The Way Home has spent four seasons taking us on a journey that encompasses multiple generations of Landry family members, as well as plenty of drama. The time travel component is maybe the most charming thing about the series… that is unless you are one of the cast members filming it. In that case, they are wet, cold, and wearing a full wardrobe of clothing when they get in and out of the pond.
Series lead Chyler Leigh recently touched on as much in an interview. The shots of herself, Sadie Laflamme-Snow and more jumping into the pond are really them jumping in the pond on set. And to be clear, it is not a fun, warm time for all involved, as she told You Might Know Her From podcast.
The pond, is a real, manmade pond, frogs and all, right? And it gets cold. There’s no way to heat it because it disturbs the natural environment, and like, ecosystem of the pond. So, when we jump in, we’re jumping in water, towards the end of the season, at 51, 52 degrees – when it’s colder than that outside of the water.
Thank goodness Chyler Leigh’s an American and could hit us with those numbers in Fahrenheit, as The Way Home does film in Canada and does have Canadian cast and crew members. For all of you Canadian readers out there, she’s talking around 10 degrees Celsius. That might only sound middlingly cold, but the perfect pool temperature is around 80 degrees, or 26 degrees Celsius.
So, it’s definitely not bathwater temperature.
In the past, CinemaBlend has spoken with The Way Home cast about the pond. Chyler Leigh did previously confirm with us that it’s a real pond, and that the creative team spend a lot of time figuring out logistics so that the long-haired Sadie Laflamme-Snow and others aren’t spending all day getting their whole blown straight only to jump into the pond again. However, I didn’t realize how cold it could be!
It makes sense though. As I mentioned, like many upcoming Hallmark projects, The Way Home is set in Canada, and Kat and Alice move there from Minneapolis, where Alice had spent her formative years. The show itself films outside Toronto and there’s a lot of TV magic happening. While the shots of them jumping in and out of the water are legit, the shots of the ladies under the water are filmed in the DP’s pool!
Funny enough, I wish it was a soundstage; I wish it was a tank. It’s actually each year been our director of photography’s pool in his backyard.
And they say you can’t do much on a small budget anymore! Honestly, that might be the wildest TV fact I’ll hear all week. I don’t know who came up with that plan, but it’s ridiculous. I never would have guessed the show was literally filming scenes underwater in pool water, though that explains the clarity a bit. Good for The Way Home, though. The show has been a unique foray into scripted content for the network, and I’m sad to see it go. However, if I had to guess, the show's leading ladies may not miss those pond scenes much.
