James Denton Talks Making Music with Sherri Saum in Hallmark's Perfect Harmony

James Denton and Hallmark are making music together. The actor, who ended his seven-season run on Hallmark's Good Witch in 2021, headlines Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' Perfect Harmony. In the movie, Denton stars as Jack Chandeller, a former popstar who had one big hit, the nonsensical sounding "Ooh Wee Ooh," more than ten years ago. 

Now Jack's best friend Simon (Peter Benson) is getting married and wants Jack to be his Best Man. The only problem? The wedding's Maid of Honor is Barrett Woodward (Sherri Saum), a poetry professor who clashes with Jack's laidback attitude towards life. But beneath his seemingly nonchalant exterior, Jack is still dealing with the pain of losing his wife to cancer while Barrett is afraid to let her guard down and publish her original poetry.  Their potential romance is helped along by Jack's son Teddy (played by Denton's real-life son Sheppard Denton), who also happens to be Barrett's student.

This marks the third Hallmark movie for Denton. In 2015, he starred in For Love and Honor (which also featured Sheppard), and last November he reunited with his Desperate Housewives co-star Teri Hatcher for A Kiss Before Christmas. Perfect Harmony features two original songs performed by Denton and Saum, who also duet on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

"I love this movie," Denton recently told TV Guide. "My co-producer Jonathan Eskenas came to me and said, 'I know you play guitar, why don't we do something that's music centered?'  That was the germ of the idea. Jon and I trying to come up with something that hadn't been done."

TV Guide talked to Denton about working with his son, singing in the movie and what's next for him. 

What do you like about being a producer?
James Denton: This is the first one where I had my hands in everything. This one was really a labor of love. It's sort of perfect for my stage of life because I'm not chasing work like I used to. I'm slowing down a little bit on purpose. So I have some time to do things other than act. It's very creatively rewarding and fulfilling not just the pre-production but in the post. There are few examples where I would say, 'I know there's a better take of this.'  That's really rewarding after all these years of being at the mercy of other editors. 

And your son gets to play your son in the movie. How did that come about?
Denton: We wrote my son into this because I just think he's a brilliant actor. It's wasted that he's not doing it for a living. I owe Hallmark a lot for letting me cast him sight unseen. He didn't have to audition. We wrote the role for him.

What was it like working with him?
Denton: We had a ball. We were there for almost five weeks. We had an apartment in Winnipeg. It was one of the best times of my life easily. We would talk a little bit of movie at home, a little bit of scenes, but basically, we left that to the director. It's tricky as a dad on set because you are biting your tongue a lot. We didn't talk much shop we just had a lot of fun, eating junk food and just hanging out. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I wish more actors got to have because being across from him in front of a camera, there's nothing like it. 

Are there any scenes that come specifically from your life together?
Denton: We added a couple of scenes just because of the conversations he and I had at home. There's a scene where I walk in and he's playing the guitar.  I wanted to be able to say, 'When did you get better than your old man?' because I've said it 100 times at home. [In] another scene, he was having trouble really letting me have it because I'm his dad. Between takes I said, 'Remember that time you went off on mom and me at dinner about trying to put you in all these clubs, and you finally just snapped?' And I said, 'Yes! That! Action!' 

But Sheppard doesn't want to act full-time?
Denton: He's at the University of the South getting a psychology degree. He's a musician. He has music on Spotify. On his songs, he plays all the instruments – drums, bass, guitar, horns. He's a fantastic musician so if he could do that, I think he would quit school and do that.

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To turn to the romance of the movie, you and Sherri Saum have such good chemistry.
Denton: Sherri is so grounded and heartfelt. She was a revelation. She has a quality about her that's almost regal. I fall in love with her every time I watch the movie. 

I liked the maturity of their relationship. 
Denton: [laughs] When you cast me, you get maturity. We wanted to come up with characters where it made sense that this is where they were in their lives, kind of set in their ways and that makes it a little more fun to watch them—both her journey with coming out artistically and having the guts to be published and my character not just professionally but also romantically. We see both of them sort deal with the insecurities and self-doubt and overcome them in 88 minutes.

Do you think there's a larger message viewers might take away from this movie?
Denton: I hope there's a lesson to people that you can apologize. These two people apologize a lot and there's power in that. 

You both sing in this movie.  Both original songs and covers.
Denton: I'm not a singer.

This movie would say otherwise!
Denton: Thank God for pitch correction. I can get by. The trick is to be so synced that people buy it. All the guitar is me. All the singing is Sherri and myself but I definitely feel better if we can lay it down before and get it sweetened a little bit. 

Is there a time in the movie when you sang live and didn't pre-record?
Denton: There's one verse of the song "Perfect Harmony" we did live with just boom mics on the set. I hope we get some credit for that because nobody does that anymore. I survived it. I had just worked that song to death because I knew it was the big finale. I'm good enough to kind of fake it. 

The movie has two original songs. The first is "Ooh Wee Ooh" which is Jack's big hit and although it is a silly-sounding title, the song turns out to have a much deeper meaning. Jack wrote the song for his late wife while she was undergoing chemotherapy. 
Denton: Jonathan Eskenas wrote the lyrics and Jack Lenz wrote the music to make it an earworm that just felt like silly mouth sounds. Jack is such a kind of cheesy, one-hit guy. We hope people will go back and listen to the song and it's so obvious that he's talking about someone getting better. Barrett says a couple of times I presumed the popular was simple and I was wrong. 

This movie gets a little more serious than many Hallmark movies.
Denton: A lot of people don't want to feel anything negative while watching a Hallmark movie which is why this is on Movies & Mysteries. The Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel they are doing a little deeper dive. There are things we did in this movie that we would not have been able to on Hallmark. That scene where my son throws down the book and kind of gets in my face?   You can't raise your voice on Hallmark. We were able to do more. 

The movie has a happy ending but it also seems like just the beginning of Jack and Barrett's story. Will there be a Perfect Harmony 2?
Denton: I hope so. I loved working with Sherri. It seems like a no-brainer. Obviously, it's a business and a lot of it is based on the numbers. It's screaming to me to have a sequel. We've bounced around a lot of ideas about what happens to these two and so there's conversation.  

What's next for you?
Denton: Hallmark has approached me about doing a movie next spring about empty nesters. We just found out they are going to put that in production and that I'll also produce that with Jonathan Eskenas.

Perfect Harmony premieres October 16 at 9/8c on Hallmark Mysteries & Movies