When Meghan Ory returned to Vancouver Island in April to start shooting Season 2 of Chesapeake Shores, she said her homecoming was as surreal as it was satisfying.
For starters, the Victoria-born star of the Hallmark Channel series, based on Sherryl Woods’s romance novels, would be filming in Oceanside, a place many Islanders spend their vacations.
Although Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Nanoose Bay and Nanaimo are only about a two-hour drive from Victoria, Ory says she was kept so busy, she barely had time to see friends and family here.
“It was kind of weird being in Parksville because I’m from Victoria, and all my best friends are in Victoria, and my parents are in Cobble Hill,” she said. “I’m so close, but also so far.”
The Los Angeles-based actor plays Abby O’Brien, a divorced New York career woman and mother of two who returns to the banks of Chesapeake Bay for a reunion with her multi-generational family.
The show’s second season premières on Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Hallmark Channel in the U.S.
“When I’d have some time off, I’d want to drive down to Victoria to see my girlfriends and their kids, so it was bittersweet being in Parksville,” she said. “I’d wish we were in Victoria, so I could see them all the time.
“I did get back to L.A. for three days, because I just had to go home at least once,” the Claremont Secondary School graduate added with a laugh.
Apart from missing her loved ones, Ory, 34, said she really didn’t have anything to complain about, since she got to bring her central character back to life in idyllic surroundings.
It was a bonus, she said, that her husband, actor John Reardon (Arctic Air), happened to be shooting the horror series Van Helsing in Vancouver and could fly back and forth to see her.
While Ory does most of the heavy lifting in Chesapeake Shores — she appears in most scenes and has reams of dialogue — she said its status as an ensemble piece attracted her.
Her co-stars include Jesse Metcalfe as her former high school sweetheart; Treat Williams as her father, Mick; Diane Ladd as her grandmother; and Barbara Niven as her estranged mom.
“My character is fun to play because I get to interact with everybody, but it makes for a long day,” she said. “I’m sort of the go-between with everyone, which is great from an acting perspective.”
The ensemble experience was in stark contrast to when Ory starred as Secret Service agent Riley Neal in the CBS sci-fi drama series Intelligence.
“It was just me and Josh Holloway [as a high-tech intelligence operative], which was fun, but an ensemble show gives you much more room to tell a lot of different, interesting stories,” she said.
Ory says she felt Chesapeake Shores was in the same vein as one of her favourite TV shows — Parenthood — which allowed for several storylines because of its large cast.
“That’s what I was looking for and it certainly hasn’t disappointed,” she said. “There’s all sorts of stuff going on in Chesapeake Shores.”
Part of the appeal for the crew — especially those from Alberta, Vancouver and Toronto — was not having to drive “an hour or two hours to go to Maple Ridge in traffic,” she said. “It’s a different pace of life. You’re working hard and there are long days, but there are these lovely [times] where you can kick your feet up for a second and just enjoy where you are.”
While filming in vacationland could be pleasurable, it also occasionally slowed down production, she added. “It’s so beautiful and the locations are so incredible, there are times our day goes kind of slowly because you can’t find crew members because people are sitting on the beach or watching eagles fly overhead.”
Ory, who also has a huge fan base because of her role as Red Riding Hood/Ruby in the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time, said she was impressed by how respectful the community was during filming. “If you walk into a store, when you’re leaving they’d say: ‘Oh, I love the show’ or something to that effect, but everyone pretty much goes about their day,” she said.
“Everybody’s excited that we’re here, being super-welcoming and supportive because it’s still novel and fun. Come Season 8, they might be sick of us if we last that long.”
As for a potential return appearance on the Once Upon a Time reboot, as showrunner Adam Horowitz recently hinted is a possibility, Ory doesn’t rule it out. “I’m always game and willing to go back to Once,” said Ory, who left the show after its second season to do Intelligence, but has since made guest appearances.
“If the story has room for Red to be back, I’ll be there in a second, but I haven’t heard anything specific so far. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
Theatre is something else she’s keen on getting back into down the road, a passion that was reignited after Ory and her husband took part in a Shakespeare program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.