Interview: ATWT’s Bruce Lays Down The Law!

The holidays are coming early for Dylan Bruce (Chris, AS THE WORLD TURNS; Brian, THE BAY) this year! The actor stars in Love’s Christmas Journey, a Hallmark Channel Original Movie premiering tomorrow night, Saturday, November 5, at 8 p.m. EST.

The four-hour — set your DVRs accordingly! — film also stars daytime vets Greg Vaughn (ex-Lucky, GENERAL HOSPITAL; ex-Diego, THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS), Natalie Hall (Colby, ALL MY CHILDREN) and Charles Shaughnessy (ex-Shane, DAYS OF OUR LIVES), along with Academy Award nominees JoBeth Williams (Brandy, GUIDING LIGHT; Carrie, SOMERSET), Sean Astin and Ernest Borgnine. “It’s a Western that takes place in the late 1800’s,” explains Bruce, who plays Deputy Michael Strode in the film, the latest installment in Hallmark’s series of films based on the Janette Oke book series Love Comes Softly. “Greg’s character goes missing. Natalie plays his sister. She comes to town and a romance blossoms between our characters.”

Bruce was quite impressed with Hall’s ability to juggle filming Journey as well as taping the final weeks of AMC on ABC last summer. “She was doing double-duty. I don’t know how she did it,” he marvels. “She’s a sweetheart.”

Aside from Love’s Christmas Journey, Bruce is hard at work filming Season 2 of THE BAY ( www.thebaytheseries.com), where he plays Brian. Will his marriage to Zoey go off without a hitch? “Brian’s stubborn,” Bruce maintains. “He’s going to make it happen.”

While Bruce has gone on to work regularly in Hollywood post-ATWT, he fondly recalls his time as the offspring of iconic characters Bob and Kim, who were played by fan favorites Don Hastings and Kathryn Hays. “I miss them both a lot,” he shares.” Don is great and so hysterically funny. You don’t think he’d be that way because he played the patriarch but he is. Kathryn is a sweetheart. I’d get all time the time from her [Kim’s signature line], ‘Listen, kiddo!’ I think she added them herself if they weren’t always in the script. She’d put them in anyway!”