Katie Stevens Is “The Most Hopeless Romantic Of Them All”

Katie Stevens is no stranger to a good love story. By her own admission, she’s a true hopeless romantic. So, it’s only fitting that, now, she’s taking romance to another level — and another century, as it were — in Providence Falls, Hallmark’s sweeping new three-part movie trilogy based on the beloved book series by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets.

In the series, Stevens (who won us all over on The Bold Type) plays Cora McLeod, a fiery aristocrat’s daughter in 1844 Ireland whose forbidden love with Liam O’Conner (Lachlan Quarmby) is so powerful that not even time can contain it. Their story gets even more layered when a few meddling angels transport Liam to present-day Oregon, but forbid him from being with Cora.

It’s part period drama, part time-travel romance, part cop procedural... and Stevens gets to embody Cora in both worlds.

We caught up with her to talk about the joy (and challenge) of playing two versions of the same character, working with Sweet Magnolias star and executive producer JoAnna García Swisher, why Lachlan Quarmby’s lines are pure swoon fuel, and how she believes love — and friendship — can transcend time.

Scary Mommy: You’ve shared on Instagram that you had “the time of your life” working on Providence Falls. What sets this project apart from other work you’ve done?

Katie Stevens: I feel like I had so many challenges and firsts with these movies, getting to kind of do a period piece and also the procedural cop aspect of things. And there were so many things that these films kind of checked off: doing a book adaptation, playing an actual book character, getting to shoot in Ireland, having to do an accent, and just being able to bond with this cast and crew.

I just had the best time on this project and got to challenge myself in so many unique ways, and surprised myself in many of those ways as well.

SM: This story blends romance, time travel, destiny. It’s such a fun twist on a typical Hallmark movie. What hooked you when you first read the script?

KS: Really, the fact that I almost got to play two different characters because I got to play Cora in 1844 and then more of the modern-day Cora. I've always wanted to do a period piece, but getting to kind of explore who this person is in two different time periods, because, obviously, the time they're living in is so different.

1844 Cora doesn't really have agency over her own life. She doesn't get to choose what her future and her destiny look like, which is why, when she meets Liam, it's so exciting to her. He represents all of those things she wants out of life. But I think just having the challenge of, How do I play these two different time periods while still maintaining a throughline of who Cora is at the heart of it?

SM: Yeah, that makes sense. Man, at one point, Liam says this line, "She's the love of my life, of all of my lives," and it's so swoon-worthy...

KS: Honestly, all of his lines are swoon-worthy! The line where I come down in my police ball outfit, and I'm like, "Is it too much?" And he says, "It would only be too much if someone could get enough of you." I was like, every girl watching this is just going to be gripping the side of her chair, being like, "Ah."

SM: So true. Did their story make you believe in this idea that certain loves are so big that they transcend even fate?

KS: Oh, I'm the most hopeless romantic of them all. I would like to think that love transcends time and that our soulmates find us in all the different kinds of lives we've lived. But I think that everybody just wants to find love and be loved, and so to hold on to the idea that that finds you no matter who you are and no matter where you are, I think that's a really beautiful message.

SM: You guys have great chemistry. How did you build that rapport?

KS: Lachlan and I talk about it all the time. When you're doing something where you're playing a romance or you have a love interest, there are those nerves, and it's almost like when you get paired together, it feels like a weird blind date in a way.

But with how our schedules are when you're filming, you're spending so many hours together and to kind of cut through and get to know each other better, any wall that you would ordinarily in your life build up to keep people out, you almost have to tear that down immediately and really kind of get to know each other. At least that's how I work, and this cast works the same.

But funnily enough, it kind of happened in the same way as our characters. We were shooting all of that early stuff where Cora's meeting present-day Liam for the first time, and you're like, "Oh, there's a familiarity here. I can't really put my finger on why, because I also don't really know you." And it kind of felt like real life was mirroring that too, because we were all getting to know one another.

SM: Well, your cup definitely runneth over in the romance department.

KS: I know. Lucky girl, Cora.

SM: JoAnna Garcia Swisher, who we all love—

KS: I’m obsessed with her.

SM: Same! She’s an executive producer on Providence Falls. What was it like working with her? Any chance we might see you pop up on Sweet Magnolias in a future season?

KS: I would love to. I love that show so much. I was a fan of it before I was even a part of this, so getting to meet her and to know her is a gift. She's an incredible actress, has been for many years, but she's also an entrepreneur, an incredible producer — all things that, as a young woman in the industry, are things that I would love to eventually do.

So, to have somebody like her be such an incredible role model in that and get to know her and watch her work in that capacity was really, really, really special.

SM: OK, speaking of girlhood, you, Meghann Fahy, and Aisha Dee have stayed close since The Bold Type — it’s so lovely to see y’all cheer each other on. Female friendships can be complicated, as we see in this movie, but do you think those kinds of deep female friendships are just as epic and enduring as the love stories we see onscreen?

KS: Oh my gosh, some of the biggest loves of my life are my girlfriends. I don't know where I would be without those female friendships. Meghann and Aisha became my sisters on The Bold Type, and that has continued through the years, even after the show ended.

When you make those connections, they're so different than romantic love, but for me, they're just as important. I think that a lot of times you can get lost in romantic love relationships and sometimes forget about your female friendships. I'm so lucky and grateful that I never have, and that I have maintained those relationships. I believe that, as women, we need those female friendships because females just get each other in a different way.

Part 1, Providence Falls: Chance of a Lifetime, is now available to stream on Hallmark+. Part 2, Providence Falls: An Impossible Promise, premieres Saturday, Aug. 9, at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel, followed by Part 3, Providence Falls: Thief of Fate, at the same time on Saturday, Aug. 16. All three movies will be available for streaming on Hallmark+ the day after premiering.