This Star’s Faith Inspires His Charity Work

Published: December 5, 2024

This Star’s Faith Inspires His Charity Work

Movieguide® Contributor

As we move toward Christmas, Kristoffer Polaha is getting excited about charity work and his recent movie projects.

“As an actor, you have seasons in your life where you get so much attention put on you, and it’s a bit overwhelming,” he told Woman’s World on Dec 3. “I think that life in the public eye can be dangerous if you don’t have a really healthy outlet for it. I’m a person of faith, and one of the things that I’m taught in my faith is you take care of the orphans and widows and people who have less than you do, so service has always been something that I’ve come back to.”

“As my public awareness grew, I wanted to find ways to give back that had a bigger reach. I was working on DATER’S HANDBOOK for Hallmark in 2016, and my costar was Meghan Markle. She had some pictures from a trip to Africa, and I was like, ‘What is this?’ She said, ‘World Vision took me on this trip, and they wanted to show me what they’re doing.’”

THE SHIFT actor began to do some research on the organization when it contacted him, likely at Markle’s request.

“In March of 2020, they invited me to go on a trip. I was scheduled to go, but the pandemic hit, and that put a kibosh on it,” he said. “Then they asked me if I would design a piece of jewelry for their charitable catalog.”

“My wife and I came up with our ‘Further Together’ bracelet,” he continued. “It’s a set of three bracelets. One’s red, one’s blue, one’s yellow, and they’re handmade by craftspeople in India.”

When they came out in the catalog, they sold out within several weeks.

“They’re really simple,” he said. “The idea was that you can wear them until they fall off, or you can give one to somebody that you meet along the way.”

Polaha’s first Hallmark movie, DATER’S HANDBOOK, launched his legacy with the channel.

“So much blossomed out of that one film,” he recalled. “I remember when we started working on that movie, the costume designer apologized, and was like, ‘I’m so sorry. We’re making a Hallmark movie.’ I stopped her right then and there and said, ‘Hold on a minute.’ You can’t apologize to an actor about that. It’s my face and my name, and it’s going to make me feel bad about the job that I took. I said, ‘I’m going to treat this like a Martin Scorsese film. I’m going to treat it like my only chance to get hired again.’”

“That attitude has been with me ever since. I’ve made 18 Hallmark movies since 2016, so that’s pretty cool,” he said. “My work with Hallmark has been so wonderful because it’s given me an opportunity to help make scripts better, to jump in and help directors make shots better, to collaborate with my fellow actors.”

To Polaha, A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS, which released last year, is the embodiment of a great Hallmark Christmas movie. It was filmed at a large estate and had great support from the community — around 8,000 extras showed up.

“The film became an instant classic for people,” he said. “I know that’s a bold statement to make, but I’ve had so many people reach out to me and say it’s their favorite movie. It’s on Netflix, so a lot of people have watched it there. It’s everything those movies should be, and then it’s a notch above in quality and story.”

“Marcy Holland was the writer, and she did such a great job with this fun, whimsical time-travel story. A girl goes back to Christmas in 1947 and they’re making a movie in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and she meets the star of the film and they fall in love. The premise is so funny and farfetched, but when you see it play out, you root for these two people and you want them to spend eternity together,” he said.

One of his favorite co-stars is Lacey Chabert because she’s kind, professional and open-minded. They filmed together in Polaha’s last Hallmark movie, THE CHRISTMAS QUEST.

“Our characters had been married and they’re now divorced. It’s a unique story for Hallmark, because we’re used to watching first love and new couples finding each other. This is a story about people who’ve already done all that and decided not to do it anymore, but they need each other,” Polaha explained. “In needing each other, they’re brought back and reminded why they fell in love in the first place, so you’re watching a much more mature love unfold. It’s interesting, and the audience is really going to love it.”

“We had such a fun time making this movie. We shot on a glacier, in a lava cave, behind waterfalls,” he said. “We shot all over Iceland and had the most incredible adventure offscreen and onscreen.”

Chabert also thinks highly of Polaha.

“The fact that it worked out for this, and we had the chance to go on this epic adventure in Iceland together was just perfection. It was just such an awesome experience,” Chabert told Southern Living. “He is just the best scene partner and wonderful human. We both got to have our families there. It was over the Easter holidays. It was just a really special experience.”

Polaha loved having his family nearby while he worked.

He shared on Thanksgiving, “I have so much to be grateful for today and I am. One of the highlights of 2024 was filming THE CHRISTMAS QUEST in Iceland and bringing my family along. Easter, Micah’s 18th birthday, and so many moments and memories. So grateful for it all.”

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Polaha has an upcoming movie, MIMICS, which will be the first movie he’s directed.

“It’s about a comedian and impersonator who’s not doing great. One night, a mysterious invitation shows up asking him to join an elite society of entertainers and all he has to do is sign, which he does. What follows is a Faustian deal. It’s a parable and a creepy love story all wrapped up in one,” he said. “I had the time of my life directing it.”

“We filmed in my hometown in Nevada, and I was able to put my dad in the movie. He’s got the last line of the film,” he said. “A friend of mine from elementary school wrote the script and my editor is a friend from high school.”

To Polaha the movie is as entertaining as it is personal.

“It’s a passion project, and it’s something that I hope will entertain people, but it also has so much personal resonance. I haven’t even been able to process it yet. I’m so excited for people to see it.”