'White Hot' interview with author Sandra Brown and John Schneider

The new Hallmark murder mystery White Hot is packed with Spanish moss oak trees, attractive people in power suits and nail biting suspense, making for a film that’s as spicy as jambalaya.

New York Times bestselling author, Sandra Brown, wrote the novel White Hot that turned into a film of the same name. It depicts a San Francisco interior designer Sayre (Shenae Grimes-Beech) returning to her Louisiana hometown to attend the funeral of her brother, which leads her on a dangerous quest to solve a mystery and go toe to toe with her domineering father Huff Hoyle (John Schneider).

White Hot is sure to be one of Hallmark’s edgiest films that is as tense in suspenseful chases as it is in father-daughter arguments. The film will premiere on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel on Sunday, April 17.

TheCelebrityCafe.com's Christopher Cole spoke with Sandra Brown and John Schneider (The Haves and Have Nots) about villains, ungrateful children and the trickiness of walking.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: You’ve penned 67 New York Times bestsellers – and several have been made into movies - tell us about the plot of White Hot and why it’s perfectly suited as a movie.

Sandra Brown: Well, White Hot—There are two dynamic elements to it: it’s a murder mystery and the other is this dysfunctional family trying to come to grips with all of the things that shatter the family, and so when they’re brought together by the death of the other son, they also have to deal with, not only with that, but with the problems that have caused their estrangement for the last 10 years. The problems are still there and they’re forced to deal with them.

TCC: I know you had a cameo in the movie, Sandra.

SB: Oh dear, yes, I forgot how to walk. [laughs] All I had to do was walk from here to here and all of a sudden I forgot how to walk. If you blinked, you missed it. My husband and I played rest stop patrons and all we had to do was walk past the camera and I forgot how to swing my arms and walk.

TCC: Playing a “ruthless” father in White Hot. You previously played Jonathan Kent, Superman’s father in the series Smallville – which you described as being “the best Dad ever depicted on television.” What’s it like playing both ends of the spectrum in fictional fatherhood?

JS: It’s fun to play the bad guy, though, occasionally. There seem to be more levels because the villain in a movie, in a story doesn’t usually look at himself as the villain, unless we’re into the whole DC Comics stuff where the villains love the fact that they’re evil and terrible, and they’re going to rule the world. But in drama, the bad guy doesn’t see himself as the bad guy. That’s the case in White Hot. He [Huff Hoyle] sees himself as someone who has to sacrifice time with his family in order to build an empire for his family. And his family does not appreciate it. I think that’s the case in a lot of real family drama, so it was a lot of fun to play that. I took a lot of time away in doing Smallville, and doing what I do, trying to build whatever empire I can build as John Schneider, and the cost of that was time away from home. There’s a cost to everything. Nothing comes without a price.

TCC: I’ve always thought that with certain wealthy families, the kids don’t appreciate the sacrifices, like the character Sayre.

JS: I’m so glad you said that. She’s [Sayre] young. She doesn’t understand the sacrifices her dad made in order to make sure she had a car, to make sure that she went to the right school, to make sure that she had the clothes that she wanted. And she holds that against him [Huff Hoyle] a decade later.

SB: But he’s also very manipulative. [laughs]

JS: He only wants what’s best for her. [laughs]

SB: He’s deciding this for her.

JS: [Speaking as Huff Hoyle] If my wife was around, she would be deciding. It’s a very tangled web and it’s a wonderful novel, and it’s a fantastic movie.

SB: And I think that like all of life, there are no absolutes. There are gray areas in everything.

TCC: They say there’s good and bad in everyone.

JS: Exactly. Nobody’s all good and nobody’s all bad. We’re all somewhere on the teeter totter, on the see saw--we’re somewhere in between good and evil most of the time. Don’t you think?

SB: No, I’m perfect all the time. [laughs]

TCC: Talk about the importance of the opportunities television actors have in this new era of cable television movies.

JS: Oh, there’s great opportunity now because there’s so much need for content. Think about it, we have 800 channels and all of them operate 24-7.

SB: It’s good for writers also because they’re constantly looking for new material and it’s become a very voracious market for it. Think of all the series already, and the movies that are coming from books, so it’s great for scriptwriters like John, it’s great for novelists like me. Nothing happens without the writer. It’s great burgeoning industry and outlet. I don’t set out to write anything except novels, but it opens all kinds of new opportunities for the books to go on, and not just being able to read it but for people to look forward to the movie. Like White Hot—a novel that they’ve [fans] read that’s been out there for 12 years that now they’re getting to see it as a movie. It [the cable television opportunities] gives new life to the books.

TCC: It gives new opportunities to the writers, costume designers.

SB: Yes, everybody works.

JS: Yeah, lots of work, lots of avenues for expression, and certainly there’s only one costume designer per movie. There are probably 10 or 15 actors, so there are unprecedented opportunities for actors and actresses right now in movies and television, and web series.

TCC: Were the characters what you expected them to look like?

SB: When I set out to write, I see it very visually. I almost feel like a reporter. I’m relating what I’m seeing and hearing, so it’s kind of watching a play for me. Characters walk on, they say their lines and they sit on a piece of furniture and I usually describe it. It was a little bit different when we filmed White Hot because it was supposed to be in Louisiana, but we filmed it in Vancouver [Canada]. If you look at the map, they couldn’t be more diametrically opposed, and yet we had a great set designer, we had great costumers and the movie does look very good. It looks edgier than some of the customary Hallmark productions because they [the production team] really brought to it the edginess and the grittiness that the novel conveyed. I’m very happy with the look of it.

TCC: I know I saw Shenae—she was dressed in a suit and dressed very professional.

SB: Yeah, she owns her own business—she owns this decorating company. She had to be a savvy San Franciscan and yet when she went back home in one scene, she’s in jeans, so she’s still a Southern girl at heart.

TCC: So what’s next for you both?

SB: I turned in a new book this week and it will be out in August. The title of it is Sting. I’m kind of in a lull right now, but soon I’ll be trying to think of another plot.

JS: I just got a film coming out—a horror-comedy on video on-demand called Smothered that’s great fun. I go back next week to start the next season of Tyler Perry’s The Haves and Have Nots, so that’s what's immediate for me. Of course this Sunday is very immediate: on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. I say that because it’s not the regular Hallmark Channel, it’s a new branch of the Hallmark Channel that’s different. They’re creating a new market for it [Hallmark Channel]. So check us out Sunday night [April 17, 2016 when White Hot will premiere].

TCC: I know you have your production company?

JS: Yes, in Louisiana.

TCC: And you have the mentorship program.

JS: We’re going to make some movies this year and we try to train as many folks as we can. Every time we do a movie, we have a group of interns that are helping—obviously, we got to take advantage of the extra manpower and woman power. At the same time hoping that they’re learning more about the craft that they’re interested in, including, by the way, costume design.

TCC: Thank you so much for speaking with me, Sandra and John.

JS: You’re welcome.

SB: Thank you very much.

JS: I liked your questions.

TCC: I can’t wait to see the movie on Sunday.

SB: Thank you, I appreciate that.

Get the full interview here: