Jennifer Love Hewitt and Brian Hallisay on Lifetime’s ‘The Holiday Junkie,’ Their Crazy ‘9-1-1’ Storyline and Whether She’ll Be in the New ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’

Jennifer Love Hewitt is finally ready to talk about her mother. More than 12 years after losing the woman whom she considered the center of her universe to cancer, Hewitt has channeled her grief into two new projects which honor the legacy of “magic” that her mother left behind.

“I don’t know that we truly appreciate who our mothers really are until we’ve either lost them, unfortunately, or until we get old enough to realize all that goes into being a mom,” Hewitt tells Variety. “So I’ve had such a new experience with my mother in this time — in really taking in, as an adult, all that she did for me, all that she went through in her life, and all that she was probably struggling with when I was a kid. And [she] still was able to create what I remember and take in as a magical childhood and a magical experience with her as my mom.”

In her book “Inheriting Magic” (publishing Dec. 10), Hewitt offers a rare glimpse into her life with her husband, actor Brian Hallisay, and their three children — Autumn, Atticus and Aidan. The book is a collection of never-before-seen personal photographs, family recipes, creative party plans and “foolproof” ways to inject a little childlike wonder into any daily routine (which Hewitt describes as one of the hallmarks of her upbringing).

Since becoming parents in 2013, Hewitt and Hallisay have insisted on keeping their kids out of the public eye. “But as this book became more of a reality and she got deeper into it, we realized that it would be impossible for her to not share this part of her life. So much of her journey through grief coincided with starting a family,” Hallisay says of his wife. “Inheriting Magic” marks the first time their sons’ faces have been shown online.

“It’s really a privilege to be able to, for the first time, write about your family and have it come from you,” Hewitt adds. “So much of my life has been written about by other people. Most of it’s been really amazing — I’ve been very lucky that way — but some of it hasn’t been great. So I think we feel really grateful that we have been afforded privacy when we wanted it, and now that we are able to share who our family is, it’s really coming from us. It’s us telling you who we are, and we hope that people have fun with that.”

The couple hopes that viewers will get a similar kick out of seeing them work together in Lifetime’s “The Holiday Junkie” (premiering Dec. 14), which also marks Hewitt’s feature directorial debut. The film follows Andie (Hewitt), who, after losing her mother Mimi, is forced to face her first Christmas alone and operate their decorating and planning service company on her own. While working to decorate the home of a family that has gone out of town, Andie begins to fall for the family’s handsome house manager, Mason (Hallisay), who has his own secrets.

In recent years, Hewitt has noticed a funny trend on social media. Every time she posts a photo of her and Hallisay, there will inevitably be some fans who are shocked to learn that she is married to the same actor who played her character Riley’s absentee husband Kyle on Lifetime’s “The Client List” — which is how they first met and fell in love — or her character Maddie’s abusive ex-husband Doug on ABC’s “9-1-1.”

“He’s such a good guy, guys! He is just a great actor. Don’t worry about it,” Hewitt says with a laugh. “Hopefully, Mason will change that.”

In their first in-depth interview together, Hewitt and Hallisay open up about the experience of working together on “9-1-1” and “The Holiday Junkie,” and how they feel about their oldest child expressing a real interest in acting. Hewitt also offers a big teaser for the two-part midseason premiere of “9-1-1” (returning Mar. 6), and reveals the status of her involvement in Sony Pictures’ highly anticipated “I Know What You Did Last Summer” sequel.

Jennifer, how did you arrive at a place in your life where you felt like you were ready to talk about your mother again in such a public way?

Jennifer Love Hewitt: I think the writing helped. I don’t even know that it started off as a book as much as I was in this place where I was ready to put down thoughts. I was breastfeeding our son Aidan, and up early and not sleeping a lot, and it was Brian, honestly, who was like, “Keep going. Even if you sob uncontrollably, keep doing it, because something’s ready to be out.” So with his encouragement, I was able to do that.

It wasn’t really until a lot of stuff was written down — really, that very first part of the book — that I went, “Oh my God.” I remember my first thought when I lost her, besides missing her and how I was going to do it, was, “All the magic I had known in the world was gone.” I remember that first Christmas with the love of my life and our new little girl, and going, “Oh, it’s my responsibility now. I have to make the magic. This little girl has to not know the pain that I’m in, so we’ve got to create goodness here.” So that’s where “Inheriting Magic” came from. 

