You can’t blame Columbus native Chaley Rose Jackson for feeling happy, holiday vibes about now.
The Columbus East High School graduate, known professionally as Chaley Rose, stars in not just one but two upcoming holiday films on major networks this month and next.
They mark the second and third films in which she is featured in a lead role. Her first was TV One’s “Dinner For Two,” which aired last year on cable. They also mark a different kind of confidence at auditions, though she figures it still requires dozens of such shots to land even a single part.
“I feel like I’m now on a different playing field,” she said, speaking by phone from her home in Los Angeles. “ … I think (after some experience) you tend to show up with a different swagger. Now, if I don’t book something, I just tell myself, ‘Well, maybe it’s because they wanted a blonde.’
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“And I don’t really carry in all the nerves and the anxiety anymore.”
The singer/actress will star in “A Christmas Duet” premiering at 8 p.m. Monday on the Hallmark Channel. As one could guess from the title, the former “Nashville” TV series crooner steps up to the mic again.
“I always love getting to sing,” she said, referring to the production’s jazzy-pop theme song of “Wouldn’t Be Christmas,” which can be heard on YouTube and elsewhere.
In “A Christmas Duet,” the beloved music duo Averie (Jackson) and Jesse (Rome Flynn), famous for their duet “Wouldn’t Be Christmas,” haven’t played together since they went their separate ways years ago, according to Hallmark’s synopsis. Averie gave up music and opened a beautiful lodge in a snowy Vermont town, while Jesse still tours, struggling to find the same kind of success they had as a duo. Then fate brings them together again over the holidays and Jesse encourages Averie to sing again.
“The Hallmark movie definitely will give people what they’ve come to see,” Jackson said. “’Holiday Heist’ kind of follows some of that typical Hallmark storyline. But it’s also a little different.”
In “Holiday Heist,” a former criminal (Tobias Truvillion) lured back to his old life lands a job at a jewelry store so he can be closer to his planned heist target. But he but winds up falling for the owner’s daughter, Jade Holiday (Jackson). In turn, the man does everything he can to save the store, the Holiday family, and his newfound love.
In the past, Jackson’s own personal Christmas movie tastes have run toward flicks such as “Elf.” She is tickled that friends such as pop music artist Ingrid Michaelson perhaps are more stoked than Jackson herself over the two holiday releases. Plus, BET just sent her to the Soul Train Awards to promote “Holiday Heist.”
And she and Flynn are slated to be heard soon on SiriusXM Hallmark Channel Radio’s “Home and Family” program talking about their upcoming flick.
Jackson confessed she loves all that surrounds Dec. 25 probably as much as anyone. But she is hardly Christmas crazy. Besides, she spent March in Chicago pretending it was Christmas for “Holiday Heist,” and July in Vancouver pretending it was the holidays for “A Christmas Duet.”
“I like Christmas, but ideally, I like it to happen AT Christmas time,” she said. “I like to have the Christmas tree up AFTER Thanksgiving, and taken down by New Year’s Day. I’m not one of one of those crazies who makes sure that, right after Halloween, the tree goes up. And I like to get on with things once it’s over.”
She is getting on with things with other parts of her career even as she promotes the two films. She also recently recorded two songs she plans to package with an extended-play release sometime after she lands her next series or movie role for automatic promotion and attention. She still regularly takes acting classes, and remains intense about improving.
“I treat that time like I’m at the gym,” she said of her focus.
In the meantime, she also will appear soon in “The Pledge,” a comedy-oriented horror flick with an undetermined release date.
“I had one of the most fun times with that,” she said.
Plus, she will appear next season on an episode of the TV series “Lucifer.” Through the ups and downs of an unpredictable industry, she has retained her humor, ever since she made her screen debut in a comical Jack In the Box commercial for chicken nuggets in 2012.
She recently shared this gem on Twitter: “Someone just said I was ‘almost Halle Berry.’ I misheard and thought he’d said ‘homeless Halle Berry,’ but was still flattered.”
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Hometown: Columbus
Residence: Los Angeles
A good sport: She was a track athlete and gymnast at Columbus East High School
Current projects: Two Christmas movies airing on major networks. "A Christmas Duet" premieres at 8 p.m. Monday on the Hallmark Channel. And "Holiday Heist" premieres Dec. 14 on BET.
Resume includes: A regular role as singer Zoey on the past TV series "Nashville" and as Dr. Pepper Russo on the TV series "Code Black."
Family: Parents Cheryl Jackson of Boston, Massachusetts, and Chuck Jackson of Annapolis, Maryland; brother Chase Jackson of Los Angeles.
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