Carissa Pavlica
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Who doesn’t love a good summer movie?
Taylor Cole stars with Kanoa Goo in this romantic island adventure which finds a conservationist in Hawaii for a friend’s wedding, helping the new manager make sustainable changes to his hotel.
We had the chance to chat with Taylor well before the SAG-AFTRA strike to pump some excitement into your upcoming viewing of Aloha Heart.
Taylor, I absolutely loved Aloha Heart.
Oh, that makes me happy. I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m taking your word for it.
Oh my gosh. I loved it. Sometimes the movie just gets it right, and this is one of them.
Good. Do you have ties to Hawaii yourself? Did it make you want to go?
I do not have ties, but I absolutely want to go. What did you think of the script when you first read it?
I was immediately drawn to it because of the character; we easily share the same passion for protecting Mother Earth, this beautiful canvas we’ve been given. So, you know, I was immediately drawn to the script just because of her sheer nature.
And you got to play somebody a little more casual. So many of your roles are in business attire or looking really classy for a promo job or something like that position. But here you got to get into the water you were in, in waders. What was that like?
Yes, I was definitely in my element. That was awesome. I love being as close to and engrossed in nature as humanly possible. It was fun. It was fun to get to play a more natural character who was just closer to, you know, our beautiful planet. It sure was fun. It was fun not to have to wear heels.
I have to say nothing against how you look when you’re in these other roles, but you look so incredibly beautiful. Your hair’s all messy, and you were radiant.
Oh, thank you.
I was like, wow, you look so different. And I think they were trying to portray her as being unkempt because she was in the water and digging around, and I thought, no, that didn’t work. Not with you. [laughs]
That was awesome. That’s so sweet.
What is your personal style?
Very casual. If it can double as pajamas, I’m all for it. Everybody always compliments me on my beautiful noo dresses. And little do they know they’re actually pajamas, or I can wear them as pajamas. It’s just I need to crossover. I need to also be able to fall asleep in my clothing.
Yeah. So you can go out and have a day and then go home without worrying about changing.
Exactly. Exactly.
And you and Kanoa had a nice onscreen chemistry. What was it like working with him?
Oh, I love it; one of my favorite things is working with first-timers, just because they don’t really know what’s going on in the Hallmark universe. They’ve never been fully introduced or, you know, they don’t know what’s about to hit them.
And the fan base that’s gonna essentially affect their life forever because we, fortunately, are so grateful to have this audience who needs these movies and loves these movies and cares for these movies and are grateful for this content.
And it’s really impactful when you meet somebody who’s watched one of your movies. And they rerun these forever, so that will be around for a while. So just this little bit of love that we get to come together and make for those three weeks is like a lifetime of giving back to people and to him.
So opening his eyes to how much these movies mean to people was just so fun to see them light up and be more excited about what we’re creating and what we’re a part of. So that was fun. And he’s just a doll. He’s just so sweet.
And he grew up in Hawaii, so he was seeing his family after work and on the weekends, and it was over Mother’s Day, so he got to spend time with his mom. And it was really beautiful. And, you know, he’s just a loving, beautiful, radiant soul. So I was very happy that I got to work with him.
And he also was very grateful that I was his first love interest in a Hallmark movie. Cause I, you know, broke it down and told him how it was. And I never take things seriously, and I like to have as much fun as humanly possible on these things. So he was just like, thank you for making this so fun and easy.
So we really have a bond for life, that is for sure.
Well, it made it to the screen. It really does no good. That makes me happy. Did he share any of his knowledge of the islands with you?
Yeah, I live in Tahoe, so really, the connection between Tahoe and Hawaii is very similar. They have this sort of Tahoe time, Hawaii time.
It’s like this pursuit of happiness and, you know, it’s not keeping up with the Joneses, it’s appreciating what we have been given and, and honoring it, you know, and preserving it and keeping it, and, and all that, that which, you know, we just kinda saw eye to eye about.
And it just made shooting this movie that much easier, honoring their, you know, everything that they have and their values and all that. It fits right in with the movie. So it was pretty beautiful.
How do you support conservationists’ views?
Oh, well, in Tahoe, giving back to nature has really been a hands-on possibility because they have so many different programs. I’m involved with Sugar Pine Foundation, and they even have this amazing thing that I love. It’s called the Adopt an Acre Program.
You can be as hands-on or hands-off as you want. So you can be out there planting the trees, or you could be in a totally different state. And the money that you donate for that acre is guaranteed funding for them to plant little sugar pine seedlings and the burn scars, you know, around Tahoe.
So bringing Tahoe back to life and restoring its beauty is huge. And then they also have Keep Tahoe Blue, which is, you know, pick, you can go pick up trash, or you can donate, and they even have this little robot named Bebo.
He’s some new high-tech technology that really, it’s getting underneath the surface that, you know, you can’t see with the naked eye by picking up trash. And he gets under there, and so much trash has been picked up from this little guy.
And hopefully, we get to do that. We’re not a national park, but we have so many visitors here, and keeping the respect and awareness is a full-time job. Getting the robots on our team, in this particular case, is huge. So, we have a lot of foundations that are, you know, based around keeping Tahoe blue, so I support all of them.
That’s a great way to use robotics, though, really.
I know, exactly. I wish I would see those everywhere.
Absolutely. You mentioned Hallmark and what it’s like being a family with Hallmark, and you have been in so many different roles before you came to Hallmark. How has your life changed as a result of becoming one of the queens of Hallmark?