Considering that your past two collaborations have involved playing partners in toxic and/or abusive relationships, it feels like a nice change of pace to see you playing characters at the center of a beautiful love story. How would you compare the experience of making this film to your past work? Do you think your on-screen chemistry has evolved the longer you’ve been together?

Hewitt: I think so. The funny part is that Autumn’s first response was, “Oh, Mommy, Daddy’s going to be nice to you this time,” which I loved. We really had a good time doing “9-1-1.” Doug is such an amazing character for him to get to play, and Maddie’s just my heart. It was great for us, because we had to be so ugly emotionally, physically and mentally. So to do that with someone you love and trust, we were able to go further as Doug and Maddie.

Brian Hallisay: Regardless of what the material is, we both really want to do the best job to tell the story. “9-1-1” was obviously a different story than “The Holiday Junkie,” but it was a journey and we both care a lot about the work when we’re on set. 

Hewitt: This movie is a love letter to my mom and our family, and we’ll have it forever. I think, having been married for a while, this was a really cool opportunity for us to go to work every day and most of the time not be with our kids. Our only job was to look into each other’s eyes and try to fall in love with each other. Every marriage should get to do that. Everybody married should go make a Christmas movie!

Hallisay: I was so happy to be able to be there and support it because, truthfully, it wasn’t always necessarily going to be the plan that I was going to be in it —

Hewitt: Or that I was going to direct it. They both happened at the end.

Hallisay: Yeah, because it was something of a scheduling and a time [issue]. It was going to have to fit into her hiatus from “9-1-1.” We didn’t even know if it was going to happen this year, and it all really came together in a great way. She obviously loves Christmas and Christmas movies. So for her to be able to not only be in one, but direct one and create this world and tell this story that was very personal to her — it felt really special to be a part of that. 

There are plenty of Easter eggs for “9-1-1” fans in “The Holiday Junkie,” but I personally loved that you chose to repurpose Buck’s (Oliver Stark) loft as Andie’s apartment. Was that always the plan?

Hewitt: We had 15 days to shoot the movie, and we had to do it fast. I was finishing up “9-1-1,” technically, as prep for the movie was starting. I wanted her to have a loft, and I was like, “I know of the most amazing situation.” We had to do a lot of convincing and figuring out to make it happen and had to change a lot around. But we knew that the true “9-1-1”-ers would be like, “That’s Buck’s apartment!”

The first day that we filmed there, I sent Oliver a little video and I was like, “I’m just hanging out in your place.” He never got it. So when I saw him during the new season, I was like, “Why didn’t you respond to my video?” He was like, “I didn’t get it!” But anyway, it was really fun to be in there and shoot it a different way. I film in there often, so it was one of those locations where I was like, “OK, I know this space and we can make it work.” It’s such a great loft. 

Hallisay: That Fox lot has got so much history, and we were able to use the New York City streets. 

Hewitt: Yeah, I believe they said we were the first Christmas movie ever to film on a studio lot and in Los Angeles — that combination of things — which is pretty cool. 

Brian, Tim Minear gave you your first TV job on the short-lived Fox crime drama “The Inside,” and then he insisted on casting you to play Doug on “9-1-1.” Maddie and Doug’s relationship came to a bloody end in the Season 2 episode “Fight or Flight,” in which she stabs him to death in the snow after he finds and abducts her. What are some of your memories of shooting that pivotal episode together?

Hallisay: Our kids Autumn and Atticus were pretty young, and we brought somebody with us and stayed in some little cabin in Big Bear, and Autumn got sick there. It was a whole thing in the background that we were dealing with. It was very cold and very physical. But it also felt like a real opportunity because working in TV, if you’re shooting something in Los Angeles, to be able to go to a location like that, it showed how much they were invested in telling this story. I think the act of going there, being on the mountain and being in the snow really helped us get into it. We were having to do take after take running through the snow at altitude. We were wiped.

Hewitt: It sounds terrible to say, but it was so fun.

Hallisay: I’ll always remember, I think it was the last night of that episode, the convenience store where we pulled over, where the gas station was. It was in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty shady. There were some characters walking around there.

Hewitt: The kids went home, and we drove home at 2:30 in the morning. He had the most awesome playlist, and we were like, “Wow, we just really did that.” I think for both of us, or at least for me, it was really fun to see him play that. I hadn’t seen him like that before. I had never really played anything like Maddie before in that way. So I remember there were a lot of times where we were both like, “I’m really proud of you. This is really going for it, and you’re really doing it.”

