What do you give the person who has everything for Christmas? Netflix’s answer is a security professional. Guarding Stars, a holiday romantic comedy starring Leighton Meester and Jared Padalecki, arrives on the streamer on Nov. 18.
The story
At its heart is a collision of worldviews. Meester plays Hannah Brooks, a no-nonsense protection agent suddenly assigned to watch over Padalecki’s Jack Stapleton, a charismatic movie star dealing with a stalker. When Hannah goes with Jack to his family home in Montana for the holidays, she faces her hardest assignment yet: convincing the Stapletons that she is his girlfriend without actually falling in love. TV Insider noted that the film flips the usual bodyguard romance.
Director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum put the contrast this way: a bodyguard’s job is to anticipate the worst outcome, while a movie star’s job is to sell the best one. Hannah is unimpressed by Jack’s celebrity, which lets her see the man behind it, and he sees the woman behind the armour. The two meet when she flips him flat on his back. “How often does the romantic heroine get to throw her leading man over her shoulder?” Rosenbaum said, adding that it was the reason she wanted to direct.
The cast and the book
Meester’s credits include Good Cop/Bad Cop, I Love LA and The Buccaneers; Padalecki is known for Supernatural and Walker. Rosenbaum, citing Meester’s Gossip Girl role, said there was something fun about “putting Blair Waldorf in combat boots.” Andie MacDowell, of Groundhog Day and Four Weddings and a Funeral, plays Jack’s mother, Connie. Rosenbaum saw a full-circle idea in having “one of the women who helped define the genre” join the film.
Country singer Walker Hayes makes his acting debut. He came in to read for one role that was later changed, and Rosenbaum said the team was not letting him go. They rewrote the script to make him the town sheriff, then a singing sheriff, and he shares a song with Padalecki on the sheriff’s Christmas float at the parade. The cast also includes Noah LaLonde, Toby Sandeman, Rachael Ancheril, Phil Brooks, Ava Max and Shaun Johnston.
The film is inspired by Katherine Center’s 2022 novel The Bodyguard. Rosenbaum, whose credits include Aquamarine, Purple Hearts and Ginny & Georgia, said she began paying close attention to BookTok around the success of Purple Hearts, and the enthusiasm of readers for Center’s book helped persuade her to take the job. Erin Cardillo and Richard Keith, and Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo, wrote the screenplay. Robin Fisichella is executive producer, and the producers include Matthews and Scharbo with Little Engine Productions, and Jared and Genevieve Padalecki with Living in the Asterisk.
Sources
- Guarding Stars: Leighton Meester and Jared Padalecki to Star in Holiday Rom-Com
- 'Guarding Stars': Inside Leighton Meester & Jared Padalecki's Bodyguard Romance
