Treat Williams Interview: Famed Actor Talks First Hallmark Christmas Movie to Feature Gay Couple
Written by Marc Parker and Melissa Benefield Parker, Posted in Actors
Image attributed to Hallmark Channel
Actor and writer Treat Williams has appeared on film, stage and television in over 120 credits. He had a starring role in the 1979 musical film Hair, and appearances in other films including The Ritz, 1941, The Empire Strikes Back, Prince of the City, Once Upon a Time in America, Heart of Dixie, Mulholland Falls, The Late Shift and Drunk Parents.
Williams portrayed Dr. Andrew Brown in the WB television drama series Everwood (2002-2006), guest-starred on Brothers & Sisters, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Chicago Fire and has a recurring role as Lenny Ross on Blue Bloods. He currently portrays Mick O’Brien in Hallmark Channel’s drama series Chesapeake Shores.
"What I really love about that plotline is that they don’t make a big deal out of it. My son is gay. He’s married, and he’s come home for Christmas."
Premiering on November 22, 2020, Williams joins Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett and Sharon Lawrence, Robert Buckley, Ana Ayore and Brad Harder for Hallmark Channel’s The Christmas House, which focuses on a gay couple looking to adopt their first child. Williams can also be seen on Netflix in Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square with Dolly Parton, Christine Baranski and Jennifer Lewis.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Treat, how are you and your family doing during this health crisis?
Treat Williams: We’re actually doing really great. I mean, as great as one can be during a pandemic. We live in Vermont, which doesn’t have a lot of people. Consequently, in the last five months, we’ve had 58 deaths which is very low. One is too many, but there’s a lot of spreads around here, so we don’t get too close to too many people too often. My daughter is up at UVM, and my son’s living with us. I think being on an old farm with land and able to get out and about every day makes it a lot easier than my friends in New York City. So I feel very blessed that we’re in an environment that I love.
So we don’t feel the weight of it, I think, as much as some other folks do other than what we see on television, although the news about a possible vaccine was very heartening a few days ago. Hopefully, that’s real, you know, and there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Well, not even a pandemic can stop Hallmark from making Christmas movies!
Treat Williams: I know. I was actually very, very concerned because I was going to have to fly on four airplanes to get to shoot The Christmas House. I went to LA. That was two flights and then two flights on up to Vancouver. But they handled it really well with the testing, our temperatures were taken every day, and everybody was told to keep their masks on. If somebody’s mask was down, we had someone on set to say, “Get it back up over your nose please.”
They were very thorough and professional. I came back, and I quarantined for a week here, took the COVID test, and here we are. So I feel very lucky. In the show business world, it’s very hard for people to find work right now. There’s just so little being made. So I’m very pleased I was able to make this movie.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: You filmed over the summer?
Treat Williams: Oh, don’t you know Hallmark? We finished two weeks ago (laughs). I mean, they have the film out within a month of being finished. It’s extraordinary. They put out 40 Christmas movies every year, I think. So they’ve got it figured out. It’s not like you feel this deep intense pressure like doing 17 or 18 hour days. They’ve got it figured out. It was very pleasurable and a lovely cast to work with.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Tell me a little about the movie and your character who is the Mitchell family patriarch.
Treat Williams: The movie’s based on Robert Buckley’s family out in California. They were the people that did the funny Christmas house every year with all the lights and stuff. So he built this story around his own family. Basically, Bill is a retired builder, and Sharon Lawrence plays my wife. She is just retiring. I’ve been retired for a year, and I’m quite comfortable with it. She’s going through the anxiety of what she will do with herself.
The issue for us is that my wife feels that she’s not going to catch up with me being so comfortable and having moved on to all these other interests, and she is just starting retirement. That’s resolved, but that’s the basic thing. Bill is a really good guy, loves his kids, easygoing, tells really bad dad jokes, and is probably a lot nicer than I am (laughs).
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Well, I hear actors all the time say they’d rather play a bad guy than a good one (laughs).
Treat Williams: I was thinking about that, coming to terms with characters that don’t demand what I’m capable of doing. Then I kind of looked in the mirror and said, “Treat, why don’t you just enjoy the rest you get and the fun of not having to go in and drain an enormous amount of rage or pain into a character? Just enjoy being on a set.” There are so many lovely movies made in the 1940s. There was no television, so they made lots and lots of films, and some of them were fluffy and didn’t have a whole lot of drama.
