With a cast that includes Lindsay Lohan, Ian Harding and Kristin Chenoweth, it’s not surprising that the Netflix movie Our Little Secret has been highly anticipated in this year’s group of new holiday flicks. But we actually have Canadian writer, Hailey DeDominicis, to thank for the continuation of the Lohan rom-coms on the streaming site.
DeDominicis established a successful career in marketing, but the Ontario talent to leaned into writing during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told Yahoo Canada it feels like a “total out-of-body experience” to see Our Little Secret materialize into a movie on Netflix.
“I give a ton of credit to everybody involved, the producers, my Netflix execs, Lindsay was an executive producer as well, and was able to kind of bring her perspective into the mix,” DeDominicis said. “And it was really wonderful to see how, with everyone’s input, the script and the story just got stronger. You really see what a collaboration it is.”
“It started with the script, but [director Steve Herek] was really wonderful at involving me. If he was about to film a scene where he had questions about a joke, or if we needed certain pieces, he would just hop on the phone and give me a call, and we would kind of chat it through. So it was really wonderful to be involved all throughout the process.”
In Out Little Secret Avery (Lohan) finds herself in an uncomfortable position. She’s unexpectedly forced to spend the holidays with her ex Logan (Harding), after discovering that their new partners, Cameron (Jon Rudnitsky) and Cassie (Katie Baker), are siblings.
Avery and Logan agree to not reveal that they know each other, let alone dated, including keeping the secret from Cassie and Cameron’s spirited, but intense, mother Erica (Chenoweth).
As we learn from the beginning of the film, Avery and Logan weren’t just a couple, they started as friends when they met as children, then transitioned into something more romantic.
The circumstances of their breakup were also particularly messy. Avery was grieving the loss of her mother and decided to move to London, but Logan couldn’t live with the thought of her moving away and proposes in the middle of her going-away party. But Avery declined and Logan responded by hurling harsh insults at her about what her late mother would think, and they completely stopped their contact with each other.
“I think it’s really important to get people interested,” DeDominicis said about establishing this dramatic relationship between Avery and Logan. “It was also super important to establish their background story and why maybe they wouldn’t want to spend the holidays together.”
“Lindsay and Ian’s characters, … they have a long history. It wasn’t just they were dating for a couple of years. They were friends for a decade and that evolved, and then Lindsay’s character had something really tragic happen in her life that made her kind of start to run away from her problems, which meant running away from [Ian’s character]. … So that kind of explosive moment at the beginning really set us up for the drama that comes in once they’re forced to spend the holidays together, figuring out that their current partners are siblings.”
While the story and the characters came from DeDominicis, the writer stressed that it was this cast of characters that really brought their own energy to what we see on screen.
“The casting directors nailed it, but then what you see, what I saw through filming was … it’s an ensemble cast and it’s 10 really incredible actors coming together, and then they all have time to really focus on who their individual character is,” DeDominicis said.
“I was able to be on set for a little bit to kind of just see them work, and see the magic that they brought to their roles. … Some of the lines that made it in were improvised and they just kind of leaned into their character, and really brought that magic. And so you do see how much of a collaboration it is. You give them their jumping off point with the script, but … it was such a talented cast, and so many of them are so at their core comedic that they were really able to elevate each of the characters, and make them into into what you see today.”
In terms of working with Lohan, including in her capacity as an executive producer on the film as well as the movie’s star, DeDominicis identified that there was a lot of “heart” put into this movie.
“I give a lot of of credit to [director Steve Herek], Lindsay and Ian for bringing a lot of heart to it,” DeDominicis said. “I think that the script was largely a comedy when it started out and it had heart, but they really brought the heart.”
“I was surprised when I saw the first cut of the couple of scenes that got me emotionally. And scenes that I hadn’t intended to grab you in that way. Lindsay and Ian just really delivered an emotional performance that made you root for their characters even more and get even more invested. So I think that’s one thing that I was surprised by in a very pleasant way.”
Evaluating the appeal of crafting a holiday story, DeDominicis revealed she’s a big fan of the genre herself and hopes to be able to make movies that are re-visited every year.
“I’m one of those people that will watch 30-plus Christmas movies this season,” DeDominicis said. “I just love it and I think there’s something so special about making a holiday film, in particular, because it does bring people together.”
“The amount of people that I’ve heard say, … I’m getting together with my girlfriends, or I’m getting together with my mom, and we’re going watch the movie. It is people making an event and there’s something about Christmas movies that people look forward to. … I just think that it’s a special thing to be involved with. … My hope, this is my first movie, but to be able to create something that people want to re-watch, which I think often happens with holiday movies. That’s the goal.”
