AnnaLynne McCord Continues Her Annual Christmas Movie Tradition with Lifetime’s "Dancing Through the Snow"

Holiday fare is nothing new to McCord After her breakout TV role as supervixen Naomi Clark on The CWamp8217s 90210 reboot ended in 2013 she followed it with a plumb part on TNTamp8217s Dallas reboot Then in 2014 she found herself breaking that vixen mold landing a role in The Christmas Parade 2014 A year later she was starring opposite Mike 39The Mizzamp160Mizanin39 seen on this season39s Dancing with the Stars in Santa39s Little Helper and Christmas had a hold of her Breaking that vixen mold was very sneaky on my partquot she laughed of her transition quotI kinda slid through the back door and was like 39Ha ha See I am a nice person39quotYou know it39s funnyquot she continued quotI was offered a few Christmas films over the years and while my mom loves them for a reason I was like 39I39m a serious actress39 and everything had to be according to my rigid little rules I read The Christmas Parade and thought 39This is funny and I like it39 My character had the realization that Christmas matters so I got to play her two ways That was my introduction to Christmas movies It39s the story and character arc that matter to mequotWhen it came to Dancing Through the Snow the story of a widowed dad who finds himself at the center of a viral video after being captured helping his young daughter practice her ballet moves it hit home quotThis movie was more for me and not momquot she joked quotI39d seen the viral video of the real dad doing The Nutcracker with his daughter online so when they sent me the script I said 39OMG this is based on that video I watched like 100 times as it was so precious39quotMcCord loved also loved that the script dealt with quotseriousquot issues Beyond the quotfunquot of a single dad going viral when attention is the last thing he wants it deals with a father moving on from loss and a child who feels threatened that by her dad finding love with the character Olivia her ballet teacher she will no longer be his focus quotI liked the way they didn39t do the movie magic thing where a child is perfectly happyquot she explained quotThere is a real choice here about possibly not moving on because of his daughter and him making the choice for her It39s so nice when any parent makes those decisions on behalf of their childrenquotYou want your child to be happyquot she added quotSo a part of being the best dad would be showing your little girl why love is important I think that the film in its very sweet Christmas way covers that serious issue As humans it39s something we could be faced with Be it moving on from divorce a loss or whatever I really liked the way the film handles it yet it keeps you guessingquotAnother facet of the film that appealed to McCord was its casting Lifetime has taken a firm stance on its diversity and representation initiative and a commitment to depicting a myriad of cultures on screen It39s something the actress is fiercely passionate about quotIf you look at my friend group there are humans who all look very differentquot she shared quotI have a couple of friends who look like me then most everyone else is Korean Japanese African Cambodian I have a flutter of beautiful humans that that color my friend group Growing up I got to look at actors that looked like me and I dreamed that I would be like them one day There are so many kids who have looked at that screen and have never seen themselves or rarely have seen themselves in a leading rolequotI have so much gratitude to Lifetime for going over and beyond to make a statementquot she continued quotEspecially with the holidays when everyone39s together and wants to see themselves reflected on that TV screen I39m also grateful to Lifetime for going over and beyond to diversify their casting and tell real human stories as humans and all the different people who are living those stories I think there39s an aspect of 39honoring a culture and making sure you39re not stereotyping itamp8217 That39s a hard line to walk and I feel they39ve done it really well I hope people watching feel that way too and I39m honored to be a part of the community Lifetime has built that39s putting faces orientation and a belief system that looks and feels like as many people in the world as possibleOne thing for sure is this holiday season McCord39s mom will be proud quotMy mom has been through a lotquot she said in closing quotWe kind of grew up together as she was so young when she had my sisters and me so to be in this place in her life now and every year get a little extra celebration with whatever Christmas film I end up doing that39s special to me The best movies always have beautiful little life lessons so I look for those that aim to do that in a relevant way to what39s going on in the world I39m stoked to keep that conversation going as wellquotDancing Through the Snow is telecast Friday November 19 8 pm on LifetimeClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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AnnaLynne McCord Continues Her Annual Christmas Movie Tradition with Lifetime’s "Dancing Through the Snow"

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AnnaLynne McCord Continues Her Annual Christmas Movie Tradition with Lifetime’s "Dancing Through the Snow"

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