I think that people just love getting away from it. That’s part of what Hallmark does for people. There are so many tough guys here in Vermont that actually bingewatch the Hallmark movies and don’t want anybody to know (laughs). But I’m very comfortable now with playing people that are nice, being comfortable on a set and not having to push too deep. I enjoy it.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: So proud that The Christmas House features the very first married gay couple to appear onscreen in a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Treat Williams: It is wonderful. Yeah. I’m very proud to be a part of that. Very, very proud, and Jonathan Bennett does a great job. I’m just really thrilled to be a part of Hallmark’s stepping up to a new plateau in their entertainment. You know, when you grow in life, you’re going to lose a couple of friends, but you’re going to gain a lot more. I think Hallmark will have a whole new audience that they will be grateful to have for being more inclusive now.
What I really love about that plotline is that they don’t make a big deal out of it. My son is gay. He’s married, and he’s come home for Christmas. They have some problems to resolve as every movie does. I don’t want to give it away, but it’s not something you make a big deal out of. I was a chorus boy 40 years ago (laughs). That went on for a long time before anyone was able to put a moniker to it, you know.
So I think it was time for everybody to catch up with the fact that we’re all here, and it’s really just about loving one another. They’re not scary people. The new head of Hallmark is African-American, which I think is terrific. So they really are moving forward in ways that I’m very proud to be a part of this network.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: You are currently in Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores, so were you asked to do The Christmas House?
Treat Williams: Yes, I’ve been one of the lead actors in Chesapeake Shores for them for four years. I thought what they did was extraordinary. They called us and said, “Guys, we’re going to postpone your show for a year because of COVID, but we’re going to find work for you that will help you to get through the year financially because we know you were depending on it, and we want you to be around when we start up again.” So they’ve been very standup about finding us all a movie to do just to financially get us through the year, and I’m deeply grateful to them for this. So they did just offer it to me, and I was thrilled when I read the script. They’ve been fantastic. I can’t say enough about Hallmark.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: You also have a Christmas musical coming out on Netflix (Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square).
Treat Williams: I do! I do, with somebody closer to your neck of the woods (laughs).
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Was it the accent or the Alabama area code that gave it away?
Treat Williams: The accent (laughs). It’s not too far from Tennessee. One of the great disappointments that COVID created for me was that I didn’t get to go to Dollywood. We would’ve had a blast. I saw Christmas on the Square a few nights ago, and it’s lovely. It’s very sweet, very touching. It’s all Dolly all the time. You can feel her presence in it all through. Her songs are wonderful. She wrote great music for it.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: And you do sing in the movie, of course.
Treat Williams: Yes. Oh, yeah. I started in musicals. I played Danny Zuko in Grease for three years before I got Hair. But Dolly wrote, I think, one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever sung on film or on Broadway. It’s a lovely song, and I was very grateful to sing it.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Christine Baranski as Scrooge?
Treat Williams: Christine does a great job of transitioning into someone from Whoville. She does a really wonderful job of being someone who’s somewhat embittered by life. She has to be shaken up and changed to get the Christmas spirit. It’s a great little plot. It’s great fun.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Is 12 Mighty Orphans a project you’ve recently filmed?
Treat Williams: In the last 16 months, I’ve done four other movies. 12 Mighty Orphans is with Marty Sheen, Bob Duvall and Luke Wilson. Luke is actually the central character in the piece. It’s about a football team in the 1920s. There were only 12 players on the team, and they beat every single high school team with 40+ players because they were so tough and so good. They’d been in an orphanage, so they were like the first rock stars of athleticism in the 1920s. They were all over the papers all around the country.
I did a movie also about the Dougherty gang, the three siblings that went on a kind of Bonnie and Clyde spree from Florida to Colorado. I did one called Run Hide Fight, which is about a school shooting. It’s very serious, and that was in Texas also. I’ve been running around until COVID slowed us down. I was about to start on a Broadway show. The day after I was to get the offer, they shut down Broadway completely because of COVID.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: You mentioned Hair earlier. The musical film celebrated its 40thanniversary last year. Wow. I feel old (laughs).
Treat Williams: You feel old? I pulled everybody together, and we did a screening in Connecticut. Everybody came – John Savage, Beverly D’Angelo, Annie Golden, Don Dacus, all the hippies. We did a screening and a Q&A afterward and had a great time. That was a lot of fun.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Was that the first time you had a taste of fame and being recognized on the street?
Treat Williams: Yeah, but the film wasn’t a big hit. You know, being famous is not something to aspire to. Once you are, you realize the best thing about it, as Bill Murray once said, is that you get a good table in a restaurant once in a while, and the rest of it you can throw out. There’s a degree of responsibility that comes with it. Whatever you’re doing, you have to stop and acknowledge that person and acknowledge them wanting to tell you that they like what you do, and you cannot be rude. Sometimes you really don’t want to stop doing what you are doing, but you have to. I mean, I feel like you have to.
