Jennifer Love Hewitt on Creating Holiday ‘Magic,’ Learning to Navigate Grief

Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Jennifer Love Hewitt believes in magic — and no, not the bunny and top-hat kind.

“It’s just love and goodness, so much that you feel, like, little stars in your heart,” the actress, 45, exclusively shared in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “It’s setting the intention that you’re going to try to make ordinary things just the tiniest bit more special.”

Hewitt’s upcoming book, Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical, shares that philosophy as it relates to her family: husband of 11 years, Brian Hallisay, and their three children, Autumn, 10, Atticus 9, and Aidan, 3. It is particularly meaningful, however, in relation to her late mother, Patricia, who died in 2012 at age 67 due to complications from cancer.

Both Hewitt’s memoir and her upcoming Lifetime movie, The Holiday Junkie — in which her character, Andie, finds a way to keep moving forward through grief — serve as touching tributes to her mom, a loss she’s found difficult to open up about over the years.

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“I think I needed time to get past a certain amount of grief before I could write about [my mom’s death],” Hewitt told Us. “Before I could kind of step outside of it enough to tell people about it.”

Hewitt’s mom was on the road to recovery in 2012 when Hewitt agreed to take a solo work trip to Monaco after Patricia encouraged to do so. Tragedy struck when Hewitt received a call shortly after landing overseas telling her that her mom was in the hospital. By the time she returned to Los Angeles, Patricia was gone — and the news had already been made public.

“It was this sort of out-of-body experience of, ‘Oh wow, I’m this person and I live in this world where people find out about these things,’ you know? It was made public in the trenches of me figuring out, like, ‘Is this real? Is she really not here? And what happens to my life now?’ Because of that, I could never really find the words publicly to know what to say.”

Twelve years later, Hewitt is ready to tell her story. The words, she said, began to flow once she tied the knot with Hallisay, and came even easier when she became a mother to her three little ones.

“I think that in having my children and getting married and starting my family and starting to realize how much she was still here in these like magical little ways for me, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s what I wanna say about [my mom]!’” Hewitt told Us. “That’s what I needed to say. But I think I just had to get through enough of the pain part of it to be ready.”

Hewitt added that at this stage of her life, she was ready to deal with “whatever was going to come up” through writing and face the “next round of grief” head on. Surprisingly, the process became much more cathartic than she anticipated. “It’s been really lifting in such an odd way,” she said.

While Hewitt certainly doesn’t shy away from the harder moments of grief in either of her upcoming projects, Inheriting Magic is much more a celebration of the relationship Hewitt had with her mother — and the lessons she’s taken with her about making life more “magical” whenever, and wherever, possible.

“Magic has always been a feeling to me because I grew up that way with [my mom] making me feel that way,” she explained. “And I really think as parents and people on the planet, as friends, as sisters, as wives, as girlfriends to our girlfriends, all of that, I think it’s really an intention. I think it’s setting the intention that you’re going to do ordinary things and try to make them just the tiniest bit more special.”

Inheriting Magic details exactly how Hewitt is doing that for her children every day. From enhancing holiday celebrations to around-the-world-themed dinners, the 9-1-1 star is always looking for ways to keep her family’s life feeling whimsical. She’s also teaching them to look for small ways the universe sends magic your way. In her book, she shares some of those surprising, gratifying occurrences that let her know her mom would always be there.

“My mom was a hummingbird, always busy and buzzing, beautiful, captivating and going from one adventure to the next,” Hewitt writes in her book. Now she sees the birds everywhere. “[My kids] couldn’t meet her in person, so we took our grief for her and turned it into magic.”

In its own way, The Holiday Junkie — which Hewitt also directed and cowrote — is just as much of a celebration as Inheriting Magic, but its visual depiction of grief at times feels more visceral. Hewitt confessed she was initially worried Lifetime wouldn’t show interest in the film once they realized it’s not the typical Christmas romp.

“This is not a normal Christmas movie where the girl, like, trips over the packages and the guy picks her up and then they’re in love and they end up at a dance party. Like, this is not what we’re doing, here,” Hewitt quipped, noting that she “loves” those films but wanted to write a movie for the people who “hurt” during Christmastime.  “If you’ve lost anyone, whether it’s a parent or, anyone, there is always someone that we search the skies for. And I think for kids it’s Santa, and for grownups, sometimes it’s someone [who is] no longer with us.”