I think the funniest moment for me was in the snow. They originally wanted me to kill him in a different way, and I don’t remember what it was, but I was like, “No, I have to really go all out at him!” They were looking at me, like, “You realize that’s your husband you’re talking about?” Brian was like, “Go for it! Do it!” I’m like, “OK!” I have footage of that off-camera. Our crew was amazing.

Hallisay: Bringing it back to Tim, I did one episode of “The Inside” many, many years ago. We didn’t even really fully know where the [“9-1-1”] story was going to go. When he first brought me back, it was for a voicemail.

Hewitt: It was my first episode. They just had him do the voice.

Hallisay: Just the fact that he believed in me and trusted that we could get to that place — it was awesome. 

Hewitt: I found out from Suzy [Diaz] in makeup that he was actually going to be on-camera Doug because I originally thought he was just the voice in the episode, and I didn’t know that we were going to meet Doug. And then she was like, “Oh yeah, we’re going to meet Doug.” I was like, “Oh, this is going to be really scary.” She was like, “Yeah, it’s going to be really intense. You know who Tim wants to be on-camera Doug?” I was like, “Who?” She was like, “Your husband!” I was like, “Wait, he seriously really wants him to be on the show?” Besides our kids and me, Tim is his biggest fan.

Hallisay: It’s been fun to be able to pop back in a couple times in some dream sequences. That thing we did last season with Kenny [Choi, who plays Howard “Chimney” Han, Maddie’s current husband] was very creative, and it was really fun to play.

Hewitt: Anytime something creepy is happening on the show, the crew always says, “Is Doug coming back?” I’m like, “Guys, how many times can he come back from the dead?” And Tim always goes, “Why did I kill him so early?!”

You’ve both spoken separately about how you now consider Kenny a part of your family; he’s known as “Uncle Kenny” to your kids. How would you characterize your relationships with him in real life?

Hewitt: It’s such a blessing. Honestly, he’s an extraordinary human. I’ve told this story before, but on my first day at work, Tim was like, “What do you want to have happen with Maddie?” I said, “I think Maddie should be with that guy [points to Chimney],” because I just knew there was a light in him and I felt like Maddie’s light and his light would work well together. When Brian first came on the show, Kenny came to me the first day and he was like, “I’m sorry. I no longer love you the way that I did, because I’m in love with Brian.” I was like, “I understand! It happens.” So it was really cute to have them bond and be together. The kids just love him. I mean, Kenny is four years old. He is literally one of our children. 

Hallisay: He never misses a birthday party. He shows up —

Hewitt: And he goes hard at the birthday party. 

Hallisay: Yeah, the Nerf gun games, he gets maybe a little too into it.

Hewitt: It’s wild!

Hallisay: But that whole cast, in fact, they were all here at our house over the weekend supporting her for the book, and it’s a great group of people. They’re very supportive of each other, and it’s been a good ride. 

Hewitt: Angela [Bassett] likes to say, every time I see her, she’s like, “How’s your husband?” I’m like, “Good.” She’s like, “I don’t know how you’re married to him. His character’s creepy.” I’m like, “I know!”

Maddie and Chimney are now expecting their second child, but the promo for the second half of Season 8 shows that Maddie will be drugged and abducted — presumably by a serial killer. Jennifer, is it true that you had a conversation with Tim to discuss the ground rules that Maddie and Chimney would establish going into her next pregnancy? How did you react when you read what he had in store for them?

Hewitt: We did have a conversation, because I think it was very important for Tim with a second pregnancy to feel like Chimney was going to be taken care of and that the audience wasn’t going to worry that he was going to be left or worried again. I was like, “Great. I couldn’t agree more with all of that. For me though, I do need this one line in there to say, ‘It’s important that we don’t treat me like I’m this flight risk again.’”

Because the truth is, the storyline that I played with Maddie in her postpartum, I was actually in postpartum when I had to do the “Boston” episode [in Season 6]. Our baby was not very old, and I was definitely on my own, coming-out-of-the-fog journey, figuring all that out. It is such a crazy thing that women do to their bodies or have done to their bodies in pregnancy, and coming out of all of that is very tough. So I really took on the responsibility of that storyline, and it meant so much to me that Tim was like, “Yes, we will protect that and make sure that women know that Maddie’s also saying, ‘Hey, I got this. Not every pregnancy has to be this way.’”

I did not see what was going to be coming after that conversation. The only thing that I can say about it is — it is the most fun that I have had storyline-wise besides “Fight or Flight,” and no one is ready. 