So I’ve been lucky enough to because I’ve been a character actor, too, so that I don’t have that issue. I go down and shop every other day downtown here in our little town in Vermont. I wanted to be well known enough that I get the good jobs, and on the other hand, I wanted to be able to freely go where I wanted to go without being bothered too much. But yeah, I did have a taste of fame then. It was fun when I was traveling around the world. People treated me very nicely and that sort of thing, but I’m just as happy on my tractor in Vermont. Nobody recognizes me (laughs).
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Looking back at your career spanning almost 50 years, do you feel content about what you’ve accomplished?
Treat Williams: I do. I do now. There were disappointments. Why aren’t I getting the parts that he’s getting? But at that time when I was feeling those feelings of envy for somebody doing better than me or having better parts, I think it was because I didn’t really have the life. I didn’t have enough of an outside life as I do now with my wife and my children. I discovered aviation just out of college, and that grew into a passion for me. I have gardening and traveling with my wife and kids.
So I think, over a period of time, it’s all leveled off, and I feel actually very grateful for the amount of success that I’ve had. I don’t think many people have been as lucky as I have. Some have been luckier, but I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is, are you happy with yourself and what you’re doing? I think I lead a pretty exciting life still. I get the parts, take what I’ve been given and do the best I can with them. But life outside of film, theater and television is really just as interesting and exciting for me.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Other than the Hallmark movies, do you currently have other television work?
Treat Williams: I was on Chicago Fire and Blue Bloods. Once in a while, they let you kind of chew the scenery. I played an NFL quarterback with dementia on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which was just delicious and wonderfully received. Once in a while, you get one of those parts that you say, “I get to do what I do. This is great!”
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Any plans to return to Blue Bloods?
Treat Williams: I hope they call!
Smashing Interviews Magazine: What’s it like working with Tom Selleck?
Treat Williams: We’re like two old pros. We come into work. Both of us are pretty good about knowing our lines. We sat down at a table for a scene, camera over Tom and a camera over me so we’re both being shot at the same time. The director said, “Okay. Let’s rehearse.” Tom and I said, “Rehearse? What are you talking about? Let’s shoot this.” We’re ready to go. We’d have one or two takes, and off we went to the next scene. I think between me and Tom there’s probably 85 or 90 years of acting on screen. He’s a wonderful partner and really cares about the show, very meticulous about it and a lovely guy. I couldn’t work with a nicer co-star. They write me great stuff. Kevin, the showrunner, is a great playwright, so I always get meaty stuff to do. I’m always discovering I have a new daughter somewhere (laughs).
The episode I was last in was the 200thone, and I did the Sunday dinner scene with the family. One of the younger actors said to me, “You know, this is pretty amazing.” I said, “What?” He said, “No actor outside of this family has ever been invited to be in this scene. No one in 200 episodes of the show but you.” I said, “That is a great honor.”
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Are there fans still wanting to talk about Everwood with you?
Treat Williams: Oh, sure. A lot of people talk about how it was a show they could talk about with their kids, which I think is really wonderful. A lot of young women, who are now in their 20s, would say that whey they were 12 or 13, they’d watch it with their dads every Sunday night. Everwood was their thing to look forward to. It was a lovely show.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Treat, are you a Democrat?
Treat Williams: I’m not a Democrat. I’m an Independent. I call myself a Marxian, and people look at me like, “What do you mean, Marxian?” I say, “Well, Groucho Marx used to say that he didn’t want to be a member of any club that would have him.” That’s why I don’t join a party (laughs). My dad never talked about who he voted for when I was growing up. I’ve always felt when people would ask me who I was voting for, I’d say that I was voting for my children’s future and my grandchildren’s future. Whoever I think would be best for that, that was the person I was voting for. So I’m not a Democrat, but I certainly voted for Biden.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: That’s an interesting point about your dad not talking about who he voted for. As a child, my parents really didn’t discuss politics that much.
Treat Williams: I’m like you. We did not talk politics around the table. My father was anything but the crazy uncle. He felt that was a personal thing for someone to go into that voting booth and close the curtain. That’s why it’s private. That’s why the voting booth had a curtain. Nobody got to know who you voted for. There wasn’t social media then either, so you had the paper, you made your decision, and you went and voted. My dad was wonderful that way. He didn’t have highfalutin speeches about who he liked or didn’t like. My dad usually only talked about people he thought were special or good or that he looked up to, which was a great attribute of his.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: I don’t think anyone lost family members or friends back then either because of the way they voted.
