‘The Talk’s’ Amanda Kloots is ‘Fit for Christmas’
For Amanda Kloots, CBS is more than just “Talk” these days.
The co-host of the network’s weekday program “The Talk” has a big creative hand in “Fit for Christmas,” a new movie that airs there Sunday, Dec. 4. Also an executive producer and (with screenwriter Anna White) the co-creator of the story, Kloots revisits her earlier career by playing a fitness instructor who opposes the redevelopment of the local community center in Mistletoe, Mont. She ends up in a romance with the businessman (Hallmark Channel-movie veteran Paul Greene) who has designs on the property. “All My Children” alum Rebecca Budig also stars for director Jessica Harmon, who’s an actress as well (“The 100,” “iZombie”).
“We went on hiatus (from ‘The Talk’) in August,” Kloots explains, “and I pretty much flew a couple of days later off to Vancouver to shoot the film on my hiatus, finished the movie, came back and started Season 13 of ‘The Talk.’ No rest.” Still, that was fine with Kloots, who was excited to see her idea literally come to life.
“I helped conceptualize the entire movie right up until we were filming,” she reports, “and it was amazing. There was a day on set – I’ll never forget it – when we were filming at the Mistletoe Inn, and it was so perfectly Christmas. And I looked around, and I just I couldn’t believe it was happening. I literally pinched myself, because I remembered being in my bed in July of 2020 thinking of this idea at 3:00 in the morning, and then having it come to life, it was just so beautiful. And it just felt like magic.”
Greene worked with writer White previously (on last year’s “Christmas CEO”), but he says, “What made this so different was working with Amanda in this way, knowing that this was her first experience in this way. It just had this crackling newness and possibility to it that was really unique. It was very inthe-moment, spontaneous and exciting.
“There was this chemistry and friendship between all of us actors, really,” adds Greene, “and especially between Amanda and myself, like, from the first minute. We were just like longlost friends, and that translated really quickly into a feeling of having each other’s backs in the scenes and improvising.”
Partially because of her opportunity with “Fit for Christmas,” Kloots (who lost her Broadway-actor husband Nick Cordero to COVID-19 in 2020) reflects, “I can’t believe what I’m doing right now, when I look at my life and how much has changed, especially in the last three years. I just am constantly blown away by the idea of how life can change so quickly, and how dreams can come true.”