In the latest in our series of interviews with the Good Witch cast, we caught up with Sarah Power. Sarah plays Abigail, who, with her boyfriend Donovan, are working together to crack an old family curse that threatens their relationship.
In conjunction with an exclusive clip, Sarah previews what’s ahead and offers her thoughts on Good Witch Season 6, the curse, and how much fun it is to get away from the studio for location shoots.
But first, please know that we are cognizant of the times. We’re hoping to bring a little joy into your life. On recent events, Sarah said, “It’s been an emotional few days or a few months, I guess.
“It’s long overdue, these protests, and I’m trying to lend my support in any way that I can from home because I can’t really go protest with my daughter, but I’ve been reading a lot and then following the news closely.”
Everybody I’ve talked with loves working on Good Witch. What has your experience been like?
Oh, it’s been wonderful. It’s really rare to have a show run for six seasons and we all really like each other and that’s also really rare. It’s just a wonderful family.
We have a group text and everyone’s always checking in with each other and I’m really hopeful that we’ll all get to go back to work together soon.
Yeah. It’s strange because you film in a different country and trying to the new parameters together, it’s got to be hard on you guys.
Yeah. I’ve been following that in the trades and all the ideas about how to film in this new world, and it’s definitely going to change a lot of things. And it’s too bad.
We have a lot of fun scenes where it’s all of us together and we have all these big group scenes, I just don’t know if those will be possible in the next Good Witch season or on any show that I work on. Like what it’s going to be like.
We’re also really close with our crew, and I’m really worried that we’ll be separated from them for the most part now if we go back. It’s different. It’s going to be very weird. And sets are very tight-knit and familial, and that just might be a very different experience now.
Well, hopefully, there’ll be some good outcome of this and maybe we’ll learn something, maybe that it’s not as contagious. I don’t know, maybe they’ll learn something. There are still so many things they don’t know.
Yeah. We’re hopeful, but there’s a lot of ways to improve the functionality of film sets, so maybe. And people get sick on film sets all the time. Flu run rampant, so it’s good to reassess and see how we do things differently and move forward in a safer way
And keep each other healthy.
Yeah, exactly.
When Abigail first arrived in Middleton, she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder. And now she’s very close to her family, she’s a great friend to Cassie and Grace, and she’s even sharing some of what she’s learned along the way with Joy.
What are your thoughts on Abigail’s journey since she arrived?
Abigail was a bit of a troublemaker when she came to town and liked to do things her own way. And I think over the course of six seasons she has really learned a lot from Cassie and then started to see things differently.
And I think the tool for her was at the end of season four when she was confronted by Phil with the option of leaving Middleton. I think that was the moment she decided that Middleton was her home, and she was going to stick it out there and stay with her new family.
Now, with the arrival of Joy, it’s like she gets to share all the things that Cassie’s taught her and I think she sees herself in Joy, because when Abigail first came to town, she thought her way was the right way learned some valuable lessons and it’s helping Joy.
They’re so in sync and really supportive of each other. What was that like on set?
It was really fun. The magic was toned down in the previous years because it was only really Cassie and I who had it.
But now that there’s a new character who has fully evolved powers of her own so that we all just wink; we’re all in on it now, and we can tackle problems together. It’s been a really fun season with all these, the magic of the curse and things with Joy and how she fits into this and to the curse, as well.
Yeah. She’s ended up having quite a few good ideas since she’s been there.
Yeah, and we’ll have to watch and see if she might have more answers than we thought.
I spoke with Kylee Evans last week, and very similar to Stephanie, Abigail had a string of misses in the romance department, but now she’s got something pretty great with Donovan. But of course, there’s that constant worry that something, an outside force is trying to pull them apart.
What do you think attracts them to each other, and why do you think they’re fighting so hard to stay together?
I think it’s because they started off as foes and just standard reactions to each other when they were fighting over Blairsville and Middleton. And I think it’s just the attraction.