Despite Hewitt’s reservations, Lifetime was happy to champion the film. “They really allowed us to do it and really go there and tell that story,” she added. “And I hope those people who have heavy hearts at Christmas will feel seen and honored.”

Hewitt stars alongside real-life husband Hallisay in the movie, who plays Mason, a handsome — but curmudgeonly — repair man. As Andie navigates the first Christmas without her mother, Mason reveals his own reasons for avoiding the holiday season. Together, they find ways to come to terms with their pasts, and uncover love along the way.

The Holiday Junkie isn’t the first time Hewitt and Hallisay have worked together; the pair met on the set of their TV show The Client List, where he portrayed Hewitt’s absentee husband, Kyle. They teamed back up on Hewitt’s current hit series 9-1-1, where he played her character, Maddie’s abusive ex-husband, Doug. Hallisay was originally only meant to lend his voice for a phone call, but was eventually cast in the role by showrunner Tim Minear.

While some partners may shy away from portraying those darker story lines together — Doug stalks, kidnaps and abuses Maddie until she ultimately kills him in self defense — Hewitt found it to be an asset, telling Us she and Hallisay had the “trust” needed on set. Still, she was more than happy to fall in love with her husband on screen for once.

“He’s so dreamy [in this movie],” Hewitt gushed of Hallisay’s role in The Holiday Junkie. “It’s really funny. My daughter was like, ‘Mommy, this is the first time daddy’s been nice to you at work!’ And I’m like, ‘I know. Isn’t it sweet?’ I was like, ‘We’re gonna prove that he’s a good guy to me in one show.'”

The Holiday Junkie is a true family affair; the married duo also get to act opposite all three of their kids who make cameos — something Hewitt’s eldest daughter, Autumn, was especially excited to do.

“Autumn is so proud because she got to write her line. It was so cute. She was so happy,” Hewitt said, adding that her son wasn’t quite as amped to start but quickly found his footing. “Atticus was terrified at first and then literally walked on the set like he owned the place and always hit his mark. He was amazing. And we did get [my youngest] Aidan for two seconds. He snuck in the movie too, because we had to have all of them, obviously.”

In tune with the rest of Hewitt’s life, Autumn was even able to get her SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card while shooting the movie, making for another very magical moment.

“My daughter and I both got our SAG cards at 10 years old,” Hewitt shared. “Which I think is such a sweet little thing. I’m waiting on her side card to arrive and then I’m going to frame hers and my original together in a little frame. And if she’s a big-time fancy actress one day, it’ll be really amazing. And if she’s not, it’s still going to be really amazing and awesome that we both did that same thing at the same age.”

It’s those tidbits and small glimpses into her life that Hewitt hopes both Inheriting Magic and The Holiday Junkie provide; a true insight into who she is as a person and what her journey has been — from grieving her mother to falling in love, starting a family and rediscovering life’s joy.

“Because of what I do for a living, an extraordinary life where people have known a lot about me, but not necessarily known a lot about me from me, I really hope that they walk away from reading the book and seeing the movie and going, ‘Oh, that’s who she is,’” Hewitt told Us. “Like, I am the holiday junkie; like I am Andie. I really do love that man in real life and in the movie. And I really do believe, to my core, in everyday magic. I do believe it’s possible.I really did have the most extraordinary mother, and now the most extraordinary angel watching over me and my kids.I have felt great loss that drives me every day, but it has given me a beautiful life.”

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But Hewitt also knows that these projects, once they are out and into the world, become more than just about her. And she hopes she can inspire others to find magic in their lives, even in the darkest of times.

“I just hope that people feel inspired to go, ‘Let’s not just have dinner, but let’s have a magical dinner. Let’s create a holiday tradition that’s just ours. Let’s look a little bit crazy to the rest of the world for five minutes, but know that we’re starting a new thing in our family,’” she explained. “And for people out there who are in grief, I hope that they will walk away from the book going, ‘Oh, I am gonna be okay one day too. Because I think that that’s important. I think as you see in the book, and in the movie, grief is not something that goes away. It’s not something you ever get over. But you can still have a very magical life.”

Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical hits shelves on December 10.

The Holiday Junkie airs on Lifetime Saturday, December 14, at 8 p.m. ET.

For more about Hewitt and her upcoming projects, check out the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.