Mishael Morgan and Corey Sevier on Pumpkin Boats, Cake Pops, and Why They Clicked Instantly
Okay, so we read the synopsis for Pumpkin Regatta Romance, immediately Googled “pumpkin regatta,” and fell straight down a rabbit hole. People really do hollow out giant pumpkins and paddle them across a lake. We may be flying to Oregon.
We got to sit down with Mishael Morgan and Corey Sevier ahead of Saturday’s premiere, and they were such a delight. We talked about what it actually takes to steer a pumpkin, how they built that easy chemistry without ever having met, and one genuinely moving thing Mishael shared about working with her on-screen dad.
Yes, the pumpkin regatta is a real thing
Neither of them knew that going in, either.
“It’s a real thing. And I didn’t know coming into this that it was a real thing,” Corey said. “Obviously we did research before the film, and I’m so impressed. Hats off to those who go out.”
Then he put us on the spot about our Tualatin travel plans: “So if you do it, you gotta let us know how it went.”
Noted. We’ll report back.
What it’s really like to paddle a giant pumpkin
Short version: it’s hard, and Mishael is the first to admit she needed help.
“I needed a lot of pointers. I needed a lot of help. We were luckily on a marina with a lot of boaters that were able to kind of give us some pointers, because in the beginning I kind of just was going in circles.”
Which, honestly, is just physics.
“I mean, it’s a round item. You can’t. It’s really hard to keep it straight. So, but it was still so much fun.”
Getting the pumpkins safe enough to put actors inside was its own production, too.
“That was a whole conversation, just figuring out how to make it safe, how to make it so it wouldn’t tip. So I can’t even imagine if it was a real pumpkin without an entire team trying to balance the thing. The production team did an amazing job.”
Wendy had a theory she asked us to run by them, which is that there was a Flintstones situation happening under those pumpkins. Turns out she wasn’t far off.
“They were thinking about doing something like that. They talked about that,” Mishael said. “But in the end, we stayed dry.”
Corey filled in the rest: “They were like, ‘Let’s keep the actors dry,’ so they didn’t bottom out the bottom. They knew we would need more than one take, because the help wasn’t coming from me.”
A lot of what you’ll see on screen wasn’t planned
Here’s the part we loved. Corey says the director gave them room to just be in it, and the results stayed in the movie.
“Part of what I think actually made it so fun was they let us kind of just feel it out. Michael and I have seen parts of the film, and a lot of what really went well and what didn’t go well stayed in the film. Those spontaneous moments. So it’s kind of cool that we got to do it that way.”
They’d never met, and they’re both Cancers
Mishael and Corey have real best-friend energy in this movie before it ever turns romantic, so we asked how they built it. The answer is that they didn’t have to.
“With actors, you just meet people, and sometimes you just click and you just have, like, a natural chemistry,” Mishael said. “I think we are in very similar places in our lives with our kids. We had a lot of things to talk about with our kids and our family life. Also being from Toronto.”
And then the detail that sealed it:
“We’re both Cancers, too. I’m a Zodiac person, so. We’re both Cancer, so that helped.”
Corey confirms she vetted him early. “She was like, ‘Are you a Cancer? Okay, this will be all right.'”
He felt the same way about it. “It was just sort of an immediate ease, and we had so much in common. Michael’s such a great actress as well, and comedically, we just kind of said, ‘Let’s just have fun with this, see where it goes.’ Hopefully it translated, because we were laughing pretty much from start to finish.”
Two Torontonians, two Cancers, zero prior Hallmark overlap. Go figure.
Corey Sevier read this script cold, and his wife wrote it
If you follow Corey’s work, you know he’s usually deep in development on his movies, and he’s directed several of them. His wife, writer and producer Kate Pragnell, wrote Pumpkin Regatta Romance. So surely he got an early look?
He did not.
“This time around, usually I’m quite involved in the development process, and the other films I’ve done I’ve directed, so obviously I’m there through all of it. But this one I was just an actor, and they were doing their thing. There was such a rush in the pre-production that I was like, ‘Can I see it?’ She’s like, ‘It’s not ready yet.'”
The only intel he got was the premise itself, which he also had to be talked into believing.
“Talking to my wife about the whole pumpkin regatta thing itself, I’m like, ‘Are you serious? This is a real thing?’ She’s like, ‘Yes.’ So she was showing me YouTube videos and everything.”
He says going in blind turned out to be kind of freeing.
