Rhea Perlman stars in OLIVER'S GHOST, A Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premiere Saturday, October 22 9p/8c. Photo courtesy of Hallmark Channel.
Multiple Emmy® winner Rhea Perlman talked to Entertainment Heartbeat about several issues, but begins describing her character (librarian/historian Eloise) in Hallmark‘s new TV movie Oliver’s Ghost.
“I’ve really made a study of what’s going on in the doings of the house over the years, (about) the haunted house that’s the centerpiece of the movie,” Perlman says, “And all the things that have happened since five Rutledges lived there and beyond…I give him (Oliver McCaffrey, played by Nicholas Stargel) a lot to go on when he’s investigating the ghost.”
Of the several mysteries occurring in the film, whether Perlman‘s Eloise considers the ‘disturbing phenomenon’ to be an actual ghost or not is another puzzle-piece. “I believe in something inside of you that some people might call a spirit…and we have this conversation in the movie. I, as an actress, I think I believe in it. But in the movie it’s very ambiguous.”
Perlman keeps herself busy with several child-related charities but has found some wiggle room to work with Kirstie Alley in a pilot sitcom for ABC this December.
“I think it’s going to be the most fun ever. I work with Kirstie and she’s truly one of the funniest people on the planet,” Perlman says and jumps into the plot. “It’s about an Italian family that moves from Brooklyn – a working class family – but her husband has done well in the bakery business and they buy a house in Connecticut and they’re kind of a fish out of water over there, they have three kids, and me and my husband are the entire in-laws and we move in with them as well. It’s like a family comedy and very funny, and I can’t wait to do it.”
While Perlman will be playing Alley‘s mother-in-law, there’s actually only three years difference in their ages. Perlman is genuinely thunderstruck that we would bring the issue up at all. “She’ll play a little younger, I’ll play a little older…It’ll work.”
Perlman is so believable she could easily play Alley‘s daughter and get away with it
Oliver’s Ghost, also starring Martin Mull, premieres this Saturday, 9:00 pm ET/PT on the Hallmark Television Network.