The Way Home's Chyler Leigh Talks Paying Homage to She's All That Again 22 Years After Not Another Teen Movie

When The Way Home‘s Kat walked down a staircase in a red dress to the sounds of Sixpence None The Richer’s “Kiss Me” in Episode 5, it was hardly the first time her portrayer Chyler Leigh had paid homage to the iconic scene from the ’90s teen movie classic She’s All That.

Leigh tells TVLine that the producers of Hallmark Channel’s time-traveling family drama “definitely knew” that the actress had already once recreated the moment in which Rachael Leigh Cook’s She’s All That character unveils her makeover while descending a flight of stairs to a stunned Freddie Prinze Jr. Leigh’s first take on the scene occurred in the 2001 spoof Not Another Teen Movie, opposite Chris Evans, under much more silly circumstances. (Instead of just tripping on the final step like Cook, Leigh’s character dramatically crashed through the staircase.)

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The Way Home‘s version, however, was far more sincere, with Kat walking down to meet her best friend Elliot (who’s pining for her) to go chaperone the high school’s ’90s-themed dance. (Fittingly, Kat and her daughter Alice also time travel to 1999, when She’s All That was released, throughout the first season.) To cap the perfect homage, Kat stumbles at the end of the staircase, just like Cook’s Laney. Watch it below:

When Leigh read the script for the episode, “I was laughing so hard. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, you did not!’” the actress shares with a laugh. “But they always had that moment in mind from the very beginning. From what Alex [Clarke] and Heather [Conkie], our showrunners, had told me when I had the initial conversation, they were saying, ‘When we got this project, we always had you in mind. And so, when we wrote that, it was always kind of part of, like, a wish for that to be able to happen.’”

But Leigh did have a little trepidation about stepping back into that beloved moment: “I was like, ‘Wow, this is like 20-something years later. I feel a little bit old, but at the same time, maybe I can still rock that red dress,’” Leigh recalls.

The actress was also able to make a much-needed fashion tweak to the iconic scarlet outfit to account for the Canadian temperatures where the series is shot.

“We had lots of conversations about how do we do this in a way that still honors the moment, but also covers me up a little bit more [for] when we do have to go outside and how cold it is,” Leigh shares. So a cardigan was added for a later scene outside the dance.

In the end, “it was so much fun to do it, and even the little stumble at the bottom with the shoes and whatnot, at least I didn’t go crashing through the staircase, which is cool!” Leigh adds with a laugh.

The Way Home Season 1 is currently streaming on Peacock, Hallmark Movies Now and Hallmark TV.

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