Oh, I am immensely grateful to Hallmark for giving me purpose. You know, I call myself an accidental actor. I fell into acting, and while I was making money and doing the acting thing, it just didn’t feel as fulfilling, and something was missing.
I wasn’t out to win awards, and I didn’t wanna be, you know, the best actor. It just something wasn’t clicking.
And then I found Hallmark and this world of fans who are happy to be able to sit and watch this content with their family and bring mother, daughter, son, the whole family all together around one thing that they can all enjoy and embrace and learn from has given me purpose.
Hearing it from families and seeing and meeting these families and the stories that resonate with people have really changed my life for the better.
Weren’t you at the recent Christmas con?
I was, yes. It was amazing. It was camp. It’s really fun because we all know and love each other. So we, the actors getting together is just, it feels like camp. It really does. It’s like just a reuniting of everyone. And we got to tour the Kansas City Hallmark headquarters, which was huge.
It was so impactful. It was beautiful to see the history and the roots. And it locked in my confirmation of just how much I adore Hallmark and what we’re doing, and the message and the love that we get to give every day. So…
That’s where you were all on the bus, right? I saw that on social media, and it looked like you were having so much fun. I’ve talked to so many of you; you’re all such fantastic people. I can’t imagine how much you must appreciate getting together with each other.
Ah, it is really great. And we have the best team at Hallmark, and they put it all together. And I don’t even know how they do it, but they make it happen in such a beautiful, flawless, effortless way that makes us all feel like we’re hanging out with family. You know? It’s fun to be at work, and it feels like you’re not… Right?
Right. Absolutely. You’re very athletic, and you have an emphasis on golf. Did you get to play any while you were in Oahu?
I did. We played at the Royal Hawaiian, which basically looks like you are playing golf in a Jurassic Park movie. So that was incredible. It was very, very beautiful. And then we also played at another top hundred courses in America. Just beautiful. The nature there is stunning.
And I could give a professional food tour of Oahu for sure because I’m a foodie at heart. And, you know, we were staying in a hotel, which normally we rent like a house.
So we have a kitchen so we can cook and all that. This time, because two out of the three weeks we were shooting at the actual hotel, the convenience was just too good. So we just stayed at the hotel, and, uh, that meant eating out a lot. My favorite meal, oh my goodness.
There was this bread at this place called XO that was like, it’s like a milk bread or something. It was unbelievable. I’m not the biggest bread person, but if that’s what bread tastes like, it would be hard to keep me away from it at all times.
They’ve got what Hawaiian bread they sell in stores, but something tells me that’s not what it’s really like.
No, no. It was, it was incredible. And it had cheese and meat stuffed in it. It was like everything. Yeah. It was every good thing in this world.
Oh wow. Yeah. That sounds fantastic.
Yeah.
So, your summer, are you gonna be spending a lot of time golfing? So much of your Instagram feed? This is, it’s been golfing. I find that really exciting. I’ve never played golf. I’ve been trying to learn it in high school, but I love seeing a female represent it like you are.
Yes. It’s really fun. And Tahoe is just a perfect place to play because there are so many courses in a concentrated area. They’re all totally different and have something, um, yeah, something else to offer.
This year, we are committing most of the summer to get better at golf. Like, you’ll never conquer golf because that’s just an impossibility, but getting better, keeping score, and getting better, yes.
Keeping score. You usually do not.
I usually don’t just because I want to be having fun. So my goal in golf was at least one great shot a hole, just like a really good shot at some point during the hole. And then also to not lose a ball. So I would keep score with smiley faces and frowny faces — a frowny face if I lost a ball and a smiley face if I didn’t.
So I could have a par, or I could have; it could have taken me 20 times to get in the hole. But if I didn’t lose a ball, it was a smiley face. So there’s a running joke about my smiley faces because it’s hard to play golf and not lose a ball. It’s a big con. I’ve only played three full rounds without losing a ball, and each time, it’s just as exciting.
How did you get involved with golf?
My dad, I asked for Barbie, and he got me golf clubs. [laughs]
Oh, you’re kidding. [laughs]
Yeah, yeah, Dad. Well, I played for the summer camp that he signed me up for when I was probably eight or nine. And then I put the clubs down, and then I moved to LA. I played some more when I was probably 18.
It was just a fun thing to do. And then it’s been on and off, not really that much. About six times a year, max. So this is the year that we’re playing as much as possible because the only way you can get good is to keep playing.
That’s fun. Yeah. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful sport. You get to be at such beautiful locations, and why not? Yeah.
And his parents just moved here to Tahoe too, and they play golf. It is something you can play for the rest of your life. So, you know, um, I’m going to a wedding in August, and it’s a ‘golf before you go’ wedding. You can make it a golf trip.
Add a few more days, bring your golf clubs, and now it’s a golf trip. It’s just a fun little sport to have in my back pocket for the rest of my life.
And so what else are you doing? Do you have anything coming up? Um, work-wise?
We’ll wait and see because this writer strike and all this mess is daunting, but hopefully, everybody gets what they need, and then we move on from that. So I can do a Christmas maybe because that would be fun.
Yeah. And so, at least in the meantime, you’ve got a goal to become better at golf.
Yes. Exactly.
And your fans can follow along on Instagram and see you either with a big smile on your face or with a little bit of a, a little bit frustrated.
Exactly. [laughs] Yeah. I’ll never be one to take golf too seriously. That’s for sure. I can’t be bothered with that.
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Taylor is inspirational in how she treats her competitive sports. We should all aspire to be more like her and to get out there and enjoy the game for enjoyment’s sake.
You can watch Aloha Heart on Saturday, July 29, at 8/7c on Hallmark!
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.