“I very much got to go into this like any other actor would and was kind of surprised by the script. We had a wonderful director in Liz (Farrer) that gave us this great creative freedom, but also guided the ship really well. So this one was new for me just to be actor. I didn’t get my hands in the pie as much.”
Soap pace versus Hallmark pace, according to someone who’s done both
Mishael spent years on The Young and the Restless, where she played Hilary Curtis and later Amanda Sinclair, and where she made history in 2022 as the first Black actress to win the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Soaps are famously fast. Hallmark movies are, too. We wanted to know how they compare.
“I think really the only difference is that you’re on location. Other than that, the speed is still really fast. We’re still shooting with multiple cameras. You still need incredible talent in front and behind the camera to kind of get these days that sometimes you’re like, ‘Is this gonna be possible?’ And with incredible people at the helm, we really do pull it out.”
She thinks that’s exactly why soap actors move so easily into this world.
“That’s why a lot of soap people go back and forth, because there definitely is a crossover.”
The father-daughter scenes were healing for Mishael
Nadine’s relationship with her dad, played by Eugene Clark, has a lived-in quality to it. She can be exasperated with him and you never doubt she loves him. We asked how they built that.
Mishael’s answer stopped us for a second.
“I met Eugene, and he is hilarious. So just having some conversations with him, and he reminded me a lot of my dad, which I don’t think, I never told him this, ’cause I don’t wanna make him feel strange. But my dad had passed away in 2019. So kind of being able to just bond with an older man that really kind of has these little quirks that reminded me of my dad, it just made it so much fun and almost a little bit healing, in a weird way.”
“We had such beautiful banter, and he was so fun and hilarious to work with and be around.”
Watch those scenes knowing that. They hit differently.
What they want to make next
Both of them are storytellers off camera now. Corey directs and develops. Mishael launched her own production company after leaving Y&R. So what kind of story is each of them chasing?
Mishael went first.
“For me, I’m just big about telling stories that really remind people that we’re more alike than we are different, and just connecting people and making people feel less alone. So all of my stories have kind of that thread, and Hallmark is one of those, where it just makes us feel like we’re more connected and we’re not alone, and sometimes you just need that escape.”
Corey’s headed somewhere adjacent.
“My wife and I are in development on a lot of different things, and it’s that same thing. Exploring human behavior and finding that hope is always sort of a theme that runs through all the stuff we work on. I’ve also recently had an opportunity to work on a few things that are based on true stories. Historical things as well. I’m always a sucker for period pieces.”
Lightning round: are cake pops actually good?
There’s a lovely cake pop scene in this movie and we had to know whether they’re genuinely delicious or just photogenic. We now have a verdict from both leads.
Mishael: “The gluten-free ones that they got for me were incredible.”
Corey: “Incredible. Oh, they were so good. Now, by take 18 it was a little bit of a sugar rush. But honestly, they tasted as good as they look.”
Eighteen takes of cake pops. We’d do it.
How to watch Pumpkin Regatta Romance
- Premieres: Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel
- Streaming: Next day on Hallmark+
- Starring: Mishael Morgan as Nadine, Corey Sevier as Ethan, plus Jake Epstein and Eugene Clark
- Written by: Kate Pragnell
- Directed by: Liz Farrer
- Part of: Hallmark Channel’s Fall Into Love 2026 lineup
Synopsis: When their fathers refuse to move past a disagreement, Nadine, daughter of the boat shop owner, and Ethan, a pumpkin farmer, team up to heal the feud and revive the town’s Pumpkin Regatta.
And good news if you like these two together: Corey Sevier is back in A Danish Christmas on November 1, and Mishael Morgan stars in Hearts All Aglow on December 18.
Frequently asked questions
When does Pumpkin Regatta Romance premiere?
Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel, streaming the next day on Hallmark+.
Who stars in Pumpkin Regatta Romance?
Mishael Morgan plays Nadine and Corey Sevier plays Ethan. Jake Epstein and Eugene Clark also appear.
Is a pumpkin regatta a real thing?
It is. Competitors hollow out giant pumpkins and paddle them across open water. Neither Mishael Morgan nor Corey Sevier knew it was real until they signed on to the movie.
Who wrote Pumpkin Regatta Romance?
Kate Pragnell, who is married to star Corey Sevier. He says he didn’t get to read the script early.
Where have I seen Mishael Morgan before?
She played Hilary Curtis and Amanda Sinclair on The Young and the Restless, and in 2022 she became the first Black actress to win the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
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