A CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL: Jessica Camacho Previews Her New Christmas Rom-Com

In the new holiday movie, A CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL, Maria (Jessica Camacho) is a chef who dreams of starting her own food truck: so she can bring her food to the people. But to get there, she has to work a series of odd jobs…including a rideshare driver, which introduces her to Julian (Adam Rodriguez), a successful attorney who might be on the cusp of moving ahead in his family’s law firm.

The duo don’t exactly get along at first. However, a simple mix-up leads to Julian making Maria a proposition: She pose as his girlfriend, and he’ll help her make her food truck happen. But, naturally, the duo realize they may actually like each other, and sparks fly.

Here, Camacho talks about the charming film, plus talks about her series ALL RISE getting a a second life…

Prior to signing on for this, what was your experience with the genre?
This is definitely my first foray into the Christmas realm. I remember being a kid and watching movies and wanting to see myself in that world. Wondering what that felt like and just being just so captured by the snow and the cold and whatever the dilemma was in the Christmas movie that they had to overcome. Then they find hope. I love that. It’s something that really stuck with me as a kid. And so I remember thinking, “Oh, that must be so cool.” When the opportunity came to me, it wasn’t even a question. It was just, “Yes. Let’s do it.” And it was really cool to be on the inside, to be on the other side of that; it was pretty surreal.

When they came to you, did you get the script or was it just the basics?
Initially, it was just, “Hey, there’s an opportunity to do a Christmas movie, it’s a rom-com, and they want you as a lead.” And I’m like, “Yep.”

And then when I read the script, and I was like, “Oh, cool, great.” And then I found out Adam Rodriguez is going to be my partner, and I was so excited about that. He’s such an awesome actor. And then finally getting to work with him and realizing he’s just as awesome a person as he is an actor—we really had a great time on set. We supported each other and listened to each other and helped each other and had laughs with each other. It was so, so fun.

You mentioned wanting to see yourself in the world of movies like this when you were younger. This is a film that has an all Latin cast—what does that kind of representation mean to you?
It’s about time. I think that that should be the norm. I’m ready for that to be totally normal. I think that all of us should see ourselves represented. It’s just think it’s a beautiful thing.

Looking to the story itself, what can you share about who Maria is and where we find her when the story kicks off?
Maria is a chef, but she’s an aspiring entrepreneur. She’s building her dream, which is to bring her passion and her love of cooking to people [via a food truck]. And to allow them to experience the joy that she puts into it—that drives her and she’s just at the point in her life where she’s really working step by step to make that dream a reality. Saving money and just going through the hard knocks that one goes through when you have a dream, but you got nothing else. It’s her whole focus.

But she’s also someone who’s experienced a lot of loss in her life. I think the building of her dream is what motivates her, but it also kind of distracts her from feeling a lot of the pain that she’s tried to kind of stash away. So she’s minding her own business, trying to make that dream a reality, and she meets this rich man, who comes into her life, unexpectedly, with a very interesting proposal.

She looks at it through the lens of maybe this is a chance for me to finally make my dream become a reality. But she ends up finding that it’s so much more, and maybe some of the things that she was running from are some of the things that she is ready to stop running from. It talks about the magic of a chance meeting, and and what that can lead to, if you’re willing to see what happens.

What is her initial take on Julian?
I think initially, she writes him off as, “I know this type, full of himself.” I think, Maria being somebody that’s curious about people, and that loves people and is genuinely curious about the story of each person…he just kind of shuts her down [when they meet] and wants to focus on himself. She views him as somebody who’s got a little bit of a selfish view of the world. I think she just thinks, “Okay, well, I’m going to drop him off and that’ll be the end of that.” But that’s not what happens.

I think what’s cool about Maria’s experience with Julian is that she realizes sometimes there’s way more to people than we initially give him credit for. I think that’s an important thing to remember. Everybody’s struggling with something. So what may seem to be a mean person or nasty person or somebody that we write off, it’s like, hey, you know, we don’t know the gold under there. Sometimes it takes time to get to know somebody. I think it’s important to just remember we’re all struggling. We’re all grappling in different ways. And I think that’s an important message in this movie.

