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‘It all started with a thought that occurred at 3 a.m. Now it’s a Christmas movie, airing this Holiday season.
“I co-created the idea and helped conceptualize the entire movie,” explains Amanda Kloots of the evolution of that middle-of-the-night flash.
But this wasn’t her only role in getting Fit for Christmas to the screen.
The Emmy-award winning co-host of The Talk is also the star of the movie and serves as an executive producer of the film. The movie also stars Paul Greene and Rebecca Budig was written by Anna White and directed by Jessica Harmon, both of whom also are executive producers as well.
Fit for Christmas follows Audrey, an enthusiastic, Christmas‑obsessed fitness instructor teaching classes at her beloved, financially beleaguered community center in quaint Mistletoe, Montana. Audrey begins a holiday romance with a charming mysterious businessman, which complicates his plans to turn the center into a more profitable resort property.
Kloots gushed that, “there was a day on set, and it was so perfectly Christmas. I literally pinched myself because I remember being in my bed in July of 2020 thinking of this idea and then having it come to life — it was amazing.”
It was a mutual acquaintance who mentioned to White that Kloots had an idea and needed a writer to help flesh out the story. From there, the two, says, White, “had our first FaceTime and everything clicked. I thought it was a great idea because we hadn’t seen a fitness instructor Christmas movie yet.”
From there the duo came up with a longer synopsis that they pitched to the network. Once they had the greenlit, “We just worked on it and wrote,” says White. “Every draft of the outline, every draft of the script, I’d send to her first, she’d give her notes, and then we both would be on the notes calls. Amanda and I can bounce ideas off of each other.”
White goes on to praise her partner’s performance as well, saying, “Seeing her come alive on scene as the character was ‑‑ I’m so glad I got to be part of it and see it. You will not believe that this is her first scripted movie/television role. When you watch it, she [is] a natural.”
As the leading man in Fit for Christmas, Greene says, “Immediately, there was this chemistry and friendship between us ‑‑ all of us actors, really, and especially between Amanda and myself, like from the first minute. We were just like long lost friends and that translated really quickly into a feeling of having each other’s back in the scenes.”
Budig laughs a little as she adds, “And I felt like I was in an episode of Three’s Company a lot of the time. It was a lot of fun.
However, Harmon is aware that, “Christmas isn’t always the easiest time for people.”
In light of this, she hopes, “that this movie coming from a group of people that has all had hardships and has all been through difficult times in their own lives and brought beautiful emotions to this story, that that translates for people. In my opinion ‑‑ and I’m likely biased, but anyone that I’ve shown the film to agrees that there’s just something really incredibly joyous about this.”
Kloots adds that the movie feels like, “like magic, literal Christmas magic.”
“Fit for Christmas” premieres Sunday at 8e/p on CBS at and will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
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