Netflix’s latest trending holiday original is A Castle For Christmas, a romantic comedy about a bestselling author who goes away to Scotland after her latest release brings in some bad press. The movie stars two legendary names, Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes, who just happen to be among actors who have written their own books prior to charming each other in the film.
CinemaBlend had a chance to speak to Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes about the release, and I was curious how they may have related to Sophie’s experience. Sure, they’ve never blown up on The Drew Barrymore Show, but they surely relate to some of the stresses that come with putting their written word out into the world. Brooke Shields said this:
When they first told me ‘pub date’, I thought they meant the day we go to the pub, where we drank and celebrated the job of [writing] a book, but I realized it was the publishing date and you’re always nervous about that, but you’ve already written it and you just hope for the best.
Brooke Shields has written three non-fiction books about her own life and experiences over the years including 1985’s On Your Own, which gave advice to teens on various topics, 2005’s Down Came The Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression and 2014’s There Was A Little Girl: The Real Story Of My Mother And Me. It’s not easy to lay everything on the page in the ways that she has, and she admits she gets nervous, but overall she tries her best to let it go.
What’s funny is the misunderstanding she originally had about the “pub date.” Honestly, I think we should amend that name to mean both publish date and a night to go out and celebrate one’s accomplishments because that sounds like how it should be, doesn’t it? Cary Elwes also shared his own experience with these words:
I thought the whole experience of writing a book was wonderful and something I never expected. It turned out to be an incredible learning curve for me. It was kind of a lonely process. I know the last week of editing I had to check into a hotel because the deadline was coming upon me so quickly, I really didn’t have time to spend time with my family. So that was a bit of a bummer, but I had to do it. I checked into a hotel and managed to make the deadline ontime. But I was lucky, I made a memoir about the making of The Princess Bride, so you put The Princess Bride on any product and it always sells, so I was very fortunate that people were happy to read anything about that movie.
Back in 2014, Cary Elwes published his first and only book thus far As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From The Making of The Princess Bride. The actor is of course best known for playing Westley in the ‘80s classic. He decided to share his memories of the beloved film through the memoir. Elwes admit it was a rather lonely process, but in the end it was on a topic that fans are already interested in.
In A Castle For Christmas, Brooke Shields’ Sophie is a best-selling author with a large fanbase who kills off a major character and recieves some backlash from fans. She decides to go off to Scotland, where she meets Cary Elwes’ Myles, the grumpy duke who owns a nearby castle. You can see sparks fly between the pair in A Castle For Christmas, streaming on Netflix now.
