Hallmark goes 'Gilded Age' with 'A Newport Christmas'

Hallmark is taking a page from the past in its newest holiday romance, “A Newport Christmas.”

The movie, out now, stars Ginna Claire Mason as Ella, a Newport socialite from 1905 who’s about to be married off to a man she’s never met at the upcoming Christmas ball. But as luck (and timing) would have it, she’s magically whisked one hundred years into the future in 2025, where she meets Nick.

“I think it's so exciting because the movie opens and we're in the Gilded Age. So right away, you're transported to this other time. And for me, it was so exciting to have this challenge of of stepping into another century,” Mason told us.

She continued, “And so many things help with that right, like the setting and and the corsets, and then to be able to step forward and with my imagination, play with what would it be like for this character to experience paper cups and women in pants and lady bosses and to experience all those things for the first time, sort of with these naive eyes.”

“I think there's sort of a level of innocence to it, having not experienced all the technological advances that we know and love, maybe even too much today,” Mason added with a laugh.

“It's a new premise called ‘Back to the Future.’ It's never been done before. It was cutting edge,” Brown joked, adding, “I'm going to coin that one.”

Naturally, Mason and Brown’s character’s fall for each other in the movie, making the decision for Ella to go back to her own time a difficult one.

It doesn’t hurt that the duo had great chemistry. As Mason explained, “Wes Brown is the most general, generous, wonderful, warm scene partner, and I feel like he really helped make all that magic feel real.”

The duo also released a song, “Timeless Christmas,” inspired by the plot of the movie. Brown said the song was intended for “A Newport Christmas” originally, but “it went another way. So, now we have two very lovely, independent things.”

Mason added, “it didn't have a place inside of this film, because neither one of us are play singers in this film, even though we like we love to sing in real life, there was a lot of singing happening off screen and on our rides to and from set. But it just may happen that this song could appear in another Hallmark movie this season we'll see or next season.”

We love the potential for Hallmark crossovers!

“A Newport Christmas” is available now on Hallmark+.