The relationship ramped up when they were faced with the curse because you know when you have a common enemy, nothing bonds you like having a common enemy.
And it really made them have to decide if this is what they wanted. And I think we’re both very stubborn people.
If they want something, they’re not going to let anything stand in their way and they’re going to fight for it. And that’s what we see this season, is them fighting to stay together and not letting a 200-year-old curse keep them apart.
Do you think they know each other as well as they think they do, to be fighting for something so hard in this way?
And I ask that because of what happened with the candle and when Abigail revealed that someday she might like to live in Italy as well as him running for governor. There are some huge differences between them, and it seems like a lot to ask so early.
Yeah. I think that was an interesting episode for me because I was like where’s this coming from? But I think it’s part of what I was just talking about with the curse is that it has accelerated their relationship.
Because they were faced with a decision, like if something’s trying to keep you apart, you either are going to fight it, or you call it now and break up. And they went all-in on fighting it.
And I think while they’re doing this, you see the rest of their relationship catching up with them. And there’s all this stuff that they haven’t figured out, like so what if we break this curse? What do our lives look like?
And they haven’t actually had a chance to figure that part out yet, so it’s interesting to see what happens with the curse and how it evolves and how their relationship evolves because of it.
And although it’s not fun for Abigail, it’s fun for viewers when she and Donovan track down clues in the big Merriwic-Davenport curse. So, you and Mark have to go out and go to different locations and stuff. What’s that like? Is that fun to go to all the little spots and stuff and track down clues?
Yeah, it’s really fun. Mark and I are actually old friends.
Oh, really?
So, I knew him before. And that episode in particular, where we went to the clock tower and it was just the two of us for the whole episode and we were in all these amazing locations outside of Toronto and Hamilton, in that area in Cambridge.
And everywhere we shot were amazing historical sites and it was just us and our crew that we loved, so it was really fun. The episode felt like a real adventure and I love working with Mark, so it was a lot of fun.
Was that a real clock tower then?
It was. Actually, we had to pause every so often because it would make a loud ding. I actually have some videos of that. We would just pause and wait. And we had to have earplugs in because we were actually in the clock tower, so it was extremely loud. And it was beautiful.
We could only have, I think, 10 people up there, so we really pared down crew, and everyone else was downstairs with video monitors. But it was just our camera guy and our sound guys and me and Mark, and that was about it. It was really fun.
I loved that. I captured some screenshots to use in my review because I thought those scenes were so fun. And really, you could tell it was historical, but I didn’t know it was going to be a whole clock tower. That’s very cool.
There were some really cool locations to be in.
And if you’ve known Mark for a long time, what’s it like acting together and having this onscreen relationship?
It’s so much fun. I’ve known him for years. We met years ago and then he happens to be one of my husband’s friends. They went to theater school together, and I still see him all the time here, so having him on set is so much fun.
My husband and baby would be in my trailer and Mark would just come to hang out. It’s nice. It really added to the family feel of our set.
Oh, that’s nice. So, your husband goes with you when you’re filming sometimes?
Yeah. My mom came for a couple of months because my husband was actually away filming in Winnipeg. And then when my husband was finished, he would come with our daughter and hang out while I was shooting.
She was a real hit on set this year.
Oh, I’m sure. Can you tell if she already has aspirations to act?
She loved the hair and makeup trailer, which worries me a little bit. It was her favorite place. The hair and makeup department was so wonderful. They would just let me bring her in and feed her and show her makeup brushes.
And she was only five or six months old at the time, but she loved it in there. It was her happy place. They would do my makeup on my lap. It was really cute.
Aw. I’m picturing little girls stomping around in their mother’s shoes and wearing their jewelry. That would be like a dream.
Yeah, it was so cute.
So, despite their best efforts, things take a turn for Abigail and Donovan in this coming episode. I’m sharing an exclusive clip of the argument that they have about his cell phone, which on the surface seems small.
But you never know, so I’m wondering if you can tease what’s ahead for them on that episode.
Well, they are faced with a new dilemma, which is — maybe working so hard to pull together is actually not what they should be doing to break the curse.
If you could give Abigail and Donovan some relationship advice, what would it be?
I guess to figure out, maybe sit down and talk about what life will look like if you do break the curse and what you both want. And if you didn’t have the curse standing in your way, what would you guys be doing right now? That would be my couple’s therapy question.
What are some things that you really enjoy about Abigail, and one thing that you don’t?
I love Abigail. I can’t really think of anything I don’t like about her. I would’ve said in past seasons that I thought she’s a little bit too boy crazy, but I feel like she’s with Donovan for the right reasons, so it’s not that she wants a boyfriend or needs a boyfriend.
It’s that she’s sort of met her match finally. But I love her. I love everything about her. It was a fun character to play, and I think you have to love the characters you. I can’t really think of a bad thing to say about her. She’s perfect.
Since you’re surrounded by flowers and chocolate all the time, what are your favorites? And does Abigail carry them in the store?
You know, I haven’t seen peonies in her store, but I say peonies are my favorite. And I don’t really like chocolate to be honest, and the chocolate in the shop is not real chocolate. It’s all fake, art department.
Oh, and it should be. It would melt, wouldn’t it?
Yeah, it would be pretty gross after a while, with hot lights on it. Yeah, I’m not a chocolate person. I’m a salty person.
A salty person? So, you’d have the pretzels and nuts and chips that would go with the chocolate?
Yeah. I’d have chips and French fries. I’d have a French fry machine in my shop if I had a shop.
Yum. What is it like to finally have Sam treating somebody in town? What are those days like on set whenever you’re all pretending to worry about somebody that you really care about?
Yeah. Anytime we had anything like that, it’s usually a guest that Sam is treating, not a series regular. It was interesting. The show is a really happy and positive show, and Middleton is a peaceful world, which is why I think so many people are drawn to it right now.
So, it was a fine line of being worried, but without making it too intense and too dire. So, it was great because we had all these scenes together, and Scott and Kylee are so great.
But there’s the overarching theme that everything is going to be fine, and Cassie and Abigail and Joy probably already know that everything is going towards that, so that’s always at play, as well. But it was nice to have some scenes to play with everybody together.
Isn’t it funny that your characters always know what’s coming, and yet you don’t share with each other what’s coming? Like, Cassie knows exactly what’s coming for Abigail and Donovan. But instead of giving them a hint, they get to go on all those adventures and try to dig through it themselves.
[laughs] Yeah. It’s very frustrating because we’ll often get to the end of an episode and be like, oh wait, so Cassie knew the whole time what we should have done?
And Cassie’s the one that always knows everything, so we joke about how we’re supposed to learn the lessons ourselves, but this whole thing could have been avoided because Cassie knew what was happening.
Yeah, it’s sort of a running joke. Is she actually really mean and just doesn’t tell us what’s going to happen? [laughs] But yeah, it is. It’s this witch thing where we are all-knowing, but we have to let people go on their own journey and learn things for themselves.
And this is the first season that Cassie’s had her own journeys and has had situations where she’s not certain. Did you notice, and how was that? Because you guys had some advice for her. Joy knew what was ahead for her job search, for example.
This is the first time you’ve had the tables turned. Was that fun?
Yeah. It’s nice to see Cassie out of her comfort zone. And I think Grace and Nick are off to school, she’s got empty nest syndrome, and she’s ready to invest in her own life, and it’s been fun.
Yeah, it’s been fun just to have more of the magic back, and what that means for the three of us. And how we mess with each other in some ways has been really fun, like we tease each other. It’s been really fun to play those scenes with Kat and Catherine.
Tune into Good Witch Season 6 Episode 6 on Sunday, June 7, and come back to TV Fanatic for a full review after the episode. In the meantime, you can watch Good Witch online right here, too.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.