Danica McKellar has starred in many Christmas movies, but her latest film holds a special place in her heart.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, the “Wonder Years” actress shared that there are many reasons why her latest Christmas movie, “A Cinderella Christmas Ball,” is more special than others she has starred in.
“This is a wonderful experience for me. It’s been amazing because I got to write the script with someone else, but it’s the first time my name is on the script for one of these movies, and it’s really gratifying,” she explained. “Plus, I get to waltz in it! I love ballroom dance, as I think everybody knows who follows me on social media.”
The actress’ love for dance grew when she competed on season 18 of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2014, noting, “It’s great exercise, it’s artistic, [and] it’s just a wonderful practice.”
Danica McKellar has starred in many Christmas movies, but her latest film holds a special place in her heart. (Photo by Emily Assiran/Getty Images for That’s 4 Entertainment)
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McKellar was paired with Val Chmerkovskiy during her time on the show, but it was current “Dancing with the Stars” pro dancer Gleb Savchenko who “choreographed the waltzes in this movie.”
“It was actually a real-life ‘Dancing with the Stars’ type experience for my co-star Oliver Rice, because he’d never done any ballroom dancing before at all, and he had three weeks in Vancouver, where he lives, to work with two coaches like every other day for hours to get to perform these waltzes,” she said. “They’re harder than they look, I will say that.”
WATCH: Danica McKellar shares why her new Christmas movie, ‘A Cinderella Christmas Ball,’ is so special
Rice’s hard work seems to have paid off, as McKellar revealed a dance double was hired for the actor, “but we only had to use one shot of him” because Rice “got so good.” She added the two “look almost identical,” and that “it was actually amazing.”
“This is a wonderful experience for me. It’s been amazing because I got to write the script with someone else, but it’s the first time my name is on the script for one of these movies, and it’s really gratifying.”
— Danica McKellar
“A Cinderella Christmas Ball” stars McKellar as Chelsea Jones, a dance teacher living in Chicago, who sets out on a journey to find her birth father. Along the way, she travels to the small European country of Havenshire, where she meets Prince Phillip, played by Rice, and has to teach him to dance.
McKellar stars as a woman searching for her birth father in her latest Christmas movie, “A Cinderella Christmas Ball.” (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
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McKellar has been starring in Christmas movies since 2012, when she starred in “Love at the Christmas Table,” and has starred in many since, including “Crown for Christmas,” “My Christmas Dream,” “Coming Home for Christmas,” “Christmas at Dollywood” and others.
In her opinion, the popularity of Christmas movies continues to rise because “people need comfort” and a way to “escape from this crazy world,” which the holiday movies provide.
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WATCH: Danica McKellar praises co-star for learning to ballroom dance
“More than an escape, it provides a reminder of what human nature can be,” she told Fox News Digital. “We need that. We need that reminder. We need, yes, the feeling of comfort, but also ideas for how to move forward in a wholesome, earnest kind of way.”
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She went on to explain that while they “don’t present them in truly dramatic ways,” the characters in the Christmas movies always have struggles they are dealing with. She used her character’s search for her birth father as an example.
McKellar thinks Christmas movies are successful because they provide people with comfort. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
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“It’s painful, it’s scary, but what you see is a character in earnest really doing her best, pushing through and trying to make good choices along the way,” she explained. “So that’s what we can model for people in the midst of just giving them, yes, comfort food around the holiday season, which it’s important to feel those warm and fuzzy feelings around the holidays.”
“A Cinderella Christmas Ball” is set to premiere on Great American Family on Friday, November 29.
WATCH: Danica McKellar shares why she thinks Christmas movies are so popular
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Lori Bashian is an entertainment production assistant for Fox News Digital.
