That guy in the car next to you might be star of Hallmark’s new Chiefs Christmas movie
Raise your hand if you’ve scored a hug or handshake from actor Tyler Hynes while he’s in town filming the new Hallmark Channel Christmas movie about the Kansas City Chiefs.
Yep, there have been quite a few.
Heck, even Travis Kelce — his bobblehead anyway — got a pat on the head from Hynes, one of the most popular actors on the Hallmark Channel.
By the time Hynes and co-stars Hunter King and Ed Begley Jr. wrap up filming the first movie ever made inside GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, dozens of Hallmark and Chiefs fans in Kansas City will have photos and video clips of themselves with Hynes.
Meeting people is part of his homework in preparing for a new role, Hynes told reporters during a break in filming at Arrowhead Tuesday.
“My favorite thing to do when I come to a city like this, I rent a car and I just drive around, no GPS, kind of listen to the script of the movie,” he said.
“And doing that sort of affords me the ability to see different neighborhoods and run into people and say hi to different folks in different neighborhoods, which I really enjoy. … That’s my little personal adventure I go on.”
But apparently his little adventures in Kansas City while filming “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” didn’t take him to any local barbecue joints, because he said he tried the city’s famous meaty pleasure for the first time on set.
“I had some barbecue in one of the scenes, my character,” he said. “I’ve never had Kansas City barbecue and I had it for the first time myself in that moment, which was terribly exciting.” (He didn’t say where the barbecue came from.)
Working with fans of both Hallmark movies and the Chiefs made this feel different from any other project, he said.
“I think it’s the people. I think being amongst the people who watch it, also the staff on the Chiefs side, they watch a lot of Hallmark movies, it seems. And that type of energy really changes the dynamic on set,” he said.
“Every one of these movies is a different experience because of the elements involved, and obviously the Chiefs are such a huge element and the city is such a huge element.
“This has had the biggest influence for me, this sort of creative process of making it and it’s definitely made every day special for me.”
Before coming to Kansas City, Hynes filmed a sequel to Hallmark’s popular “Three Wise Men and a Baby” with co-stars Paul Campbell and Andrew Walker.
He’s been working nonstop in Kansas City since the beginning of July. Three days of filming at Arrowhead began Monday. Other film locations around the city are being kept secret, though crews drew a lot of attention filming scenes on the historic Independence Square, where fans showed up in Christmas sweaters hoping to get into the movie
Last week he flew to California for a whirlwind two days to attend the Television Critics Association summer press tour, where he hyped his Hallmark projects and attended the ESPY awards, where he and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid walked the same red carpet. (Reid has a role in the Chiefs movie, a small one.)
Hynes recently wrapped filming another Hallmark movie generating a buzz, a wedding love story told from a guy’s perspective. He and two other Hallmark favorites, Jonathan Bennett and B.J. Britt, star in “Groomsmen,” the first in a trilogy.
Hynes had his “pandemic puppy,” Rusty James, with him while filming “Groomsmen” in Greece. But alas, the pup didn’t make it to Kansas City.
“He was on the last three movies I shot in Europe. And he’s tired. He ended up with a skin rash from traveling and now I got a skin rash (out of solidarity). We’re both recovering,” he laughed.
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