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[0:01] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's The Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:09] Robert Bannon: Welcome to The Roundtable. We are just so excited to have both of you here. And if you don't mind, if you could just introduce yourselves to The Roundtablers.

[0:17] Ian Harding: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm Ian Harding.

[0:19] Lucy Hale: I'm Lucy Hale. Hello.

[0:22] Robert Bannon: Hello. Hello. Welcome. The 12 Dates Of Christmas!, which is exclusively premiering tomorrow, Friday, November 6th on Hulu. How exciting.

[0:33] Lucy Hale: Yes, it is. I think we're like maybe one of the first holiday movies coming out. It's early, but we're kick-starting the season. We're very excited.

[0:42] Robert Bannon: I, you know what, I started it a couple days ago because I was ready. I'm like, you know, I love Halloween and everything. But I said, for some reason, I don't know, like, I live on the East Coast. I live in New Jersey and the leaves, it was just, we had such a beautiful like month of September. And I'm like, I'm ready for the holiday season. I want some Christmas.

[1:02] Ian Harding: It's getting crispy now. I also live on the East Coast and, you know, just coming out, like, I have to walk the dogs really early in the morning. It's starting to get cold. I'm like, ah, yes. Time to bust out.

[1:14] Robert Bannon: So let me ask both of you, and I would like both of you, Ian and Lucy, to tell me, what was it like when you got the call for this and what drew you to the script? What was it about it that you said, this is a Christmas movie I want to do?

[1:27] Lucy Hale: Well, I had never done a Christmas movie before, and I had always wanted to. I've done, you know, a handful of rom-coms, and I obviously love that genre, but I was very excited to do my first holiday film. And when we were thinking about, and I also just thought the concept was so clever, and I was just really surprised they hadn't done that before. I was like, oh, this is actually so hysterical what they can do with all of the dates, which come from some true stories, by the way. Not from me personally, but a lot of the date stories, some of them are real. And then when we were thinking about guys for Peter, I was like, this may be a bad idea, but I think it's a really great idea. What about Ian and having us reunite? And everyone loved it, and I reached out to Ian, and he was thankfully on board.

[2:11] Ian Harding: Yeah, that's funny. You said when you got the call, and I was like, actually, what I got was a voice note.

[2:11] Lucy Hale: A voice note.

[2:16] Ian Harding: They were like, do you want to do this movie? And then we, I remember chatting, I think, and it was somewhat late at night or something.

[2:22] Lucy Hale: Probably.

[2:23] Ian Harding: I remember I was actually in my basement, because I didn't want to wake my son up. And so I'm literally on the basement floor talking to Lucy, and basically she was saying, so, okay, here's what it is. I'm like, I'm in. She's like, hang on, wait. Like, just, you should read the script first. I'm like, that's how that should go. So, but I think it was a pretty easy yes, when I knew that she was going to do it.

[2:45] Robert Bannon: Yeah, it's so nice when I think when you know the person too, because you guys have that really great onscreen chemistry, and I think it's really nice when you can see that, you know what I'm saying? This is a different kind of Christmas movie. I really kind of like it. And I think the audience will enjoy it as well, because, you know, we have the staples, you know, the ones that we always love and things like that. But this is something new and different. I like that.

[3:09] Lucy Hale: It does seem to like walk that line.

[3:11] Ian Harding: It's like silly and funny. And like I said, it's just like this concept is just so brilliant. And yeah, we appreciate you saying that.

[3:21] Lucy Hale: It's got the meet cute. It's got the like, will they, won't they, you know, that stuff.

[3:25] Ian Harding: Right. Well, because one of my favorites and I watch it every year is I love The Holiday, you know, with Cameron Diaz and Jack Black and Kate Winslet. And I was like, this kind of is something, it reminds me of that, you know, and I think that this is a movie that people can watch, you know, year after year, because I think it's fun. I like when it's fun and silly. We don't, we don't always need the heart wrenching type of, you know.

[3:45] Lucy Hale: Right, right. The Holiday. It's so good. I just watched that two days ago on a flight.

[3:49] Ian Harding: It just always holds up. It's just so good.

[3:51] Lucy Hale: It does. It does. Now this was filmed, if I'm not mistaken, in Mississippi, correct?

[3:56] Ian Harding: Yes.

[3:57] Robert Bannon: What was it, what was it like filming there? Because I was reading that this, this, this, where your film was, was kind of special.

