Andie MacDowell doesn’t just play a mother on The Way Home, she has also taken on that role for her costars off camera.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Chyler Leigh, Evan Williams and Sadie Laflamme-Snow gushed over getting to work with MacDowell, 66, on the Hallmark Channel series.
“She’s like our mom. She’s the advice giver and she’s the hugger,” Leigh, 42, who plays MacDowell’s onscreen daughter, Kat, shared. “She’s the one that just is absolutely willing to share her life and experiences and we just eat it up.”
Leigh praised the show for giving MacDowell the chance to explore those themes as Del, adding, “It’s [all about] learning how to be loved and how to love in a different way this season, which causes obvious ripples.”
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Williams, 39, meanwhile, pointed out how the Hallmark show’s mother-daughter writing team paved the way.
“There’s so many different kinds of motherhood. It’s informed by our mother-daughter showrunner team, [Heather Conkie and Alexandra Clarke],” he said. “It’s a labor of love because they’ve been there and we are watching Andie get to draw on her experience being a mother and put that on the screen. I love when art imitates life.”
The Way Home, which premiered in 2023, introduced three generations of women in the Landry family who stumble upon a pond on their land that allows them to time travel. Season 3 has been digging deeper into MacDowell’s character, Del, as her granddaughter, Alice (Laflamme-Snow), starts traveling to the ’70s when Del met her husband, Colton (Jefferson Brown).
Off screen, MacDowell shares kids Justin, 38, Rainey, 35, and Margaret, 30, with ex-husband Paul Qualley. Before Rainey welcomed her first baby with partner Anthony Wilson, she exclusively told Us about the advice she received from MacDowell.
“Mostly right now, she’s just trying to get me to not do so much stuff,” Rainey told Us in September 2024. “She doesn’t want me to be, like, traveling. … Like, I had this potential job [and] she’s shooting in Canada. [I thought] I would maybe be in Canada for [something and] she’s like, ‘Don’t do it. Stay home.’”
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Rainey said MacDowell was “protective” of her, adding, “I was like, ‘I wanted to do it to see you, but OK.’ She just wants me to stay home and not do so much.”
At the time, Rainey reflected on the lessons she was hoping to pass down to her child.
“Thinking about my family life when I was a kid, the things that are most important to me are my siblings, which I guess, obviously, I can’t really offer anything right now,” she continued. “I also really love animals, and that’s something that I inherited from my mom. Exposing your children to animals creates compassion in a really specific way. I’m looking forward to that.”
The Way Home airs on the Hallmark Channel Fridays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes are also available to stream on Hallmark+ and Peacock the next day.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
