Kristoffer Polaha Reveals How Working With Meghan Markle Changed His Life: 'It's Wild'
“Ten years went by in a flash, and it's been an incredible ride. It's like a Russian doll," Polaha shared.
Kristoffer Polaha marked the 10th anniversary of Dater’s Handbook, his first Hallmark Channel film, in which he starred opposite Meghan Markle, on January 30, 2016. Recently, on January 31, his 21st movie, with Hallmark, premiered. Interestingly, his directorial debut, Mimics, arrives in theatres on February 13 — a project he traces back to a single conversation on that Hallmark set years ago.
“It is wild to me,” Polaha tells PEOPLE. “Ten years went by in a flash, and it's been an incredible ride. It's like a Russian doll: I kept opening up this gift and another gift was inside, and this gift, and it just kept giving.” Looking back, Polaha admits he arrived on the Dater’s Handbook set with modest expectations. “I knew that the shoot was fast and furious, and it was going to be a grind,” he says. “What I didn't expect was to have as much fun as I did. It was just a lot of fun.” While he and Markle have not stayed in touch since after the film’s release — she and Prince Harry began dating in July 2016 — his co-star's words during a scene set in a small diner always stayed with him.
“We walked into this little diner, and the director was great on Dater’s handbook, but he was a little overwhelmed by this location,” Polaha recalls. “It didn't look like he thought it was going to in his head.” Instinctively, Polaha stepped in. “I'm one of those people that just, if there's a void, I'll fill it, so I was like, ‘Well, I have an idea.’” Drawing on his experience from earlier roles in North Shore, Life Unexpected, and Ringer, Polaha suggested a revised shot list, including close-ups of both actors. The director agreed. Then came the moment that changed Polaha’s trajectory. “Then Meghan turned to me, and she's like, ‘Why aren't you directing? You should be a director. I would be in your movie,’” he recalled.
That brief exchange planted a seed. “She spoke life into that for me,” Polaha continues. “I think that was the first time where I was like, ‘I think I should direct. I'm going to move in that direction.’” A decade — and several short films — later, Polaha has done exactly that. His first feature film, Mimics, is a romantic horror-comedy centred on a struggling comedian who turns to ventriloquism after bonding with a dummy that appears to have a mind of its own. Making the leap, he admits, was daunting. “It's a weird thing to go from never having done anything to asking people for a million dollars and being like, ‘Bet on me, I promise you I can do this thing,’” he says. Markle’s words, he adds, gave him the confidence to take that risk. “It was the first time somebody looked at me on set and said, ‘You're a director.’”
