The countdown to Christmas is well underway and thanks to Great American Family, we've had plenty of new festive films to enjoy as part of their Great American Christmas 2024 event.
One film which aired earlier this month, ‘Tails of Christmas‘, caught my attention. The film tells the story of Caleb (Eric Guilmette), a young man who is discharged from the army following an injury and finds a new purpose working at a dog shelter with Amber (Ash Tsai). There's romance, Christmas joy and cute dogs – what's not to enjoy!
I recently spoke to lead star Eric Guilmette about ‘Tails of Christmas' to find out what it was like to film, talk about his chemistry with co-star Ash Tsai and to find out more about his fast-rising career…
I'm working my way through the entire slate of Great American Family Christmas movies, ‘Tails of Christmas' has been my favourite one so far…
I appreciate that so much. It was very cute. I watched it for the first time live. I never really get nervous, but I was just a little anxious. My whole world was watching; everyone who knew me and was close to me. I was really hoping that it didn't disappoint, and it didn't. It was very cute and it was everything you want in a Christmas movie. As good as it came out, that's how much fun it was to film too. It was awesome.
Christmas movies are hard to get right. There's this misconception that they're really easy to make because they stick to a formula but that's simply not the case. What were the challenges of making this film?
I can give you the first one that comes to mind. My character, Caleb is such an amazing guy that when I read the script I was like, ‘I hope one day I'll be half the man that Caleb is'. He volunteers his time and he does so much for Amber and the shelter, and he cares about animals. One of the struggles of making the film was that he had been discharged from the army and he had served for nine years, so I built the character to have a little PTSD and a little bit more of an edge from serving for so long. When we got into filming, I was reminded very quickly that this is a Christmas movie. It needs to be happy and he can't be a saddened war veteran. He can have his arc, but we can't have it go super deep where if he hears a loud bang he jolts, and that's what I wanted but that's also just part of any movie; you come in with an idea for your character and you have to be malleable by the director and I opened myself up to it. Brian Brough was the director and I let him do his thing.
Having said that though, I did find there was an emotional undertone to Caleb's story and that would resonate with American audiences because there's so much reverence for people who have served. Seeing Caleb trying to find a new purpose after being discharged was the emotional heart of the journey. Was that how you felt about it?
Yeah, I would say so. We wanted to still go through those emotional beats, but instead of having them be like a one and a ten, we wanted it to be more of a four and a six, so we tried to keep it in that rhythm. I think that showed on the screen, which was great for me to see. So far all the feedback I've gotten has been great and there's no better feeling than putting something out that is well received, especially by the people that you really care about.
They always say never work with animals and children but you worked with dogs on this movie. How was that for you?
I've worked with both; I've worked with children and I've worked with dogs and cats and bunnies, and a bunch of other animals. One thing I will say that I love about working with animals is they really put you where your feet are because the dog is always breathing, especially if they're excited. They might bark or they might brush up on you, and it puts you more in the moment. It makes you realise, ‘Oh yeah, I'm here with this dog'. As an actor, especially if you're working in bigger productions, you should be polished enough to remind yourself of where you are and what you're doing, but sometimes a dog can add that nuance to a scene where they'll just look over and you say, ‘Hey buddy' and they'll come back to you. There was a few times that Rex would look at the bunnies and I'd be like ‘Rex' and he'd look back at me and I'd be like, ‘yeah, stay there!'. It was so much fun. I rarely leave a set in a bad mood, and it was very hard to leave this set and not just be smiling because you got to play with dogs and do Christmas things all day.
I would struggle not to take the dog home after filming to be honest. Was it tempting?
Yeah! Spoiler alert for anyone who reads this, is that (my character) adopts Rex. I think it was only the fourth or the fifth day that we (filmed) that but me and Rex had enough time with each other at that point, that I really started to get emotionally attached to him. There were even a few scenes that got cut from the project where there was more of me and Rex, which based off of what my fans have said, they they wanted to see more of it. It was hard to be like, ‘I want to take this dog home'. This dog is adorable but also I'm realistic with myself and I don't really own a pet. I have three cats that live with me in my house, but I can't take care of a pet because I'm never here. I'm here literally less than 50% of the time. I'm always on set. I loved working with Rex and all the other animals, but it's a hard thing not being able to go home with them.
