Written By: Michael D. McClellan |
Lauren Swickard just saved Christmas.
In a year that has seen Broadway shuttered, Wimbledon cancelled, and the Tokyo Olympics postponed, the last thing any of us needed was a Christmas season without fresh, high-quality, feel-good Christmas content to consume. Swickard, the multihyphenate powerhouse behind A California Christmas, has delivered in a big way, writing, producing, and starring (opposite her husband, General Hospital star Josh Swickard) in a film about a wealthy charmer who poses as a ranch hand to get a hardworking farmer to sell her family’s land before Christmas. The Netflix Original, produced by ESX Entertainment, begins streaming worldwide on December 14.
“Getting this movie made is a dream come true,” Swickard says. “There were so many challenges with COVID-19, but we had a great team. Everyone pulled together, worked hard, and stayed focused in spite of what was going on around us.”
A California Christmas
That A California Christmas even made it this far qualifies as a Christmas miracle. In March, when the coronavirus pandemic stopped Hollywood in its tracks, not many in the industry were optimistic that holiday films like A California Christmas would see the light of day. In Swickard’s case, everything broke perfectly: Quarantined, she wrote the script in three weeks, bouncing plot points and dialog off of Josh, who was home during the four-month shutdown at General Hospital. She then pitched the script to Ali Afshar, the head of ESX Entertainment, who was so impressed that the deal was done on the spot. The decision to cast Lauren and Josh as the leads not only guarantied onscreen chemistry (the two had met during the filming of Roped, and were married not long after), it also came with the built-in advantage of the leads having been quarantined together. Finally, Afshar offered up his Petaluma ranch as the film’s primary location; by shooting A California Christmas in an NBA-like “bubble” environment, and with testing and protocols followed to a tee, Netflix was convinced that the project could be completed in time for the holiday season. And just like that, Swickard was able to see her dream come true.
“We had a lot of things go right every step of the way,” Swickard says. “It was a combination of hard work and good luck.”
That Lauren Swickard is the driving force behind A California Christmas comes as no surprise to her inner-circle. Swickard may look the part of a Hollywood starlet, but the disarmingly beautiful actor is a blood-and-guts warrior when it comes to her passion: Writing.
“It’s something I do every day,” Swickard says without missing a beat. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and I’m thankful the persistence has paid off. It’s surreal to see a writing credit next to A California Christmas.”
Swickard has written several screenplays, including A California Christmas, and is currently hard at work on writing Casa Grande, a five-episode political drama series picked up by Warner Bros. That award-winning Argentine director Gabriela Tagliavini (How to Break Up With Your Douchebag) has been tapped to direct the series speaks volumes to Swickard’s writing.
“Casa Grande is on the fast track,” she says. “The series follows several families in the farmland of Northern California as it navigates universal themes of class, immigration, culture and family. We have a team working very hard ensure that the subject matter is authentic. I’m very excited about how it’s coming together and can’t wait to see it come out.”
Born in Cincinnati, Swickard started out in dance, excelling in ballet to the point that she later enrolled in New York City’s prestigious School of American Ballet. Founded by George Balanchine and the single greatest cultivator of aspiring American ballet dancers, SAB remains close to Swickard’s heart.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
“So many great dancers have passed through the school’s studios,” says Swickard. “Allegra Kent, Darci Kristler, the list goes on and on. I loved my time there.”
An injury changed the trajectory of Swickard’s dance career. After a brief stop at Ohio University (to study journalism, no less), she made the leap into acting. Since then she’s steadily built an impressive acting resume, including roles in Dear White People and Roped. She’s also pulled double-duty, starring in two roles for the Lifetime movie Twisted Twin.
“My most challenging project yet,” she says, smiling. She pauses. “Until A California Christmas. Writing, producing, and acting in it was very rewarding, and I’m very thankful. But wearing so many different hats was also exhausting at times.”
That Swickard dreamed big and worked hard is good news for the rest of us. A California Christmas streams at a time when the world badly needs a healthy dose of holiday cheer.
“It’s been a difficult year,” Swickard says. “Hopefully this movie will help people forget about the pandemic for a couple of hours. Hopefully it will keep them smiling for a long while after that.”
Let’s talk about your latest project, A California Christmas. Without spoiling anything, what can you tell me about the movie?