Treat Williams: I don’t know. One of my best friends is a Trump supporter. But you’re not going to really change anybody’s mind, so you might as well just listen to them. By talking to them, I just don’t think you’re going to change their mind. I’d be better off hearing why somebody is supporting Donald Trump as opposed to trying to explain to them why it’s a good idea not to, you know. Everybody’s got who they believe in for whatever reasons they believe in them.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: It would be great if the country would just begin to heal.
Treat Williams: We need it. I think, to be honest with you, we’ve been trying to heal since the Civil War and haven’t healed yet from that. I think we just haven’t quite figured out how to all live in this space together. I think we will eventually. I really do.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Well, we must believe it’s possible. Do you have any other projects coming up?
Treat Williams: I wish I did! (laughs) At the end of the interview, you could say, “By the way, he says he’s available if anybody’s interested.”
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Most definitely (laughs).
Treat Williams: No, I’m actually going to tell you the truth. I’m comfortable for a while. I’d like to actually stay home through Christmas, ski for January and February and then Europe or my show in Vancouver. I leave my family for four months, so I’d just like to go overseas or something. I actually go to the Island to shoot the show, so I’d love to just be home, go make my show, and at the end of the summer, come back and enjoy my family again. I think that’s enough right now. I did a lot of stuff this past year. So I think I deserve a little bit of skiing and a little bit of fun to get us past this COVID thing.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Let’s hope we do get past it in the near future.
Treat Williams: Knock wood! That vaccine seems real, and if so, that’s the greatest news.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Treat, stay safe and well. I’m always a fan of your work.
Treat Williams: Aw, thank you! It was an honor to talk to you. It was a blessing and great fun.
© 2020 Smashing Interviews Magazine. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written consent of the publisher.
Treat Williams has always been one of my favorite actors. I hope he wins the Oscar or an Emmy for one of his upcoming shows. He always does a great job.
Treat I love your work but I'm passing on the gay movie. There's enough sin in the world. I don't need to watch it on tv. I would rather watch something uplifting & encouraging. I have been a Hallmark fan for 20 years & now I'm very disappointed in them. Looking to spend more time on UP tv. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Im right there with you, Pam. I love you as an actor, Treat. But, I think Hallmark should have stuck with the wonderful movies they did best. So sad.
I love Treat William's but I will not be watching the Christmas house. I have my strong beliefs and I use to love to watch Hallmark with my daughters and then my grandkids, but not any more because of movies like the Christmas house and before you say I'm a bigot, I love the person not the sin and it is a sin.
I’m in agreement on your comment. I have the same belief. I Love people, but not the sin, I love them so much, I want see and know they enter the Kingdom of God. Hallmark has always been my go to when I need peace and happiness. The movies are so well made with class. But, now it’s a gut kind of wrong. The heads of Hallmark should care about the people that view there show. And for there actors souls. Strength in these touch times will mean you need courage when persons come at you with ideas that will hurt your railings. As I said many are not watching and that saddens me. God Bless
The reason i liked Hallmark Channel was to get away from the movies showing man and mam or woman and woman now we have to see it on the only clean channel left. Love all people but do not want to see that. I will not watch. The Christmas House
I also love Hallmark, but I am disappointed that they have chosen to make a movie about gays. There is enough wrong being being preached to us without having ito watch it. I am surprised that Hallmark fired Lori Lockear for bribing a college to get her daughters enrolled and then they make a movie about gays.
What a pleasant surprise to see people expressing their disappointment, like myself, in Hallmark lowering their standards of moral integrity to produce “The Christmas House,” I was also very unhappy with the recent Hallmark movie of the marriage of the two lesbians. Am I going to have to preview Hallmark movies before I sit and watch them with my grandchildren?
I use to watch Hallmark all the time but since they started following the world and not God I will no longer be watching their movies and I also believe that their Christians actors should find their work somewhere else. Very disappointed and saddened by their decision.
I have loved Hallmark movies for years but this one is so wrong . How can a family sit and watch this with their children. This is certainly not a normal family. We love the sinner (which we all are) but hate the sin. That life style is certainly not what God created for us. No procreation there. God help us to do His Will not our own.
I think it is a very sad testament of the world that 7 of the 8 comments are so negative of Hallmark showing what the world is truly like today, despite the so called 'Christians' and 'Family' proponents using Christianity and Family as a reason to not watch the representation of loving couples, no matter who they happen to love. I am a grandmother and have the blessing of my son and DIL for my granddaughters to watch the movie with me.