What’s interesting about Maria and Julian’s initial meeting is that the majority of their first interactions are in a car, as she’s driving. How did that impact the way you played their meet-cute, especially since there are physical limitations about what you can play in a confined environment?
The funny thing is I think that scene was the last scene that we shot.

Oh, wow.
Isn’t that hilarious? The first time that you see us interacting on screen is the actual last thing that we shot in the whole movie. And so that comes with its own challenges, right? Because you have to make it seem, first of all, like this is the first time that I’m meeting this person. This is the first time I’m interacting [with him] and we’ve just spent X amount of weeks together, getting to really know each other. And so there’s that aspect. You want to make that real and fresh.

And then there’s, like you said, the actual physical world in which you’re situated, which is you’re driving—you’re actually driving—you’re in a car. It’s a very intimate setting. It’s an enclosed type space, so that comes with some difficulties, challenges, limitations, obstacles, realities, all that stuff. You’re also like, “Please, God, let me not get into an accident right now and hit the car in front of me.” So there’s that.

That’s one of the funny things about actors: when you’re in the real world doing these things, they’re like second-nature to you; they’re kind of automatic. But it’s like you forget how to do all those things when the camera’s rolling. “Where’s the key? And how do I turn it?” Because you’re thinking about so many different things! [So you] take a breath, and just kind of click into it, you know? But yes, all of those things pose their own very unique challenges.

Adam and I, we are both two people who really cared very much for this movie. We cared very much about it being real. We wanted it to feel real. We wanted the audience to watch it and really be able to relate to these two people. So, you want to have fun with it and bring lightness to it….So it just felt good to know that we were both really supporting each other and working really hard to make it as good as we can.

In success, is there room for a sequel?
Listen, anything is possible. And that’s what Christmas movies teach us, right? You never know.

Speaking of anything being possible: ALL RISE is officially coming back after its cancellation. At this point, what do you know about what’s in store?
Honestly, all I know is that I know nothing! I know nothing, which is really cool. I am so excited to see where we pick up. I’m so excited to see where Emily is. I cannot tell you how curious I am. So it’s going to be really, really cool to to explore that and to learn about that as well. All I know is that we’re coming back, which was such a beautiful surprise. And so I’m just I feel so overjoyed to be living inside her world again, because I really love that that character and her heart in that pursuit. And that’s something that I really related to Maria, as well: the heart that I was able to find, the passion. Getting to play characters like that, it’s just really cool.

The period between the show’s cancellation and its revival was longer than normal. What was the experience like on your end? Did you essentially have to say goodbye and mourn the loss, only to discover it wasn’t quite done? Or did you always think it would return?
That’s exactly what I did: I had to mourn and I had to say goodbye and put it to rest. And that was a very real thing for me. It was the first time I think I really grieved for a character. I really did. I really, really felt a loss inside of my spirit, because I had connected with her so, so deeply. And so to have to say goodbye to her and say thank you, and say goodbye to the experience was it was really quite emotional.

But you do that and that’s part of what I love about this pursuit, right? It’s why I’m an actor, because you never know what’s waiting for you next. When one project ends, it means okay, well, something else is waiting and I get to discover what that new thing is. I experienced all of the things. And so when it came around, it was like, “Oh my God. Here we go again. Let’s do this.” And just so overjoyed, but yeah, it was quite the whirlwind.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about THE CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL?
My hope is that [viewers] find something sincere that they relate to in this movie and that it leaves them with something, that they can take something from it that’s real. I want them to know I put my heart into this, I put my joy into this, and I put my love into this. And maybe for somebody who’s not having the most ideal holiday season, just know we made this with all of you in mind. We made this with the hope that maybe life isn’t perfect right now and life is difficult, but there’s always the chance, there’s always fate, there’s always hope. Make the magic. Sometimes you gotta make the magic, and we certainly try to do that with this movie. And I hope that there’s something in it that everyone can relate to.

A CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL, Sunday, December 12, CBS

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