Hallmark Channel spotlight interview: Brooks Darnell

If you look carefully at an early scene in Brooks Darnell’s new movie Advice to Love By, there’s a little Easter egg: His father named him after baseball legend Brooks Robinson and eagle-eyed viewers will see three baseballs on his desk. If not for a sports injury, Darnell’s life could have gone in a very different direction but thankfully he arrived at his true calling: acting.

When Darnell was 16 he was offered a contract with a talent agency, which led to a spot at the prestigious Conservatory theater school in San Francisco. He decided to pursue medicine while on a football scholarship instead, but an injury redirected his focus and once he settled on acting there was no looking back.

Darnell is no stranger to Hallmark Channel movies. He appeared in 2016’s All Yours and 2019’s A Christmas Miracle on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

I spoke with Darnell about his latest Hallmark movie, Advice to Love By, and why he thinks actors keep coming back to work with the network.

Brooks Darnell opens up about his latest Hallmark Channel movie

Advice to Love By is the story of a dating advice guru, Kendall (Erinn Westbrook), who decides to use her own advice and find love through her own methods, and she plans to document the journey for her next book. Nathan (Darnell) is a magazine writer who is also the man behind a popular dating column. They start getting close to each other, but some secrets threaten to keep them apart.

Darnell didn’t know his Advice to Love By co-star Erinn Westbrook before they started working together. They only met about a week before shooting, and thanks to COVID-19 protocols it made interacting even more difficult, but one look at them on screen and you’d never know. “We vibed,” he noted of their chemistry on screen and their friendship off-screen.

“It felt like we were brother and sister, which is something I’ve never experienced.” Their connection, he said, helped to bring authenticity to their roles.

One thing that’s different about Nathan is that he plays a central part in the movie, rather than being an orbital character. It’s something Darnell experiences in his previous Hallmark movies as well.

“Hallmark trusts their male leads,” he said. “They trusted me to make the role mine.” Darnell noted that Hallmark’s willingness to give more control to their male leads helps build their overall audience, too. “It builds their male audience and it increases the number of women watching with their significant others. And men can watch, too.”

He also enjoys that Nathan can lean on his best friend in the movie, just as female leads tend to lean on their friends. “There was calmness and banter with his best friend. It was great how they bounce ideas off each other.”

The conflict in the movie comes when Nathan needs to reveal that he’s the writer behind the column, but every time he tries to tell Kendall the truth they are interrupted. “He tried to come clean like four times,” Darnell laughed. It’s indicative of how recent Hallmark movies are showing more from both sides of the relationship, and how a simple misunderstanding almost derailed Kendall and Nathan’s relationship.

Having worked with Hallmark on several occasions, I was curious how Darnell perceived working with Crown Media. He said he loved everything about working with Hallmark and wasn’t surprised when I said his sentiments were echoed by other Hallmark stars I’ve talked with.

“It’s the people, the executives, the crew, the casts. Everyone is treated with respect,” he said. “There’s so much respect for the talent, and loyalty to the talent. You feel looked after, and that’s very important.”