Liza Lapira Makes CBS' "Must Love Christmas" a Holiday Must-See

“It's really special for me to be the protagonist in this kind of movie because I've been a fan [of the genre] for so long,” she added. “On a separate note, it's special for me to be a protagonist in something [like this]. Growing up, I didn't see many protagonists that looked like me. So, this has just been a doubly wonderful project to be a part of.”

Writer's block, as experienced by Lapira’s character, is common for anyone in the writing profession. Even for an esteemed seasoned holiday movie writer like Mark Amato, who penned this one. “Writer's block is crippling and haunts every writer,” he shared. “Even with the dozens of Christmas movies under my belt, you sit at a computer and the words aren't coming. Or worse, they're coming, and just aren't any good. There are so many tropes you have to find a way to recycle, and I don't [ever] want to recycle. I always get my critics saying, 'You know how it's going to end.' I guarantee no one is going to be able to predict the ending [here], and for me, that becomes the biggest challenge. If I get to a situation where it feels a little too comfortable, and a little too easy, I haven't tested myself. So, with each one, I hope to get better and better."

Something this film quite cleverly establishes is the possibility of a love triangle, although it’s never overtly alluded to throughout the movie. That required Amato to re-engineer the obligatory “meet-cute” (a couple's first movie meeting) -- a rom-com prerequisite.

The fact Lapira gets two meet-cutes in this (without revealing too much) was a bonus. “I enjoyed both of them immensely," she said. "I always enjoy a meet-cute; here I got the meet-cute with the high school crush (Nathan Witte), the guy of my dreams that I haven't seen in forever, and the unrequited love re-meeting. Then I got the antagonistic banter, witty meet-cute, with the Nick character (Bledsoe), so I was thoroughly spoiled by this movie.”

“I guess [we] would be the meet-ugly,” Bledsoe (pictured above) laughed. “Our meet is anything but cute. But the good news is that we have nowhere to go but up from there. It's definitely, for the holiday romance films I've done, a different way to meet a leading lady, but I think it makes the payoff that much more wonderful and unexpected.”

“I loved that after the sort of antagonistic meet the audience gets to see a friendship develop,” Lapira concurred. “Both of the leading men helped this character grow just as friends. She also confronts a traumatic thing that happened years before this movie takes place, and she gets to not only confront it, but step out of the shell that she's been living in and leap into her life as an active participant.”

“I'll just tip my hat to Mark,” Witte (pictured above) said. “What I loved about [this] script that's kind of contrary to a lot of other Christmas scripts I've done is that this meet-cute/love triangle feels like it happens around Christmas, as opposed to 'we're going to shove in Christmas.' I find in a lot of [holiday] scripts in every scene we’ve got to let everybody know that we're doing Christmas in this movie. This script was much more nuanced; it had moments of subtlety, then moments of Christmas grandeur. And I loved the nuance between my character and Neal's character going after Liza's character. It reminded me of This Means War, one of my favorite romantic comedies, with a sprinkle of Christmas. I had a tremendous amount of fun with Neal and Liza.”

“This is just a joyous fun ride [with] some sweet relationships,” said Lapira in closing. “On a personal note, it has been a career highlight, and a thrill, to lead one of these movies. I'm a big fan of this genre, so it’s been an embarrassment of riches. The fun that the cast, the crew, and I had with the collaborative nature of making this is apparent on screen. I'm very, very, proud of that.”

Must Love Christmaswill be telecast Sunday, December 11 at 9:00 p.m. on CBS and will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

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