I feel like Great American Family missed a trick there. If they've got all this footage of you and Rex, surely there should be some webisodes or some social media clips?
Yeah, if you write them a message, I'm sure that they will take take your recommendation seriously!
I will get onto that for you! Let's talk about your chemistry with your co-star Ash Tsai. Christmas films hinge on the chemistry between the two leads being believable and I was really rooting for Caleb and Amber. What was it like building that chemistry with Ash?
Ash is phenomenal. Her and I from the get go started getting along very quickly. It was one of those things where we knew what we were trying to accomplish in terms of where our characters were going, but we just got there in such a natural way, like immediately. I'm a poet and I'm a big believer that connection either exists or it doesn't. That goes for not just romantically, but between people and sometimes between a person and an animal – the connection either is there or it isn't. You can find a way to foster a connection and make it something that is more than not, but me and Ash had a very great friendly connection right from the get go. We were just like, ‘all right, let's put our heads down and make this story, everything we can make it'. She was great. We had some really good conversations and it was just so much fun working with her.
Would you be open to making more Christmas movies in the future?
I would. I'm not sure how much digging you did into what I usually work on, but I do a lot of vertically shot series that are on these apps – ShortMax, DramaBox, ReelShort, DreameShort and Pocket FM. They're the new age of soap operas and I have done quite well for myself in that space. I'm actually filming one at the moment – today is one of my off days. I'm so used to this style of acting and storytelling where the stakes are high, because in these soap operas, you're getting married, (then) someone died, (then) you're having an intimate sex scene, then someone else is getting shot and then someone's in the hospital – it's always the highest stakes. One thing I loved about filming this Christmas movie is it was so different than what I usually get cast as and it just allowed anyone who watched it to see me in a different light. To see that I have a heart and I like to use my heart in my acting. I would love (to do more), especially with Great American Family. Everything from start to finish working with the production company we worked with and Great American Family, they've been extremely supportive. They have been so fun to work with. I would love to work with them specifically again, but in Christmas movies in general, yeah it would be a blast to continue working in this space.
I did a lot of research ahead of this interview and I saw you did modelling before you got into acting. You've got a lot of projects coming up including some horror stuff like ‘The Black Box'. It looks like quite a mixed bag of things – tell me about those projects…
I'm definitely a little all over the place but that also sums me up as a person. I'm not one note, I'm not just like Christmas guy. I'm not just the alpha CEO billionaire role that I get cast for verticals. ‘The Black Box' is a psychological thriller; that one was an ensemble cast. It was really fun to film. It's about a group of college kids that are at a graduation party. They get their hands on this game called ‘The Black Box', which is an exclusive game that's only made for rich, famous people. and we somehow start playing, and then chaos happens. It's a really cool story and I'm excited for that one to come out too. I shot it so long ago but that one will be well received in (the horror) world. I have a few horror films that are still in the process of being shopped around.
I have three more series that I'm doing this year for the vertical space. I've actually gotten into producing now so I'm producing a few of my own series, which are great. A little bit of my background – I don't want to go too far back in my life – but I went to school for math and economics. I was supposed to go work on Wall Street but I didn't want to do that. I then traveled around for a little bit, made my own fitness coaching company because I was bodybuilding full-time, and then about five years ago, I landed here in Southern California. Once I got here, like two days after getting here, I got asked to model for something so I did it. I didn't have a whole lot of modelling experience before – I was very rigid and bodybuilder-esque. I fell in love with being in front of the camera. I also saw how much money I could make doing it and I decided I was going to make this my career. That's when I say the rest is history, because I did make modelling my career and it was my bread and butter for a long time.
Then I started taking acting classes very shortly after that and for the last almost two years, I haven't stopped being in front of a camera. I'm a little tired, not gonna lie, but that's okay. It's part of the journey. I absolutely love acting, even more so than modelling. I love being in front of the camera and getting to express myself in this way. Everyone always says ‘Oh, this is just the beginning' and it feels like I've been doing this for a long time, but really it is just the beginning. I'm excited for what's to come.
You must feel that hard work and that dedication is paying off now?
