Mix up that sweet tea and prepare the fried chicken because the cast of The Chicken Sisters is giving Us a complete breakdown of their new Hallmark+ series premiering this month.
“I think there’s shock in every one [of the episodes],” Lea Thompson, who plays Nancy, exclusively told Us Weekly during our visit to the Vancouver set over the summer. “There’s a lot of exciting twists and turns.”
The Chicken Sisters is the first scripted series coming to Hallmark Media’s new streaming site, Hallmark+, on Tuesday, September 10. It is an adaptation of KJ Dell’Antonia’s best-selling novel by the same name.
The show will follow a generations-old rivalry between fried chicken restaurants Mimi’s and Frannie’s. Nancy (Thompson) and her daughter-in-law, Amanda (Schuyler Fisk), run one eatery, while Gus (Wendie Malick) and her daughter Mae (Genevieve Angelson) represent the other. (Amanda is also Gus’ second daughter, which causes even more friction.)
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When both restaurants are pitted against each other on the reality show Ultimate Kitchen Clash, the feud and family drama heat up.
Scroll down to meet the cast — and see what each actress has to tease about the upcoming season:
Lea Thompson: Nancy
Meet Nancy
“I’d say that she is a small-town southern woman who prides herself in having this wonderful restaurant and making people happy, making sure everything is good for everyone, but maybe not for herself,” Thompson exclusively told Us. “She loves her daughter-in-Law. She loves her son. She’s a widower, and she has to kind of reinvent her whole feeling about herself.”
The actress explained that Nancy was previously “the woman behind the man,” but after her husband’s death that changes. “She tries to be behind her son and then she has to figure that out,” Thompson teased.
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What Can Viewers Expect?
“The beauty of what we do is walk a mile in another person’s shoes, you know? So what we do is we let you come with us and walk a mile in our shoes and see what our lives are,” Thompson said of the season 1 evolution.
She shared that there will be a message of “empathy and understanding for each other is what we all need.” Thompson added that viewers can expect “a good time” and “funny” stories each week.
Wendie Malick: Gus
Meet Gus
“She’s like a really well made, well roasted Brussels sprout,” Malick exclusively told Us with a laugh. “She’s real crispy on the outside, but the inside is very tender.”
Are There Any Surprises?
“Yeah. I mean it surprised me and I went, ‘Oh wow,’” Malick said of the season. “When I saw how this first season is gonna end … it’s some pretty, pretty intense and dramatic stuff. But, there’s still funny that runs through all of it. Which is just delicious because then you get to sort of play all the notes.”
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What’s the Biggest Season 1 Message?
“Don’t hold onto grudges. Learn from these people,” the actress told Us, revealing that “life is really too short for nonsense.”
Malick explained that like The Chicken Sisters characters, “we all fall into the trap” and hold onto hurt feelings. “Sometimes through humor and entertainment you can recognize some of the, some of the maybe not wisest behavior that you’re exhibiting in your own life,” she added. “So it can be a cautionary tale I think.”
Schuyler Fisk: Amanda
Meet Amanda
“I would describe Amanda as a girl who’s grown up in a small town. She loves her family,” Fisk detailed to Us, revealing that as the younger of two siblings, Amanda is a “hard worker” who “cares about everyone.”
She continued: “She’s always, I think, put herself last and she’s never really thought about herself too much. I feel like during the course of this show, she’s sort of discovering a little bit more about who she is and what she wants. And it’s a fun discovery.”
What Should Viewers Take Away From Season 1?
“I hope people just enjoy the ride because it’s so fun and so funny. That is like a huge part of it. But also, I feel like for me, what I connect with is like the family dynamic thing,” Fisk, who is the daughter of actress Sissy Spacek, shared. “Family relationships are complicated. That’s just like a universal thing.”
The actress noted, “It’s easiest to hurt the ones you love the most, you know? But blood is thicker than water.” Fisk told Us that it’s “fun to explore those relationships with these incredible actresses.”
Genevieve Angelson: Mae
Meet Mae
“Mae is just the girl who felt like she was a plant potted in the wrong soil. She has spent her life kind of recovering from where she comes from,” Angelson revealed to Us. “And so what we see over the course of the first season is her kind of coming to terms with her background and creating a new relationship to it that isn’t just like, flight, freeze, pawn. She’s been in flight.”
The Good Girls Revolt alum teased that Mae is “coming back to rewrite this relationship” which is tethered to her mom, Gus, and her sister, Amanda, who stayed in town while Mae escapes to the big city.
Prepare for Laughter
“I just want [viewers] to think I’m hilarious and anything else is really gravy,” Angelson exclusively told Us.
The actress added that the family dynamic will bring laughs and tears. “It’s my personal belief that it’s part of every person’s journey that your parents f–k you up a little bit. And that’s said about the best possible parents,” she continued. “Even if your parents are your best friends, it’s sort of every hero’s journey to look at how their parents affected them and then to try to do a better job in their own generation to try and improve upon what was given to them.”
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Angelson noted that those types of journeys will be explored on the Hallmark+ show. “That is definitely something that’s illustrated here,” she concluded. “It’s just your job to try and evolve from — to start at the level of the tools that you were given and to grow from there.”
The Chicken Sisters premieres on Hallmark+ Tuesday, September 10. The second episode airs on Thursday, September 12, with new episodes dropping every Thursday after that.