I like to say that A California Christmas is the classic save-the-ranch story. It’s about a girl, her mom, and her younger sister. I play Callie Burnay, a girl who has a lot on her plate. She’s dealing with a mother who is battling lung cancer, and she also has a little sister that she has to help raise, so she’s basically taking care of her family while keeping up an entire ranch by herself. When it becomes too much, her mom suggests that she hire a ranch hand – which she grudgingly ends up doing. Then we learn about a San Francisco-based shipping company called Van Aston Enterprises, and how it wants to buy a big plot of land to put in a new shipping facility. Because the Burnay Ranch is going under, and is just inches away from foreclosure every month, the company thinks it’s found the perfect target. That’s when they decide to go in and offer the family money to buy the ranch. So, Joseph Van Aston, who is played by my real-life husband, gets sent to Petaluma, California, to convince the owners of the Burnay Ranch to sell their land. He doesn’t know Callie Burnay, and he doesn’t realize how strongly she is against selling – although he will soon find out.
Are conditions ripe for romance?
Very much so! When Joseph Van Aston arrives at the ranch, he spills coffee all over himself and has to change clothes. Callie actually mistakes him for a ranch hand. Joseph, seeing it as a perfect opportunity, decides to play the part so that he can get to know Callie a little bit and see what makes her tick. He doesn’t expect to fall in love. So it’s a false identity, romantic comedy Christmas movie. It’s coming out as a Netflix Original on December 14. We couldn’t have asked for a better home for the film.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
A California Christmas was made during a global pandemic.
We were fortunate to be one of the first productions up and running. We knew that the rest of Hollywood was watching us to see how it went, but everyone on set was careful to follow all the protocol to the best of our ability. We lost two hours each day due to our precautionary guidelines, and yet we still made our days without missing a beat. It wasn’t surprising, because our team was full of some of the hardest workers I’ve ever met.
What kinds of adjustments did you have to make?
We were something of a guinea pig for Hollywood. We were initially doing the blood tests, the kind where you could prick your finger and get the results back in eight minutes. That meant we could test on the same day that we were to go to the set. Then they came around and said that those tests weren’t valid anymore, so we had to delay production by a week while we worked out a deal with another lab, and arranged for nurses to come on set with the nasal swabs. The cast and crew was on hold at a hotel where we filmed in Sonoma Valley. It was beautiful, but we were also in Petaluma, which is in the middle of nowhere. We were supposed to be there for 2 ½ weeks, but we ended up being there for 34 days.
This may be the new normal in Hollywood for the foreseeable future.
The world has certainly changed. Before the pandemic, I think I took things like in-person meetings and interactions for granted. I was in an acting class that I loved. I was driving from Studio City to Santa Monica to Century City, so I was all over Los Angeles auditioning and meeting with people all the time. In fact, at the time I felt a bit overwhelmed. I was like, “I’ve already driven to two offices today, why can’t I just send a tape to the casting offices instead?” Then once the pandemic hit, everything stopped. Acting classes, auditions, productions…everything was canceled. My husband is on a soap opera, General Hospital, and his show completely shut down. It was pretty scary, because the only way our industry works is by being in close contact with other people. There can be anywhere from 60-to-80 people on set when actors are doing a scene. That’s how many people it takes to make everything work. It was all very hard at first, and very surreal. I’ll never forget, Josh and I love watching American Idol, and then American Idol shut down. The next thing you know, the contestants had to sing from home. The new normal is going to take some getting used to [laughs].
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
The preview for A California Christmas looks great! Where did the idea for the movie come from?
When the quarantine first happened, there were a lot of friends on social media who were being productive. They were diving into various health-based activities, and coming up with all kinds of creative, stay-at-home things to stay busy. Because I love to write, I thought, “Oh, I’m going to do a script,” and I started imagining what people would want to watch once the quarantine was over. I thought that the pandemic would surely be over by the holidays, and that a holiday movie would be the perfect way to entertain people. I was wrong about the pandemic, but I still feel that people are ready for a movie like A California Christmas.
This project came together quickly.
I wrote the script in three weeks. It was quite fun, because Josh was home with me while I was writing. It was the first time that I had written a script where I had my husband here to be my guinea pig. We would act out scenes while I was writing, so it was a very different process for me. It was so much fun. As I was creating the characters, my intention was not to perform as an actress in the movie. I only wanted to produce and write. But, as we kept working together, I started getting this idea that maybe I should pitch more than the script and the story. Maybe I should also pitch that Josh and I would be acting together in it as a married couple.
Two-part question: What were some of the challenges that you encountered making this film? And, what did you find the most enjoyable?
The biggest challenge was that we had to deal with the pandemic. That meant that there were a lot of things we had to take into consideration. For example, as a writer I had to write a lot of exterior scenes relative to the number of interior scenes. That’s because it’s not quite safe when there are so many crew members confined to a small space. The union also provided guidelines, so we had to make sure that we followed those as well. When we were location scouting, we had to ensure that interior scenes had two separate entrances, one for the actors and the other for the crew members. Those were just some of the challenges that we had to work around.
