When MediaVillage last chatted with Daugherty in 2018, the former Pretty Little Liars and Dancing with the Stars alum was thrilled to be joining the Hallmark fold, admitting, "I guess I didn't realize how much of a club it was, but I am honored and happy to be a part of Hallmark." Those feelings still ring true today. "I'm always happy to be on Hallmark," he beamed in a recent exclusive interview. "My last appearance was Mingle All the Way, and hopefully there will be many more to come! I've seen that the Hallmark fans, to their credit, are very vocal on social media and I appreciate that."
Timeless Love centers on Megan (Skarsten), a woman living her best life. She has the perfect husband in Thomas (Daugherty), and two wonderful kids. However, following an accident, Megan awakes from a coma to discover her once-perfect existence is no longer a reality. Gone are the dream house and family, and all that remains are her memories, along with close friends and family who can't understand why she's clinging to a life she never had. Or did she? It's the what-if element of Timeless Love that makes the movie an enjoyable twist for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and enticed Daugherty. "I liked that it didn't use the traditional romantic comedy structure," he explained of the project. "It's got a little more emotional weight to it, plus I always love a good alternate reality story. Also, we shot it in a remote location in Utah and Rachel was my saving grace on that shoot as she was a blast to work with."
While serious in its tone and subject matter, the project does allow Daugherty to display his subtle comedic side creating some lighter moments. "I feel that Hallmark usually lets us flex our comedic muscles a little bit," he admitted. "Even though we're telling a dramatic story, we can still pepper in elements of comedy, which makes it a fun line to walk." Another thing that appealed was the stories subtext, when after Megan encounters the man she believes she was married to, uses her knowledge of him to woo him back. After years of being in the public eye, having someone think they know you is not an alien concept to Daugherty, and something he found interesting. "I absolutely related to that party of the story," he shared. "People always have an idea in their head about who you are and how you behave and they're usually wrong. So it was nice that [in the film] Megan was actually right about knowing Thomas' life."
One thing Daugherty couldn't imagine, like Megan in the movie, is ever losing the love of his life. In June of 2019, he married his longtime girlfriend actress Kimberly Hidalgo, whom he met on a dating app, in an intimate ceremony in Northern California. "I'm married!" he laughed. "Hopefully, my wife doesn't go anywhere. She promised she wouldn't in front of a lot of people." However, there was an element to his Thomas character he relates to - - Thomas being a photographer. "I actually studied cinematography in college," he recalled. "I do know my way around a camera, so that part was a pretty easy leap to make."
At this stage Daugherty, along with all of his entire Hallmark family, is unsure of when his next project for them may happen. Still, despite the current halting of all productions due to the Coronavirus lockdown, he's keeping busy in other ways, telling me he's staying very productive. "My wife and I have been taking advantage of the downtime," he said in closing. "We've been developing scripts non-stop. We're working on a thriller at the moment, which would mark my directorial debut and I'm very excited about that."
Photos courtesy of Hallmark Channel.
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