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. “It was really a serendipitous surprise that they reached out to me about playing Aurora,” she beamed during an exclusive interview with MediaVillage. “The 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 haven't gotten to do before. It was an exciting job to take on and it's been a joy.

“What helped was watching some of the original Aurora movies and kind of honing what I thought were her character staples,” she continued. “I was sort of thinking, 'Okay, what are these little building blocks that are central to the character?' You don't want to do an imitation, but you also don't want to bring in someone who is nothing like the person you're 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 cherry-picked 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 be.

“What's really nice about working backward is that when Aurora is introduced in the original movies, she's a little more polished and together,” she continued. “She's good at solving crimes and you meet her when she's in her stride. I thought it would be fun if she's 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 what's Aurora's 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. It's been really fun to go back in time and see her stumble into her superpower. It's not always seamless, and it's certainly not always polished, but it’s really fun.”

Samuels 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. “Aurora is in school for library sciences,” she explained. “So, the methodology of homework and research is very much true to [me], and I related to that component of Aurora. Although, it's funny going back in time to the year 2008 as you can't use your iPhone and Google someone the way you can now. It's 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 it’s a prop!”

One invaluable resource when reimagining the franchise was Marilu Henner (pictured above, left) who originated the character of Aurora’s mother, Aida. Her incredible instant memory recall ability definitely came in handy. “Marilu was super supportive,” Samuels said of her co-star. “And her ability … her memory has been studied by medical science because it's so incredible. You don't usually have access to that kind of resource when working on something. So, to be able to say, 'Hey, what is the thing that you guys [did] in that 4th movie?' She’d reply, 'Oh, it was this person, it was sent here,' 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 three-hour lunch.”

As 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. “Obviously, the Christmas movies are a staple during the holidays,” she said. “You 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 I've never done something like that before.

“I do hope there are more Aurora adventures, too,” she added in closing. “Having 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 place.”

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Something New will be telecast Friday, June 9 at 9 p.m. on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Click the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleagues.

The opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author and/or subject(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet, Inc. management or associated writers.