Hunter King and Tyler Hynes On Fate, Traditions, and Family in Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story
In Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, Kansas City Chiefs superfan Alana will do anything to win Fan of the Year Award as a Christmas gift for her family. But things take a turn when she falls for a new guy in town… who happens to be a marketing director on the Chiefs team. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with Hunter King, Tyler Hynes, Ed Begley Jr., Diedrich Bader, and Megyn Price about the new Hallmark Channel movie.
Hunter King called filming at the Arrowhead Stadium “a once in a lifetime opportunity.” “It was just so much fun to be there and have the stadium at our disposal to make movie magic happen,” she told me. “And then get to film the beautiful drone shot where it's just Tyler and I in the stands was a pinch me moment for me for sure. It was rare. There's nothing like it.”
Finding out that Chiefs fans and Hallmark fans have a big crossover was exciting for the cast. “The folks who were with us on that journey were people who go to the games and watch the Hallmark movies,” said Tyler Hynes. “I didn't even realize a lot of the background folks knew who I was because they were so professional and just so supportive of the whole thing.”
Hynes continued: “I had never experienced that before. We shoot these movies in usually Canada or Bulgaria, different places that aren't necessarily like the center of the Hallmark audience. To be in that circumstance with those people, it felt like magic. It felt like something that might never happen again.”
It was particularly exciting to have some authentic members of the KCC family. “Donna [Kelce] was great. I love Mecole [Hardman Jr]. He's my favorite. Such a hambone. I loved him,” shared Megyn Price. “He was super improv’y, “He was so excited to be on camera. I'm like, ‘You're in the NFL.’ ‘I know, but I'm gonna be in a movie!’”
On top of that, the film is a “love letter” to the fans… with the fans. “That was real! We had the real tailgators all showed up,” said Price, with Diedrich Bader adding: “All the tailgators you see are not technically atmosphere people that were hired. There were people from town that wanted to be part of that and brought their traditions to us. We're really happy to explain what it meant to them and why it meant something to them.”
“They all had their own narrative within our own story so it's kind of beautiful to be part of something like that,” said Bader, with Price continuing: “A lot of football movies are about the football and this whole movie is a tribute to the fans. It's a love letter to Kansas City and to the fans.”
A big theme of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story is fate, which Hynes found in his own casting in the film. “I don't think in these types of poetic context, maybe I should. This moment feels like that. The events that led to me doing this is wild. Jonathan Bennett was supposed to be in the commercial originally. They went to him and that's one of my closest friends. He wasn't available to do it so they came to me,” revealed Hynes. “Then we're here and it just seems like so many things culminated to what is such a unique moment in our culture, in this brand at Hallmark and where they are, where this team is at.”
Hynes continued: “We're along for this ride. It just seems like such a unique combination of things that would only need to happen in order for make this to be what it is. I never thought that way, but I believe in fate now.”
Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story premieres November 30 on Hallmark Channel.