I think my most enjoyable and favorite part about making A California Christmas was working with my husband. It was so fun to really be able to play off of each other and use our natural chemistry. We had this great banter, where we would do a scene and I would look at him like, “We’ve got to do something else.” And he did the same thing to me. He’d go, “Oh no, babe. No, no, no,” and I’d be like, “You’re right. Let’s do it again.” It was really special, and something that I had never experienced with another actor before.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
A California Christmas was produced by ESX Entertainment.
ESX Entertainment is run by Ali Afshar, and this company is such a well-oiled machine. They’ve done something like 17 movies over the past three years, many of them in and around Petaluma. Ali is accustomed to working on tight schedules, challenging budgets, and things like that, but I’m sure he’s never made a movie under conditions quite like this. Still, he was determined to make this movie despite the coronavirus restrictions. It was such a great experience. The crew was so kind, and everyone was such a family. There were really no issues on the whole preproduction side. The same with the production side, except for the inconveniences caused by COVID. It ended up working out fantastically well.
You met your husband, actor Josh Swickard, on the set of Roped. Tell me about that.
We auditioned independently and were both offered the film. I was offered the role of Tracy Peterson first, but I was actually filming something else in Atlanta and couldn’t come back to Warner Bros. to do the chemistry read. Chemistry reads are common in movies, and are done with different pairings so that the director can get a feel for chemistry between the leads. In this case it didn’t happen, and Josh was cast as Colton Burtenshaw while I was in Atlanta. So, I didn’t meet Josh until two days before we were supposed to be in Petaluma.
I’m going to guess that the chemistry between the two of you was pretty darned good.
Yes, it was very good! We were on the Warner Bros. lot, where we were having rehearsal with the director. Josh had just returned from the movie ranch – he had to learn how to rope a calf for his role, so he had been training all day, but I didn’t know this. I show up to the lot, and Josh is dirty from head to toe – dirty cowboy boots, dirty jeans, dirty shirt. I immediately started making fun of him because I thought he was coming in character for the directors meeting. I thought, “Wow, you’re really going for this role!” So, that was our first interaction. Things went so well that he got my number underneath the iconic water tower on the Warner Bros. lot. We drive by that water tower all of the time. That was our special little meeting place.
Did you start dating during the filming of Roped?
There was definite chemistry between us, but we decided that we weren’t going to act on that chemistry, we were going to have it be movie magic instead. It worked out great because we were so close during filming that we became friends first. I told him that maybe he could take me out on a date after filming had wrapped up. He did, and it was love at first date.
You starred in a lifetime movie called Twisted Twin. What was that like?
That has to be my most satisfying role thus far in my career as an actress – or, I should say, roles! One twin was as sweet as could be, as sweet as honey, and the other one was just crazy evil. I actually loved playing the evil twin the most [laughs].
You’re outstanding in both roles.
Thank you! The director’s name is Jeff Hare. He was really great to work with, because he went out of his way to make me feel like it was my movie. I had so much creative control, which I didn’t expect but truly appreciated. Jeff was the best. It was also awesome to collaborate with my body double, who had the same measurements as me, and who had my same hair. You really can’t tell who is who from the back. It was very surreal!
You acted with Jennifer Taylor in that movie. What did you learn from such an accomplished actor as Jennifer?
Oh my gosh, she is such a pro. It’s really cool to see someone like Jennifer work in such a way where there is no aura of ego around her. She was one of the crew – she learned everybody’s names, from the PAs to the sound guys to everyone in between. She didn’t come across as the star that she is, she just wanted to be a part something special. The way she fit in gave it a family feel. It really is rare to meet someone of her stature that behaves like that on a set. I learned from her just how to be. I just want to Jennifer Taylor. She is just amazing.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
At one point you were going to be a ballerina.
Growing up in Cincinnati, my life was focused on one thing: Ballet, ballet, ballet. I was training with Russian coaches, coaches that were flying in from Europe, all of those sorts of things. I was definitely on track to become a professional ballerina, so I moved to New York City to dance with the School of American Ballet.
What changed your career trajectory?
I got injured while I was there and had to fill my days with other things, so I started taking an acting class. I was 14 at the time. I immediately fell in love with acting, and couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. As if I needed any more convincing, my acting teacher said, “Ballerinas end their careers around the age of 35, but actors can act their whole lives.”