Hallisay: Yeah, they went for it.

Hewitt: You think you’re ready? You are not ready. I was not ready! And it is kicking everything up a big notch. Part of the reason I sound [hoarse] is still from that stuff. Jen Lynch and Brad [Buecker] directed it — oh my God, they crushed it. It’s the craziest stuff I’ll ever do as a dispatcher, and it’s the craziest thing, maybe, that Maddie’s ever been through besides Doug. 

Jennifer, you recently posted an emotional video about how your daughter, Autumn, got her SAG-AFTRA card at 10 years old — the same age you were when you got yours. She made a cameo as Maddie and Doug’s daughter in a “9-1-1” dream sequence, and she’s been bitten by the acting bug. How are you guys navigating those conversations about child acting at home?

Hewitt: I think we are supportive when she has the conversation. I think we’re in agreement about the fact that we would like her to wait a while. I think these fun little parts are great. I don’t want her, and he doesn’t either, to be a full-time actress at this age.

Hallisay: And it’s not something that she’s actively pursuing now.

Hewitt: She just has fun with it. It’s a protected experience right now because it’s with us, so I think that’s how we’re steering that right now. The truth is, if it was something that she really wanted to do full-time when she was older, I’ll teach her everything I know, and I’ll definitely be there for her the way my mom was for me.

Even though there were a lot of [bad experiences] at the time that I was a child actor going on for other people, my experience was not that. I was never alone in Hollywood. My mom was always there. She was always watching. I knew that, and I was kept very safe. Sometimes, as a teenager, it was annoying, but I was kept very safe and I really appreciate that. So I think we would be that for her if it went that way. But right now, it’s more fun.

Hallisay: She’s focused on being a kid. She had her English and math quiz today.

But I also think it’s worth mentioning that the way that [Jennifer] was as a kid — I don’t know if you’ve ever gone back and seen videos of her as a 9- and 10-year-old. The poise and confidence that she had at 10 years old is so insane. I’ve never been that confident in my life, and I think there’s a reason why she had, from that age, the trajectory that she did. It’s really wild to go and see, so I don’t want to take anything away from what went into that. 

Hewitt: Yeah, I really believed in myself. I wish I still had some of that now! As you get older, it goes away. I wasn’t prepared for that. But yeah, man, if you’d met me when I was 10, I would’ve been like, “How lucky are you to talk to me today?“ I loved it. It was so weird.

Jennifer, there’s been a lot of chatter about your potential involvement in the next “I Know What You Did Last Summer” sequel. What kind of relationship do you have with Julie James now, and if you do choose to return, how would you like to see that character evolve from the young woman we saw in those first two films?

Hewitt: Julie James has a special place in my heart, always. It was one of the big first things I ever manifested in my life. I told my mom that I didn’t want to be a [real] lead in a movie until I was 18 years old, because I wanted to be able to work adult hours and crush it.

I didn’t originally read for Julie James. I read for Sarah Michelle Geller’s part, and the director in the audition was like, “Something’s wrong. What’s going on? You’re not feeling it.” I was like, “I’m not this person. I’m Julie.” He was like, “You have 10 minutes. Go outside, read the sides, come back in.” So she’s a very special person to me because that movie changed my career. She changed my belief in myself. Being able to know that I could see things before they happened and make them happen, and put that out to the universe, and be rewarded in that way — that was a beautiful lesson for me in my life. It has helped me tremendously in my almost 36 years now of doing this.

I will say it is truly such an honor, at 45, to even be invited back. To be thought of in that way, to not just move on to the newer, better, younger versions, but [to be offered] to come back and play that part is really cool. We’re trying really hard to make it work. We’re so close, guys! I promise I’ll make a fun announcement, and it’ll be amazing.

But I think that a big part of the reason we’ve taken a minute is I don’t want to just be like, “Oh, there’s the ghost of ’90s past for five seconds in the movie.” I want to have her come back, be there for a reason, play a real part, and show the audience who she’s become 27 years later. I think the scariest thing about the movie will probably be people seeing me as 45, since they saw me last time at 21. They might not even need to do anything else in the film — just do a real closeup with no filter, and there you go! But I’m really excited and really honored, and just fingers crossed that everything falls into place. 

The only stipulation, for me, is that Julie can’t die.

Hewitt: That was my deal a long time ago. Julie doesn’t die! Never!

This interview has been edited and condensed.