Why Erin Krakow Describes When Calls The Heart As 'Lightning In A Bottle'

The jaw-dropping Season 10 of Hallmark's "When Calls the Heart" premiered in July 2023. In an interview with Southern Living from shortly before the season's release, Erin Krakow — who plays the show's protagonist, Elizabeth — expressed her gratitude at being a part of it.

Krakow told the outlet how having a career in acting includes "an element of risk and chance " and how working on the same show for ten years has been great. Krakow said she enjoys her role on "When Calls the Heart" and the people she's worked with. She's become friends with her co-stars, the show's creative team, and executives at Hallmark, adding, "It's just a really good, positive team, and very collaborative."

The "When Calls the Heart" experience is one-in-a-million because Krakow also said that the show is "kind of like lightning in a bottle because you just want to hold onto it because we know we have something very unique and very special." She makes a daily effort to be thankful for the privilege of performing on a show she holds dear and is so fun to be a part of.

One "When Calls the Heart" Season 9 cliffhanger was Elizabeth's engagement to Lucas, played by Chris McNally. A YouTube clip of the proposal from the Season 9 finale has comments from many fans who were thrilled to see the fictional couple get engaged. Elizabeth's engagement ring from that scene is evidence of the collaborative nature of the show mentioned in Erin Krakow's Southern Living interview because she and McNally got to help choose the ring.

"Chris and I had some conversations about it," Krakow told Entertainment Tonight in a joint interview with her on-screen love interest. "It had to make sense as a piece of jewelry that Lucas would select for Elizabeth, so I think we all did a nice job creating that together."

McNally then joked that no one liked the gaudy rings he picked out. After he admitted that didn't actually happen, he said they wanted to choose a ring "that was elegant and classy and kind of timeless, something that represented things that Lucas, I guess, holds dear."

Erin Krakow is also an executive producer on "When Calls the Heart" and is often vocal about her love for the show. When it was announced that Season 10 would premiere in July 2023 and that Season 11 had already been picked up, Krakow expressed joy at the news and said, "We have so many more stories to tell. With our amazing cast, crew, and brilliant writers, there will be no shortage of romance and new adventures for the residents of Hope Valley!" (via Variety).

In an interview with TV Insider about Season 10 and a legendary milestone for "When Calls the Heart" — its 100th episode — Krakow praised the creative team again. She said the Season 10 plots are "a real testament to our writers, I'd say, because we've told a lot of stories over the years, but there's still so much left to tell, and they've done an incredible job crafting Season 10."

More great work from the whole "When Calls the Heart" team, and that "lightning in a bottle" energy should come along with Season 11, which can continue production during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike due to an interim agreement from the union.