Natalie Hall

OF ‘FLY AWAY WITH ME’ ON HALLMARK CHANNEL

In your latest movie, “Fly Away With Me,” you play a new resident of a “No Pets” dwelling who suddenly finds herself in the company of a parrot. How was it for you to have that particular acting partner?

I was saying hello to a director I’d worked with before, and she said, “I have this movie you would be perfect for. And it has to do with a bird.” And I was like, “Oh, dear. How’s that gonna work?,” but it

was a blast.

You never knew what the bird was going to do, but it actually was really fun. You have to stay on your toes more because your partner is a bird, so there was

more improv based on what he did, but still staying within the world of the script. There’s also a dog in this, so it definitely was interesting working with both. Dogs are well-trained, and the bird is

somewhat trained, but he also had his own mind.

Do you think this opens up a new subcategory of Natalie Hall-with-animals movies?

Oh, gosh. I love working with animals, but I love working with humans, too! I thought this would be fun, but I wasn’t sure how much fun it would turn out to be. It

was a unique experience. There aren’t that many scripts out there like this.

You also have “Rookie Blue” and “Burden of Truth” alum Peter Mooney as a “Fly Away With Me” co-star. Did you find him to be equally in tune with the animals in the cast?

He is the loveliest person, so talented and so funny. We did a table read on Zoom a couple of days before we started filming, and I could just tell that he would be the perfect scene partner for this. I felt very grateful that he signed on for it, because you need someone who really understands comedic timing for this. He’s so easy to work

with, too. He’s just great.