The more I got into acting, the more I learned that acting is a lot like ballet, but with words. It’s about emoting with every part of yourself, just like ballet. I really think that’s why it came so naturally to me. Ballet also played another important part in my acting career: If I hadn’t gone to New York for ballet, then I never would have been exposed to acting in the first place.
You wrote the script for A California Christmas. Please tell me about your passion for writing.
Oh my gosh, I wanted to be a writer long before I wanted to become an actress. I was writing my own novels from the time I was in middle school. I studied journalism at the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. The plan was to complete my degree, but I ended up booking a pilot for CBS my first year of college, so I left college to do the pilot. Little did I know that pilots don’t always get picked up [laughs]. I was 18 years old, and I didn’t know how the acting world worked. I just took a leap of faith and plunged into the Hollywood pool headfirst. The screenwriting came later. Once I decided to start writing screenplays I said, “This is my second career. I’m going to work on it every day.” Every day, even if I’m just writing a scene or two, screenwriting is a part of my morning ritual. It’s such a muscle that you have to work on. So I write every day, and I love it.
You wore multiple hats on A California Christmas. Any desire to focus purely on acting in a future project?
Even though I loved to being a producer, writer, and actress on this project, it was a lot of work. I was acting in one of the lead roles, but I was also a producer, which meant I was constantly going over the scenes with the director. It was an endless stream of “I don’t think this works. Do you think this approach works better instead? Should we change the way we handle that?” All while having to think about my character and the performance that I was trying to bring to the screen. Then, the scenes would change, and as a writer I would need to shift gears on the spot and say, “Hey guys, I think we’re going to change it to this, this and this instead of this.” I loved it, but it was definitely a lot on one plate.
So, to answer your question, I’m very excited to go into a project where I’m just the actress. I think it will feel great to count on the writer, director, and producer to do the things they need to do, while I get to focus on being an actress. Or, if it turns out another way, where I’m just the writer.
Let’s talk about your next project, Casa Grande
Casa Grande is a five-episode series that I created, and it is in production right now. The series follows several families in the farmland of Northern California as it navigates themes of class, immigration, culture and family. I think it’s my best work. I do have a team of writers, because this it is a series, so we are working together in a traditional writers room. Their names are Alex Ranarivelo and Michael Cruz, and they are amazing. The expertise that my team brings to this subject is so important, because of who I am and how I grew up. I knew that I needed to have a team around me that is an expert in this culture.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
Where did the idea for Casa Grande come from?
I was actually inspired while we were filming A California Christmas. We were filming on a big dairy farm that actually sources its cheeses to Chipotle, a place where they have hundreds and hundreds of cows, milking machines, and large fields. We would go on the set every day, and I couldn’t help but notice all of the Hispanic workers who actually lived on the property. They would be awake and working long before we got there, and they would be working after we would leave at the end of the day. What I noticed about them was just the foundation of joy that they had – the way they talked and interacted with each other, and the way their kids ran around playing. Being from Cincinnati, I had never seen that culture up close. It piqued my curiosity. I started researching and interviewing these people to learn more about them, and that’s when the idea for Casa Grande hit. I gathered a team around me that could help put story and voices to these faces, and together we came up with the pilot. I pitched the pilot, and ESX Productions jumped on it.
Given the world we live in today, Casa Grande deals with some very timely issues.
The grand theme of this series is pulling back the curtain on how the machine works. The machine being the world that we all live in. I’m just so thankful for this team of people that I have around me, because without them we wouldn’t have been able to give this series correct voices. They are experts in the community, and we had people from the community on the project, so it’s true to what’s happening right now in the world. It’s so important for people to see it.
How does Lauren Swickard stay busy when there are lulls in her schedule?
If I encounter a lull in auditions or a lull in work, I always dive into an acting class. There are so many cool acting classes in town, and that’s the place where you can challenge yourself and practice your craft. If I’m not auditioning or acting, then a class offers an outlet that I have control over. When it comes to writing, I make time every day to get my ideas out there.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
Final Question. If you had one piece of advice for other aspiring creatives, what would that be?
Whatever it is, just start doing it. Start producing your own projects, you’ll learn what to do along the way. It doesn’t matter what the finished product looks like, you just need the experience. The next thing you produce will be better because of what you’ve learned. If you aspire to write, just start writing. If your dream is to be an actor, jump in. Get involved with the local theatre. Take acting classes. Acting classes are great for so many reasons, including the ability to network with others with the same interests. There are colleges that have film schools, and there are students working on thesis projects who need actors. And don’t forget social media, YouTube, all of those sorts of things. You can do so much today that wasn’t available just a short time ago. Follow your passion and just start doing it.