Ryan Paevey in COYOTE CREEK CHRISTMAS (Photo: Crown Media)

The LollyChristmas.com team recently caught up with actor Ryan Paevey to chat about his all-new Hallmark Channel original holiday movie, Coyote Creek Christmas, which is premiering this weekend as part of the network’s iconic Countdown to Christmas lineup!

Read on to learn more about the movie, what it was like working with Janel Parrish and on-screen son Azriel Dalman, his ultimate holiday destination, and more!

You have a brand new Christmas movie premiering on Hallmark Channel called Coyote Creek Christmas. Can you talk more about the film and your character, Dylan?

Sure! I play Dylan Bailey of the Bailey Brothers Development Firm; a single dad–I’m kind of like the wandering salesman for my family.  It’s me and my kid [played by Dalman] on the road all the time, kind of just doing what the business needs, and my son and I had holiday plans that–I don’t want to say ‘get derailed’, but ‘delayed’, shall we say?  The business catches wind of a new project that they can work on called the Coyote Creek Inn, and so on our little road trip, we make a little detour there to take a look at it as a possible acquisition–kind of a turn and burn thing.  We get there and it’s nice; there’s this pretty girl [played by Parrish], and the family’s lovely, and they’re doing a Christmas thing… and maybe I don’t wanna steamroll the place.  Maybe I want to keep it the same, you know, hang out with the girl–my kid likes her, and that’s always good.

Parrish, Dalman and Paevey in COYOTE CREEK CHRISTMAS
(Photo: Crown Media)

What was it like working with your co-stars in the film, Janel Parrish and Azriel Dalman?

A couple of times in my career, I’ve gotten really lucky.  I’ve shown up on a set and gotten along with the people closest to me right away.  Janel and I were like that, for sure.  She and I are BFFs.  We grab lunch like once a week now–it’s kind of cool.  We send each other memes, and I got her this cool star projector for her room that I had in mine.  She’s rad.  We were just instant friends.

Azriel is one of the trippiest kids I’ve ever met in my life.  You think you’re talking to a forty-year-old guy until he giggles ever so often, and then you remember he’s nine.  But I get along great with kids because I am a giant child.  He was definitely the more mature one in our duo, but we had a blast.  We’re still in contact, and we keep joking that he and I are going to end up in a Marvel movie if I ever figure out how to act. [Laughs]

There are many Christmas movies that air every year, but there’s always something different and special about your films. What draws you to the movies you choose to work on? Is it about how you identify with the character?

I mean, to be candid, most of the time I’ve played fairly similar characters.  Sometimes, there are people attached to the film that I will do, specifically, just to work with them, but there’s always one unique thing.  I think, in Coyote Creek Christmas, it’s just that I got to be a dad.  I haven’t gotten to do that yet.  That was kind of the the attracting factor on this one.

I didn’t really know anything about Janel, other than that she’d been on Pretty Little Liars back in the day, but that worked out great.  Again, she’s become a pretty good friend of mine now after we really only spent a few weeks together up in Canada, but we’ve hung out a bunch since.  There is always one thing, and on this one, it was the dad thing–I got to be a dad, which was cool.

It’s always cool when you connect with the people that you work with, I mean who knows, we may see you guys in a project together again.

Yeah! It helps each subsequent project that you do with each other.  It’s one thing if you’ve just met and you get along–that’s great, then you’ve got chemistry.  It’s another if you’ve just met, you got along and shot a film, some time goes by, and then you go back and do it again.  The more you do this, and the more time you spend on and off camera, you really do become family.  As cheesy as that sounds, that kind of stuff translates.

In the film, yours and Janel’s character plan a “Christmas Around the World” party.  If you could pick anywhere in the world to spend the holiday season, what would be the Christmas destination of your dreams?

I don’t know that it has anything to do with Christmas, but I have wanted to go to Japan my entire life.  It’s the trip of my existence, and someday I will go.  If I could have a ticket anywhere in the world right now, it would probably be to Japan.  I’d spend a month, maybe a month and half, just roaming around.  I speak a little bit of Japanese and can read and write a fair bit.  I could probably find my way around.

That would be an awesome trip!

I would love to go.  I’ve been dying to go since I was a child.  I’ve been obsessed with Japanese culture since I was a kid, so having not necessarily to do with Christmas specifically, but that could be a Christmas trip.

I think Christmas in Japan would be very cool!

You get to see Fujiyama covered in snow and all that stuff.  I would love to.

Everyone has their own tradition they look forward to around the world, what’s yours?

I’m a giver by nature, and Christmas is kind of the one time of year when I get to kind of ‘go HAM’ a little bit and give things.  One of my love languages is definitely giving-centric, so active service and things like that.  For the people in my life, who I think sometimes it maybe makes them a little bit uncomfortable–they have to kind of begrudgingly go along with it because it’s Christmas.  It’s Christmas!  It’s easier for some than it is for others but, it’s Christmas, come on–you gotta let me do it, let me do it, don’t make it weird. [Laughs]

Parrish and Paevey in COYOTE CREEK CHRISTMAS
(Photo: Crown Media)

Everyone has that favorite movie, the one they need to watch every year for their holiday season to feel complete. What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

I got to give you two: either Die Hard or The Nightmare Before Christmas.

You are the very first person who has ever told me The Nightmare Before Christmas!

Oh, come on, Jack Skellington!  I wanted to be Jack Skellington so bad when I was a kid.  I can still hear him, [imitating Jack’s voice] “Zero!”, in my head. I love that guy. He was great.

Yes, I love that movie! Great answers!

My absolute favorite.  I’m not really one of those people like wants to argue about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie.  It takes place around Christmas. I watch it. It’s not that serious.

There are a lot of movies that take place during Christmas, or have a scene at Christmas, and I consider them Christmas movies.

Look, Alan Rickman says “Ho Ho Ho”, and that’s enough for me. I’m good.

Is there a specific memory that stands out to you from all the holiday movies you’ve made?

I haven’t done that many, but I got to do a film with an illustrious gentleman–whose name you may recognize–once upon a time in New York at the Plaza Hotel [director Ron Oliver, Christmas at the Plaza], and early on in my film and TV journey, shall we say, I was a model.  I was a wildly unsuccessful model; I made just enough to like not get fired and not starve to death.  My time in New York was about eleven months or so, and was pretty humble; I walked everywhere.  Even getting a subway pass, I was like ‘nah, I don’t know, man. It’s only like twenty one blocks! I can walk it this time.’

I had a lot of castings that took place between Midtown and Soho, and I’d walk through that part of town thinking, ‘I don’t really belong here. I’m never going to go inside that hotel’.  I recognized it at the time only from Home Alone, and I thought–‘that’s a little rich for my blood, I can look at it from across the street’.  Life is funny this way; fast forward and we’re shooting a film there where we have, basically, unlimited access to all of the best parts of the hotel–and I’m staying in it, and making money, shooting in the same bar as North by Northwest. It was super surreal.

It was a blast to talk Coyote Creek Christmas, full-circle moments and favorite Christmas movies with Ryan!  We here at LollyChristmas.com can’t wait for his future projects–which may or may not include a reunion with an illustrious director.

Watch Coyote Creek Christmas when it premieres TONIGHT on Hallmark Channel at 8pm/7c, part of the Countdown to Christmas event!  Check out a sneak peek below.

Stay Merry,