They have friends who have same sex parents and these kids think nothing of it as children have the acceptance of difference before the so called 'Christian' belief of adults is drummed into them that God loves everyone, EXCEPT for those who are what God made them, makes them into bigots. I applaud the cast for making this movie and 3 other Christmas movies from various networks, representing the real world.
It's very easy, don't watch the movie or quit watching Hallmark, Lifetime, Hulu, or Paramount, as I doubt it will ruin any of these companies. I consider myself lucky to have such movies to watch, and that there are true representations of the true meaning of Christianity as love and that God made all of us in his likeness, not just those you consider acceptable in your definition. This is mostly what is wrong with the world today. Thank you Treat Williams!
Sad to see Hallmark has caved into "whatever world. Looks like producers, writers, actors and employees who are are obviously acceptable to gay, bi, try it all, or may have gay children as admitted by some and so want them to be accepted as the new normal by viewers and the world and heaven forbid, may have been forced into being politically correct. Whatever that is. No matter how hard some people try to throw in a few or feed these movies to longtime Hallmark faithful viewers from your movies past, as all the ones that built the first then expanded with second channel., your fans,especially now, anticipate and look forward to the simple sweet boy meets girl, girl meets boy movies. Just simple and sweet with no violence or major political, other worldly other personal way off the cuff complicated views to think about. I don't believe viewers want to spend time trying to explain all the different sexual preferences to children and their lifestyles. The/ywe just want to watch a family movie. They see enough commercials of different sexual preference, in public restrooms, products to protect from diseases such as a big one that is spread according to Gov.com almost 70% by gay males and has killed and affects millions including a large percentage of children and women with no cure, but with treatment after 60 years and continues on today. You brought up the lifestyle Hallmark. People do associate and think of this subject mo natter how cute and sweet the actors are. Its part of their preference reality. There is more to accept here than love one another. Yes, there are other sexually transmitted diseases, we have to explain to our children during male dad and female mom sex talks,etc, but you need a dictionary to explain all the different sexual preferences and medical issues attached to them including transgender surgeries and hormones. Hallmark has turned simplistic which is what draws people to your movies into the new acceptance of 5+ and growing different moralities or new lifestyles which might be considered as more of a reality show. Hallmark with so many fans of different preferences ,why don"t you make both sides happy and just create a new Hallmark Channel though may have to be not rated G. This is not about love one another as commanded, yes by Jesus which is thrown at me when I ecpress my opinion on this. The majority of people I believe are good hearted and kind people because we all want to be.
Yet, instead we are also being told by the new whatevers to love what others "do" even if we don't agree or find it offensive or harmful. We still have the right as do others about our views and what is thought stupid and has proven life threatenting consequences. These movies migh just back fire on you.
Well it looks as if my comment got booted, so I guess I'm not welcomed here, and I know where the moderators stand on opposing views. Gosh, not even the courtesy of an email telling me my comment had been deleted.
We don't need any more shows related to any gay people. Shame on hallmark!
These reactions are just too much.
You all are acting like Hallmark has moved away from their usual programing and become the "GAY" network. Hallmark has nearly 150 holiday movies, and 1 movie that has LGBT characters. On top of that, their story isn't the main focus of the story, it's a part of the movie.
If you're that worried about your kids, how about you turn the TV off during that movie, and play a board game with them instead?
Hallmark, I applaud you for approaching the topic of inclusivity, and Mr. Williams, thank you for taking part in this movie. I will be watching.
The interesting thing that Treat Williams says in that interview about the gay characters is "What I really love about that plotline is that they don’t make a big deal out of it."
Why are so many sad commenters doing the exact opposite? I pity the gay children of people like those who comment negatively on here who can't even conceive they might have a gay child. That your intolerance will be embodied in your own children. These people know not what they do.
What do you honestly think is going to happen if you watched this Hallmark movie? Are you going to be sitting there in constant judgment? We need more spirituality in this world. We don't need more religion. There's a big difference. Spirituality is acceptance. Religions come with rules of acceptance apart from spirituality.
I've always loved Hallmark and their products and I still do.
Did so many people honestly read this interview and think, "I MUST immediately tell everybody else who happens to read this article that I disapprove of showing loving same-sex relationships in movies!"? Have your backward opinions if you must, but do you have to spew your hatred here when some of us are just trying to read about an actor we love? Don't want to watch movies with gay characters? Nobody's forcing you to. I suppose nobody's forcing me to read your comments either (admittedly, I skimmed most because it's pretty much all the same garbage). But they're not as easy to avoid as, say, a movie on your TV, in your home, where you don't have to turn the TV on at all.
Treat Williams was just great as Michael Ovitz in the David Letterman Jay Leno biopic. He should have won an Emmy for that
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