If you watched Branching Out on The Hallmark Channel this weekend, you know that Cora Bella is a star. The young actress stars Sarah Drew and Juan Pablo di Pace stealing every scene she is in. In the movie, you’re rooting for the romance, but even more than that, you’re rooting for Cora’s character of Ruby.
In Branching Out, Ruby is assigned a school project about heritage and family. She doesn’t know much about her biological family because her Mom doesn’t have any that she knows of. Ruby also doesn’t know her biological father. This school project leads to everything in Ruby’s life changing as she talks her Mom into finding her biological father.
Through the drama, you find yourself rooting for Ruby and that’s because of Cora Bella’s portrayal. The young actress steals the scenes that she is in. We asked Sarah Drew about working with Cora Bella, who plays Ruby.
“Oh, she’s such a little ball of sunshine. We had such a joyous time working with Cora. Cora Bella and I bonded right away. We would do these little these little like patty cake things. If she need a little burst of energy, we would do this little like patty cake thing.” Sarah said.
She continued, “One time where she like she got hurt just doing a specific action and the thing. Just being able to sit with her and like love on her and be mom in the moment. I was missing my nine-year-old at the same time because my nine-year-old wasn’t with me, so we had a really special bond on set. It was very, very, very sweet. We laughed a lot and giggled a lot, and took a lot of pictures, and had a blast. What I was really, really blown away with her is her ability to take direction. She would like turn on a dime. Mclain would offer something to her and she’d you’d be like, ‘Oh, like this?’ Then it would be like, ‘Wait? Yes, exactly like that.'”
Sarah laughed and said she would watch and wonder how Cora Bella would do it, because a lot of adult actors didn’t know how to do that.
Sarah finished off by saying, “She was so malleable as a young artist. It was really exciting to see her performance take shape in the way that it did throughout the journey and to watch her grow in confidence, to watch her ground her performance at moments where it was like, ‘Oh. Well, maybe let’s not be in Disneyland and come and ground ourselves down.’ She was just right there, in there. It was really, really beautiful to see. When I get to work with a little kid who is growing at such a profoundly fast rate, it’s really, really exciting and wonderful. They’re just sponges at that age too. It was a joy. We all had a really sweet little family dynamic.”
We love that the this was the vibe on set and that the cast all bonded. It’s as it should be.
