Pascale Hutton is already planning Elizabeth and Nathan’s future When Calls the Heart wedding — even if they aren’t engaged.
“I would love it if Rosemary was going [to] be the officiant,” Hutton, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting her new Hallmark Mystery, Nelly Knows Mysteries: A Fatal Engagement, premiering on Friday, August 23.
Hutton has played Elizabeth Thornton’s (Erin Krakow) best friend, Rosemary Coulter, on When Calls the Heart since 2014. Despite their solid bond, the actress said she doesn’t “foresee” Rosemary marrying Elizabeth and Nathan Grant (Kevin McGarry), no matter what season the nuptials take place.
“I feel like Joseph (Viv Leacock) is a solid pastor and he could handle that well,” Hutton explained, noting that she thinks Rosemary would “be more of like a maid of honor and helping plan the whole thing.”
The Hallmark star pointed out that Rosemary was “instrumental in helping Elizabeth plan her wedding to Jack” during season 5. (Jack, who was played by Daniel Lissing, died during the season 5 finale after he was trapped by a landslide.)
“She always has her girlfriend’s back,” Hutton said of the two characters. “She’s always gonna be there. I foresee she might be a wedding planner slash maid of honor.”
Kavan Smith, who portrays Rosemary’s husband, Leland Coulter, exclusively told Us that his role in Elizabeth and Nathan’s possible wedding would be much smaller.
“Le seems to befriend everybody in town, except he hasn’t really spent a whole lot of time with Nathan yet. Which is odd,” Smith, 54, confessed. “I’m not assuming that Le would have a large role in that wedding moving forward, but I’m certainly open to them pursuing that relationship on camera.”
Smith joked, “As of right now, Le might be ushering people to their seats. That’s about it!”
Nathan and Elizabeth have been toying with each other’s hearts — and those of the loyal fans — since season 8 when Nathan professed his love for Elizabeth. While Elizabeth chose Lucas Bouchard (Chris McNally) over Nathan at the time, she and Lucas eventually split in season 10.
When season 11 began, Elizabeth and Nathan appeared to be back on track to having their own happily ever after. During the season finale in June, Elizabeth and Nathan went public with their romance after sharing a kiss.
“It’s a bit of a honeymoon phase,” Krakow, 39, exclusively told Us in June. McGarry, also 39, teased, “They’re in a brand new phase,” but explained a TV wedding could be a long way down the road.
McGarry joked, “It took five years to get to the kiss, so I mean, we got lots of time to envision what this wedding [is] going to look like. I will say if and when it happens — when and if it happens — I hope it’s special to them.”
While a season 12 wedding has not been announced, Hutton told Us in August that Rosemary and Elizabeth will once again share many scenes this season.
“We’ve only just filmed the first two episodes and already I’m thinking, ‘Holy cow. Rosemary has a lot going on,’” she dished to Us, revealing that Rosemary and Bill Avery (Jack Wagner) will “team up” to solve another mystery when the show returns.
Rosemary and Elizabeth, meanwhile, “have a really funny story line where I think there’s gonna be some really fun physical comedy involved,” she said.
Hutton noted that Rosemary and Le will have an “interesting dynamic” as well as they enter a “new kind of territory in their marriage.”
Ahead of season 12 of WCTH, fans can see Hutton and Smith costarring in their first Hallmark Mystery film, Nelly Knows Mysteries: A Fatal Engagement. Hutton plays busybody and local advice columnist Nelly Parker.
After finding a dead body in her quirky town, Nelly helps new detective, Michael Hogan (Smith), solve the crime and get used to the obscure nature of Babbleton — which gives off retro vibes.
“I think [there are] kind of layers of intrigue into this character,” Hutton told Us of Nelly. “Hopefully there will be more movies and people are invested in this character and wanting to learn more about her because she’s not just one dimensional.”
Smith revealed that Hutton’s character is “right in her wheelhouse” because Nelly is “sort of quirky the way [Hutton] likes to be.” His character, however, is a little harder to play.
“Because Michael’s still new to the town, he doesn’t interact the same way with the other cast of characters. So, the hope would be that over time we’d get to establish a little bit more of what Michael is,” he explained, noting that he thought the Nelly Knows Mysteries idea was a no-brainer for the longtime friends. “I just thought we could kill it. I thought this could be a home run for us.”
Nelly Knows Mysteries: A Fatal Engagement premieres on Hallmark Mystery Friday, August 23, at 9 p.m. ET.