Playing 'Chicken': Actresses bond over Hallmark show's twists and turns

A show can be a hit if the chemistry is right, actress Wendie Malick says.

When she did the table read for “Hot in Cleveland,” she could feel the bond. When she met Schuyler Fisk and Genevieve Angelson – for “The Chicken Sisters” – “I could imagine them in this world together. It’s that ineffable thing that happens with chemistry. It always starts with the writing.”

In that case, “The Chicken Sisters,” a new series on the Hallmark Channel, has good bones.

Based on a bestseller by K.J. Dell’Antonia, it landed on Reese Witherspoon’s book club list and found its way to television producers.

Casting directors took over and “put together an incredible orchestra with the four different instruments,” Angelson says.

Leah Thompson and Malick play sisters with rival chicken restaurants; Fisk and Angelson are Malick’s daughters – with distinctly different career paths. Fisk plays Thompson’s daughter-in-law; Angelson is a makeover show host without an interest in the chicken business – until a reality show turns up and decides to make a “Kitchen Clash” competition about the families’ businesses.

Twisting and turning

Through eight episodes, friendships twist and turn, loyalties are tested, and family members discover they have different priorities than others thought.

“When I saw who was involved – the creators behind ‘Shrinking,’ ‘Girls5eva,’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’—I thought it was going to be dangerous and cutting edge and things I hadn’t prior to now associated with other Hallmark material that I’d seen,” Angelson says. “And yet it maintains those female-centered, incredibly connected, deeply warm … qualities that people go to Hallmark to see, but then also, really edgy kind of cable stuff.”

Shows like “Shrinking,” Malick says, “go dark sometimes, but it’s very funny, so it’s a lot like life.”

To make sure they could ride those waves, Fisk invited cast members to her home every Sunday they were together.

“We would all just take stuff over on a Sunday afternoon and hang out for hours,” Malick says. “Then we started inviting the supporting cast and then we went to concerts together.”

Today, Angelson says, the actors maintain “a very active text thread.”

“We bonded pretty quickly,” Thompson says. “It’s hard not to want to hang out with all those women in the cast. Everyone’s so interesting and cool and talented and unique.”

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Along for the adventure? Fisk’s mother, actress Sissy Spacek. She joined in the fun and shared plenty of observations about “Chicken Sisters’” characters. “If she knew better, she’d do better,” she offered about Malick’s Gus.

Telling it like it is

A tough-talker, Gus isn’t one to cut her daughters any breaks. “She just had a really hard life but she’s doing the best she can,” Fisk says.

In the series, Malick dresses in flannel and often avoids hairstyles by plopping a hat on her head. She’s ripe for a makeover, but there could be reasons for her look. “Maybe there’s some stuff going on that you don’t know,” she teases.

Considering “Chicken Sisters” is about a cook-off between Frannie’s and Mimi’s, the rival restaurants in little Merinac, there should have been plenty of time for chicken competition between actors, right?

“It didn’t happen,” Angelson says. Fisk’s character is a vegetarian and Malick, in real life, is a pescatarian.

And Thompson? “I’m a veteran of 45 years in front of the camera and I know better than to eat the food.”

The “Back to the Future” star, however, did find parallels between “Chicken Sisters” and real life. “Being in the movie business and running a restaurant are very closely related in terms of anxiety and stress,” she says. “Also, there’s a need to collaborate in a very seamless way.”

Thompson’s husband is director Howard Deutch; their daughters are actresses Madelyn and Zoey Deutch.

Family ties

Fisk, whose father is production designer and director Jack Fisk and whose mother is the Oscar winner, says being part of a family business helps build trust. “I respect them so much in their creative lanes and their careers, so I love getting their input,” she says. “It’s a nice back and forth. That sort of mutual respect and trust carries over into a family business of any sort.”

While “Chicken Sisters” moves like a roller coaster, it’s a lot like life, she adds. “We all have those days and moments of being good or bad.”

“It’s the perfect kind of drama,” Thompson says. “You’ve got this small town, you’ve got these two restaurants and then, all of a sudden, you plop in a reality competition between these two warring restaurants. I’ve been on reality shows and I can tell you, they don’t bring out the best in people. It’s the perfect catalyst for excitement and drama and romance.”

 “The Chicken Sisters” airs on the new streaming service, H+.