Actress Jill Wagner Encourages Us to ‘Find The Good’ In Unexpected Situations
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actress Jill Wagner is reflecting on how to accept and laugh at the parts of life that are out of our control.
“This is something that I currently am trying to work on as well,” the actress explained in a video for Great American Community. “I’m not very good at that. But maybe it’s because I’m a bit of a control freak, and I’ve been trying to work on that and to understand that there’s so much beauty in the moments that aren’t planned, and I’m a planner.”
Wagner shared a story about an Easter egg hunt that she put on for her daughter Army. The forecast called for rain that day, and she wondered if she should cancel the party.
“Then I thought to myself, the beauty of children is that they go outside, they don’t care if it’s raining,” the Movieguide® Grace Prize nominee said. “They live in the moment they just go out and find the eggs and they run around and laugh and the rain and all of this stuff. And it makes up such a beautiful memory for them. And I think we as adults kind of lose that childlike quality, that ability to to love all the imperfections.”
Wagner continued, “I think there’s so many moments like that in our life, and if we can just stop and accept the moment and find the good in it, and a lot of times you won’t see the good until after it’s over. But you know, I always try to think about my grandmother and how every time it rained, she would purposely get up out of her house, and she would go walk in her neighborhood.”
“You know, most people are like, ‘Oh, it’s raining. I don’t want to go out of the house,’ but she just loved it,” she concluded. “Those are the moments that she cherished. So anyway, that’s just a little food for thought!”
Wagner’s latest project is LIONESS, a show that was very close to the actress’s heart.
“David [Lemanowicz, Wagner’s husband] and I came up with the concept for this show on our farm in East Tennessee one night over a bottle of whiskey and a bonfire,” she shared on Instagram. “We were talking about how hard it is for a woman in her 40s in Hollywood. I think, at the time, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. David asked me what my dream role was. I said I wanted to play someone in the military. He told me to stop waiting for someone else to offer it to me and create my own opportunity. We spoke that night for hours about the women that he had worked with in the Army and how they had impressed him with their ability to gain certain intel. He then spoke about a group of women called Lionesses. Once I heard their story I knew it needed to be a movie or a tv show.”
Wagner also has another military-themed project in the works.
It was recently announced that she would star in BRINGING CHRISTMAS HOME for Great American Family.
According to Deadline, the movie follows “retired military officer, now Military History professor, Caroline Upton (Wagner) [who] is enlisted to assist antiques store owner, Russell Carlisle (Paul Greene) in finding the family of WWII Army officer Orin Newton before Christmas with the hope of returning precious personal artifacts – Orin’s dress uniform, medals, and a stack of love letters from his beloved Alice who waits for him back home. Epaulets and insignia provide initial clues, though the search seems to dead end when Caroline discovers Orin was captured and listed as MIA. Caroline and Russell then search the love letters for clues as to what happened to Orin and whether he ever made it home to Alice.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Wagner’s support for the military:
Jill Wagner and her husband David highlighted National Vietnam War Veterans Day in a new Great American Community post.
“[This is] a day to honor those who fought in Vietnam or served during the Vietnam War over its 20-year timeframe,” David Wagner explained. “It was enacted into law and became the official recognized day to honor those who served in the Vietnam war on March 29th 2017.”
“As all Americans know, during that time, the history books tell us they didn’t get the proper welcome home like many of those who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he continued. “My generation, we get a lot of ‘thank you for your service,’ and I think the Vietnam vets didn’t get that. They deserve it.”
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