Skyler Samuels on the Joys of Reinventing Aurora Teagarden for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

When it came to taking on the beloved character Samuels pictured at top readily accepted the challenge amp8220It was really a serendipitous surprise that they reached out to me about playing Auroraamp8221 she beamed during an exclusive interview with MediaVillage amp8220The opportunity of getting to kind of reinvent and reimagine this beloved character in her earlier years was really fun and a new creative challenge I haven39t gotten to do before It was an exciting job to take on and it39s been a joyamp8220What helped was watching some of the original Aurora movies and kind of honing what I thought were her character staplesamp8221 she continued amp8220I was sort of thinking 39Okay what are these little building blocks that are central to the character39 You don39t want to do an imitation but you also don39t want to bring in someone who is nothing like the person you39re meant to be playing Just little quirks or tendencies and things like a certain way she might talk or move or some of the dynamics in her relationships I sort of cherrypicked a few of the things that felt most essential to her and then the fun was sort of reverse engineering that into what a younger version of her might beamp8220What39s really nice about working backward is that when Aurora is introduced in the original movies she39s a little more polished and togetheramp8221 she continued amp8220She39s good at solving crimes and you meet her when she39s in her stride I thought it would be fun if she39s just not good at this like at all Then to see how she figured out that superpower I do think of her as a superhero but what39s Aurora39s origin story like What was the thing that launched her into becoming insatiably obsessed with murder mystery and solving these crimes She kind of had to figure that out as she went It39s been really fun to go back in time and see her stumble into her superpower It39s not always seamless and it39s certainly not always polished but itamp8217s really funamp8221Samuels admits she had a lot of creative license when reinventing Aurora circa 2008 working very closely with director Jessica Harmon on merging their ideas The period in which the prequel is set also helped mold that younger version amp8220Aurora is in school for library sciencesamp8221 she explained amp8220So the methodology of homework and research is very much true to me and I related to that component of Aurora Although it39s funny going back in time to the year 2008 as you can39t use your iPhone and Google someone the way you can now It39s a fun challenge incorporating that because if Aurora wants to do research she needs to go to the library or get to a computer I was in 8th grade when I got my first cell phone now Aurora uses the exact same phone and itamp8217s a propamp8221One invaluable resource when reimagining the franchise was Marilu Henner pictured above left who originated the character of Auroraamp8217s mother Aida Her incredible instant memory recall ability definitely came in handy amp8220Marilu was super supportiveamp8221 Samuels said of her costar amp8220And her ability amp8230 her memory has been studied by medical science because it39s so incredible You don39t usually have access to that kind of resource when working on something So to be able to say 39Hey what is the thing that you guys did in that 4th movie39 Sheamp8217d reply 39Oh it was this person it was sent here39 and launch you into it as if you were there yourself It was incredible and I think she was really excited to go back in time and revisit those early years It was fun working together and we hit it off instantly during our threehour lunchamp8221As a longtime Hallmark devotee Samuels is delighted to join the fold and has her fingers crossed a holiday movie could be just around the corner amp8220Obviously the Christmas movies are a staple during the holidaysamp8221 she said amp8220You have to have those my family would love it and it would be a fun bucket list item to get to do a holiday movie as I39ve never done something like that beforeamp8220I do hope there are more Aurora adventures tooamp8221 she added in closing amp8220Having multiple movies would allow us to bring in some of the characters we met in the original movies So for the audience who knows the original movies these new era movies would feel like 2020 hindsight vision and give an understanding of how all these people came to be and fell into placeamp8221Aurora Teagarden Mysteries Something New will be telecast Friday June 9 at 9 pm on Hallmark Movies ampamp MysteriesClick 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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Skyler Samuels on the Joys of Reinventing Aurora Teagarden for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

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Skyler Samuels on the Joys of Reinventing Aurora Teagarden for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

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