Yeah, absolutely. Everyone talks about making it, right? I'm not at the point that I'm winning an Oscar or anything like that, nor am I even close, but I do feel like I've made it because for the last year and a half to two years, I have been able to do what I love every single day. I make a living doing it, I'm happy when I put my head on the pillow at night and I just feel excited to wake up in the morning. I never wake up and I'm like, ‘I have to do this today'. Obviously I have days that I'm tired and I don't want to get out of bed, but I always feel excited to go about my day and all of that is making it in my opinion. I feel like I made it and it's only going to continue to get better in the near future. I'm excited for what that's going to be. I feel very blessed and very lucky.
That is a great take on success. A lot of people always think they have to strive further and further, regardless of how much they achieve…
Because of our world and the way we live. Social media. It's very easy to compare yourself to others. It's very easy to be like, ‘Oh, I wish I was doing what they're doing', but once you realise you just need to be doing enough for yourself to be happy and feel fulfilled, that is making it. That is the process of feeling alive when you wake up every day. I look back on my life and I don't have any regrets. I don't have anything that I wish I did differently or another route that I wish I took and everything led me to be right here and it's a pretty great place to be.
As we started off talking about a Christmas film, what are you doing for Christmas? Are you going to get a break?
I do need a break. I'm filming up until the day before Thanksgiving and then overnighting myself to Boston where I'm originally from to see my Dad. Then after that I have two projects and then I will be overnighting myself to Florida on Christmas Eve to see my Mom and spend some time there. I'm going to take the rest of the year off at that point because nothing films between Christmas and New Year's. I need a break, but I'm at that point where as exhausted as I am, I'm not burnt out. I'm not close to being burnt out. I feel so fulfilled and excited about this every day that I can keep going. But I'll take a little mini break because I do need to come back to centre with myself.
I imagine it's going to be full steam ahead as soon as we get into 2025?
Yeah, I'm already looking at trying to do something first week of January. I don't actually use a calendar, I use a notepad and if you saw what my notepad looked like, it is about 20 projects just circulating right now trying to make them all happen. That's what you want as an actor. You want to have the ability to say ‘no' and be like, ‘I don't want to do that script' or, come up with your own idea and be like, ‘let's try this'. That's where I feel so lucky and blessed.
You mentioned earlier about being a poet and I had read that about you before this interview. Where did that come from and how long have you been writing poems?
I'm glad you saw that as well because that is something that I'm extremely passionate about. I guess if you wanted to have an initial date that I started writing, it was around March/April of the pandemic. I started writing because I was in an incredible relationship at the time. I was with a girl that I loved so deeply and she made me a poet. It's a very beautiful thing to have someone that turns you into a poet naturally. I started writing to make sense of my thoughts and get out things that I needed to get out. Then little by little, it built and built and for a while, I was just doing it for me.
I started sharing it with people and then people started really taking to it. I haven't even published a book yet but I have a book ready and it's sitting with a few publishers right now as we speak. Hopefully it'll get picked up by one of them. I have people that have framed my poems on their walls and people that have gotten tattoos of my poems. It's absolutely wild to experience that.
Not to sound vain, I'm just being realistic, I know a lot of my life in the entertainment space has been because of my face and, my body or whatever. My poems, they have nothing to do with that. They are almost identity free. They are words that are coming from someone who studied mathematics. I'm not a wordsmith by training; I'm a wordsmith by my living. To have people that have taken to my words so well and fallen in love with them in some way, shape, and form, it's bliss. It's really incredible. That actually means the most to me out of probably any of my art forms right now is that people love my poetry, which is crazy to say.
Is there anything you can't do?
There's plenty of things I can't do. I can't sing. It's funny. I'll go on these sets and so many of these actors are so talented. A lot of them studied musical theatre and play 12 instruments, and people just start singing. It'll come back around to me like, ‘Oh, Eric, can you sing?' I'm like, ‘I can take my shirt off' (laughs). I know my strengths and singing is not one of them. Somehow I can remember the lyrics, I just don't have that voice to be able to make it sound good.
It's good to know there's something you're not good at…
There's more than just that, but that is the first one that I always bring up because you don't want to hear me sing.
Now you've said that, I kind of do but I won't make you do it…
Maybe for the follow up interview (laughs).
‘Tails of Christmas' is part of Great American Family's Great American Christmas 2024 season. It will be available to stream on Great American Pure Flix from 20th December 2024. Watch the trailer below:
