, “I don’t know how I’m going to move on from this.”

“Would I ever direct these things? I think my interest lies in good people and good things. If we can make good things, however we get there, I don’t care. Whatever makes for a better experience for everybody,” he says, “If I feel that me taking on that position of director would serve in that regard, then that’s a conversation that I’ll have. If others agree with that point of view, then maybe that’s something that I would do. Certainly producing seems to be a way to shape and help evolve this thing. I think I have a certain– and I never spoke this way before, but at this point in time, I like to quietly shut my mouth like the true Canadian that I am and just observe for long enough until I have something to say or something to contribute.”

I am thinking about all the celebrities I have interviewed – and I have done over 500 interviews, and I have never met anyone so humble and about the art. Most of them are like yes, directing is next on the list.

“I think I’ve listened to the folks who watch these movies, like yourself, and have made enough of them at this point to understand on a pretty granular level what it is that moves these things along and can possibly evolve them. That side of things may transpire. Directing itself is not something that I have to do out of some personal exercise of artistry. I just want to make good things, and however that takes place, we’ll see,” he says.

It’s time to wrap up, but he tells me that we can talk longer. He doesn’t have to leave for a meeting for 40 more minutes. He doesn’t want me to feel pressure, but I don’t. Sure, I am on the verge of tears. I had to ask myself if I was so emotional from the meds I take for chronic pain, but I realize I haven’t taken them yet. Maybe I’d gone insane. Or maybe, just maybe, I want to cry because I feel a sense of relief. Not sure.

But I am going with it.

We talk with Hallmarks PR person, Taylor, about Greece for a second. Taylor’s legitimately one of the best people. We’re talking about her wanting to go to Greece, and I tell him, “You got to get somebody to write a movie about being in Greece. Like what’s Paul doing? What’s going on?”

We both laugh. He says, “Yes, we will. Who knows what the future holds. It’s certainly not opposed to going to Greece.”

A million ideas rush into my head about what that movie would be like. But it’s truly time to wrap up, because I have somewhere to be. I had confused the time limit on another interview with this one, so I’d scheduled another appointment. I hated the fact I had to go, but hey, I knew that the past 30 minutes had been one of the best times i’d had.

“I honestly really, I do appreciate your time and your patience and how good and great you are to me because it really does, it means a lot and it makes a difference. If you ever think you haven’t affected someone’s life positively, just know you’ve affected mine in the best way.” I find myself saying without a thought.

Fuck, I think. I am a sap. This is totally going against my rep. I smile at him and wipe away a tear.

He says, “That means the world to me, you have no idea. It’s truly, truly why I’m doing these things and why I continue to do them and why I put as much focus into the side of things as I do and will continue to do. Thank you very much.”

But he doesn’t need to thank me. I, like so many of his fans, want to thank him. We say our goodbyes and I hear him call me ‘E’, which usually only the people closest to me, call me. It makes me smile and I realize that I feel like I have spent the past 30 minutes talking to a friend.

We again, say our goodbyes, and I close my computer, putting my head down, take a breathe and start to cry. But it’s not sad tears.

It’s tears that tell me I am thankful for a man whose movies and television shows I love to watch. But it’s also tears of thankfulness and tears of feeling special, because that man is thankful for all his fans, myself included.

And that’s a great feeling.