[4:05] Lucy Hale: So I'm from Tennessee originally and Clinton, Mississippi was like maybe two hours from where I grew up, three hours. So like the way the town looked reminded me a lot of where I'm from. And I actually, I had family that lived in Mississippi. So for me, it was just kind of like being home and it was during the holiday season. So we got to film a Christmas movie during Christmas and this town, the people were so lovely. Like we had a lot of like people like background artists were kids from the college. And so we really like utilized the town and the resources and like having the opportunity to film in these new places and to bring work to these places is like really, really special. And I feel like that's happening a lot more. There's a lot happening in Mississippi, actually.

[4:54] Ian Harding: Yeah. Especially down in that part of the world. And it's great. You know, it's obviously part of this job is being able to travel and travel around the world and shoot with different people. And that's wonderful. But it is also, there's something great about shooting in especially literally small town America. And it was just so much fun. Like you hear, you hear these things like, oh, you're going to love the downtown. It's so cute. And sometimes you're like, oh yeah, I bet it was short. And this one was genuinely adorable. And it was such a privilege to like, you know, go and play here for a job, you know.

[5:24] Lucy Hale: And then, and then it was actually during the holidays. Like that's even better because usually you're filming, it's like 90 degrees in the summer and you're filming something for the holidays. So that's got to be great.

[5:34] Ian Harding: It was really cool, actually. Nothing can get you more in the Christmas spirit than filming a Christmas movie.

[5:40] Lucy Hale: I was ready last year. Let me tell you. And now this year I'll be ready because this movie will be out.

[5:45] Ian Harding: Yes, indeed.

[5:47] Robert Bannon: That's so wonderful. Now for each of you, do you have any special family Christmas traditions that you do, whether it be like Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or for the season? Is there anything special that you have to do during the holiday season?

[6:02] Lucy Hale: I, well, I live in California. My family's in Tennessee. I always go home. My mom always does matching pajamas. But my mom also cooks these two specific things for Christmas morning. She makes these sausage balls that are so good. And then she makes something called Christmas casserole, which is essentially like cheese, eggs, sausage, bread, and it's in like a casserole dish. It is so good. It's been in my family for a really long time. So I always look forward to Christmas casserole.

[6:33] Ian Harding: I love this recipe.

[6:35] Lucy Hale: Julie will give it to you.

[6:37] Ian Harding: Yeah, I bet she will. I'll text her.

[6:40] Ian Harding: So, yeah, I do this thing with my sister and I, we used to make, we always had a sweet tooth and we would make these Christmas cookies. And by Christmas cookies, we'd get just like your run of the mill, like cookie dough. And then they were always like the cookies, they were just like a catalyst for an insane amount of icing. My sister grew and developed and has taste and like made everything beautiful. I didn't. And so I do this thing every year called the Christmas snake, which is just like I roll out a thing and it's like a long blob. And I just cover it with like an inch and a half of icing. And it drives her insane. And it's the only thing, it's the only reason I do it is I'm like, oh, I can get under her skin, which is something I love doing, even though we're both in our 40s. So the Christmas snake is what I listen to. I'm passing on to my son so he can do it to his aunt.

[7:29] Lucy Hale: I love that. That's so great. That's really so, so wonderful.

[7:32] Ian Harding: And I'm a baker, so I would probably be the same way because my brother would totally do something like that to me.

[7:37] Robert Bannon: But I do want to ask both of you, what's something you would like? How could you describe this in like two or three words? What's special about this movie that the audience should definitely watch it this weekend tomorrow?

[7:49] Lucy Hale: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, tomorrow. Yeah.

[7:52] Ian Harding: It's tomorrow. It is tomorrow. I mean, I think it has all the things you want in a holiday film. Like it is very funny. You do get the happy ending. I won't say what it is. But and it's it's heartfelt. It's silly. But what I personally love, I know this is more than two sentences or two words, but I loved that Christina wasn't desperate for love. And I think that, like, she has a full life and she gets the guy. And I think that that's just a really great message.

[8:21] Ian Harding: Yeah. It also feels very, you know, it ticks a lot of the Christmas movie boxes. And it also feels very, I don't know, lived in. Also having the shared history with the two of us that like I was I saw it for the first time last night at the premiere. And it was just so I was like, oh, I think the chemistry like actually for a moment forgot that it was literally us like me and Lucy. And I think it has something that feels so rich and lived in. And it doesn't feel to like a bunch of actors getting together and making a Christmas movie. It feels like very like at times like they just put a camera in these people's homes.

[8:58] Robert Bannon: So, yeah, that's great. I love that so much. And Lucy, thank you so much, everyone. Please go watch this on Hulu. The 12 Dates of Christmas. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. I wish you both the best.

[9:01] Ian Harding: Thank you so much. It was lovely, lovely to talk to you.

[9:12] Lucy Hale: Thank you. You, too.