With Hallmark's The Way Home Renewed For Season 3, Here's What The Stars Told Us About Being Dunked In Water For Time Travel
More episodes, more time in the pond!
The Way Home debuted back in 2023 as Hallmark's first new TV drama in years, with network vet Andie McDowell, Grey's Anatomy alum Chyler Leigh, and relative newcomer Sadie Laflamme-Snow as the three women of the Landry family. There was already drama to be found just when it seemed like Kat (Leigh) and daughter Alice (Laflamme-Snow) would have to readjust to living with Kat's mom Del (McDowell), but add a time travel twist, and Hallmark has a hit show now guaranteed a third season. Speaking with CinemaBlend as Season 2 aired in the 2024 TV schedule, the stars opened up about filming time travel via a pond!
Teenage Alice accidentally discovered time travel in the first season when she went back to the '90s, and the show had to find a way to balance time travel and family drama very early on... and Sadie Laflamme-Snow had to be dunked in water. Chyler Leigh would later do the same. When I spoke with the cast at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta, I noted that the time travel scenes are filmed above and below the surface of the water, and the actresses shed some light on how the show pulls it off. Chyler Leigh shared:
In case you were watching The Way Home and thought that the griminess and dirt were just TV magic that the actresses didn't actually have to dunk themselves in, that is definitely not the case! That's also not the extent of the complications of filming in a manmade outdoors pond, as Sadie Laflamme-Snow shared that "it's in Canada, outside in the fall." Who else just felt a sympathy chill for the stars? Chyler Leigh elaborated:
There are tricks to get around filming a time travel scene completely sequentially, which is good news for the hair and makeup teams of the show. Laflamme-Snow in particular faces some extra hair time, if her curls need to be straightened and dried! On the plus side, the other half of time travel scenes don't have to be filmed outdoors in a Canadian pond. The Alice actress agreed with Leigh that "it's quite a process," then continued:
There are different challenges in acting in the pool, namely that the stars' performances are clearly visible in ways that they wouldn't be in the grimy pond. Unlike her TV mom with Grey's Anatomy and Supergirl to her name, Laflamme-Snow didn't have many TV credits prior to The Way Home, and it sounds like this show has been a pretty unconventional learning experience. The experience was kept under control, though, as Chyler Leigh explained:
The stars may not be able to wear SCUBA gear themselves for Kat and Alice's time travel adventures, but the camera department does, and that evidently helps make for some extra authentic performances in the pool. What easier way to sell being surprised by time travel in the water than being surprised by camera-operating SCUBA divers in a pool?
Evan Williams, who plays the enigmatic Elliot on The Way Home, chimed in to praise his co-stars... and paint a pretty funny picture of how they film the pond scenes:
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All in all, it's safe to say that how time travel works on The Way Home is pretty different from other time travel shows and films, and fans can presumably count on that continuing into a third season. The mysteries have certainly not all been solved, and the wait for Season 3 in 2025 could feel very long depending on the Season 2 finale. For now, take a look at one of Sadie Laflamme-Snow's experiences in the grimy pond:
A post shared by The Way Home Series
A photo posted by thewayhomehallmarkchannel on
The Season 2 finale of The Way Home airs on Sunday, March 31 at 9 p.m. ET on Hallmark, so be sure to tune in to see the final adventure of the Landry women in 2024. You can also find every episode that has aired so far streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription now.
Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).