‘Jessica Jones’ Breakout Turns to ‘Designing Christmas’: A Chat With Susie Abromeit on Storytelling and Holiday Movies

Ashley Cullins
·7 min read

‘Tis the season for holiday films. This year, Susie Abromeit is stepping into the spirit playing an interior designer tasked with a career-changing assignment — a Christmas charity ball — that requires working with a difficult, but handsome, stranger.

Designing Christmas With You is the latest project from Abromeit’s four-picture deal with Great American Family, which was announced in the fall of 2021. She produces and stars alongside Liam McIntyre.

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The actress, who had a breakout role in Jessica Jones, has done a string of rom-coms for the network following appearances in King Richard and The Forever Purge. What’s different about a holiday film? Mostly, the snow.

“It was really well-made soap that looked like snow,” Abromeit notes. “The Christmas aspect is always dialed up. It’s all about the hot cocoa, the trees and the decorations, good feelings, the nostalgia.”

Ahead of the movie’s Dec. 16 release, Abromeit spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about filming in Australia, why she left L.A. during the pandemic and how losing her house in a fire pushed her to get personal with storytelling.

Why did you want to do this movie?

I’ve worked with [producer] Steve Jaggi a bunch, and I love filming in Australia. This is my third film I’ve done in Australia with the same team. I had such incredible experiences, one after the other. I was also producing. I got a say in casting. I got a chance to push for certain actors. It was such a cool experience because, as a storyteller, you have a vision for things and a feel of how you want it to be. I worked a lot with the director [Jo-Anne Brechin], and we just would go back and forth with notes. Jo-Ann was so incredible. In terms of casting and the story, it was such a joy when you have those moments where you just align on things. The dream is working with friends, and you get to tell stories about love and Christmas. Who doesn’t love Christmas?

How would you describe the plot without giving too much away?

My character, Colbie Clark, has been working at this design firm and she’s been wanting to move up the ladder. She has this huge design job that she’s very, very excited about. If she does the job well, there’s a real possibility she will make partner. The thing that’s standing in her way is Ben, who’s played by Liam McIntyre. He has his own ideas of how he wants to design the house. So, she has to team up with an unwilling partner and this tension builds from the trying to figure out how to design this house for this big charity Christmas ball. It was so much fun to work with Liam [McIntyre] and we have great chemistry. The cast is incredible. It was such a fun time and I feel really proud of it.

Susie Abromeit and Liam McIntyre
Susie Abromeit and Liam McIntyre in ‘Designing Christmas With You.’

What do you remember most about filming?

Just the crew. The crew is just so wonderful. It can be really tough on these shoots, or any type of shoot where you have long hours. I’ve tried to design my life in a way that working with people that you love and respect and admire for me is my value system. Then the whole thing is just like you’re hanging out with friends and doing something you love and trying to be as creative as possible with the story.

You left L.A., right? What have been the biggest changes for you professionally since then?

I recently moved to New York. I was living in Park City and I had a house on the Jordan Lake and looking at the Deer Valley Mountain. I moved there during the pandemic when L.A. got a little weird. There was kind of a hairy time when I was living in Venice and I was fighting off robbers a lot, and I was like, “You know what? I’m too old for this. I need a change of scenery.” So that became my safe haven during the pandemic. You wake up and you go skiing every other day. It’s so beautiful being in nature. It was pretty incredible, and I made so many amazing friends, but I felt very called to New York. I just felt that it was time for a change, and it just made sense for me.

You’re not beholden to have to live in a certain city anymore, and it’s freed everything up. You can of live wherever you want, whether it’s Montana or Japan. It doesn’t seem to matter anymore, which is really, really cool. You do miss [being in the room] with casting directors. Especially if they’re championing you, then they can work with you, but they only give you one or two takes. Sometimes the feeling you’d walk away is like, wow, I did not nail that one. Whereas [with self-tapes] you can take your time, you can try to shoot it more cinematically, you can be creative with it. If I feel like I want to spend five hours on a tape, I can do that.

What’s next? Do you have anything in the pipeline that you’re excited about?

I’ve been writing and developing a movie with Todd Gallicano. He just wrote Best. Christmas. Ever! We’re in the works of writing something together and hopefully moving forward, potentially with GAC, and seeing how that goes. I have another project that I don’t want to talk too much about, but I’m developing a show with someone very, very big and we found a showrunner.

What kind of projects do you have your eye on?

I’ve designed my life where I have a production company with my two best friends, and we’re just writing stories and developing shows and other projects. It makes it so much easier when you get to work with people you respect and admire. I really like Rick Rubin’s way of thinking about things in storytelling, which is writing stories and telling stories because it’s for you. So, as I’m moving forward, it’s sort of the Rick Rubin approach of being an artist and wanting to put your soul on the page and wanting to tell truthful stories.

This project that’s moving forward in a really, really big way, I put my soul on the page. My house had just burned down and there was all this chaos. I was coming out of from that experience like, “I lost everything. How do I survive and what do I do?” It sort of took a wrecking ball to my life in the best way possible. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. From that, I started writing the story and it was just kind of for myself. The next thing you know, I was like, “Okay, I’m here and how do I get to there?” Then, all of a sudden, amazing people jumped on board, which was incredible. I had Malcolm Gladwell giving me notes on it at one point. It was really cool. I don’t want to talk too much about it, but I brought my best friend on board to help me finish it and write it. I had written it as a feature and then she’s like, “No, we should turn this into a TV show.”

I guess the thing that I want to do is tell stories from the heart. Art is about truth and beauty. Trying to tell those stories, and working with friends. Why not work with people you love? Then you don’t work a day in your life.

Designing Christmas With You airs Saturday, Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. on Great American Family.

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