“Finding Mr. Christmas” winner promises shirtless scene in Hallmark movie,“ Happy Howlidays”

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Finding Mr. Christmas. If you don't want to know who wins, stop reading now!

When Ezra Moreland strolled into the Finding Mr. Christmas house on day one, all he had with him was a portable chess set and a dream.

The 31-year-old model and former Navy rescue diver had no previous acting experience, but over the course of the 8-episode season — which he describes as "an audition and a school" — Ezra proved that he could learn on the job. He acted on ice skates! He bartended on rollerblades! He flashed his dazzling smile at the camera while wearing a series of form-fitting turtlenecks! And in Thursday's season finale, host and co-creator Jonathan Bennett crowned Ezra the first-ever Mr. Christmas.

As winner of the Hallmark+ reality competition, Ezra earned a leading role in the upcoming Hallmark Channel holiday movie Happy Howlidays, which premieres Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The film centers on Max (Moreland), the owner of a Seattle dog shelter who falls for a "meticulous webpage editor" named Mia (Jessica Lowndes).

On the heels of his ho-ho-holiday victory, Entertainment Weekly chatted with Ezra about earning the title of Mr. Christmas, the exhausting experience of shooting a Hallmark movie, what it's like to co-star with a pooch, and more.

Related: How to watch all 110 new Christmas movies this year

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congratulations, Ezra! Or should I refer to you exclusively as “Mr. Christmas”?

EZRA MORELAND: [Laughs] Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I think I can keep the Mr. Christmas going on until Christmas maybe? But Ezra's totally fine as well.

How surprised were you to win?

I think midway through the [season], it started to dawn on me that there was a chance — and it wasn't so much just surviving challenge to challenge, which is what it totally was to begin with. After realizing how inexperienced I was in film and that all I had to do was listen to the judges, I knew that there was a chance [that I could win]. By the time it got towards the end, I was not surprised.

When you first started the show, who did you think was going to win?

Gage stood out to me. He just holds himself together so well and he just seemed so experienced and very confident. And Elijah absolutely stood out from the moment we met. Hayden was also off to a great start from the jump, so I was not surprised at all to be in it in the long run with those last two guys.

You came into this with no real acting experience, but obviously it didn’t stop you. If you could go back to day one of Finding Mr. Christmas and give yourself some advice, what would it be?

I would tell day-one Ezra that most of the pressure is self-perceived, and there's going to be layers of that pressure that fall off and then things become clearer. I would tell myself to just know that that stress and pressure isn't going to stick around, and to take a deep breath and relax and all get more used to the stress.

As the winner, you get to star in the upcoming movie, Happy Howlidays. Did you go straight into production on that after winning Mr. Christmas?

I had a little bit of time, about a month and a half, two months before being whisked off into production in Vancouver. I got to meet the producers, Gina and Grant, and I got the script and had a little bit of time with that, which was so nice. I got to take some acting classes and break the script down scene for scene. That was the first time I had ever really tried to do something like that. But I did have ample time to prepare and study the script and get to know my character, Max. And I even got to meet Jessica Lowndes who plays Mia in the movie, and we got to talk a little bit back and forth. As much as I got to prepare with the script, nothing could've been able to prepare what it felt like to start filming for the first time.

It's hard to express in just one day what the experience was like. It was a beautiful eye-opening experience for me. As I was going through the first couple of days of filming, I'm thinking to myself, “This just as challenging, if not more than Rescue Swimmer school in the Navy,” which guys left and right to me were getting kicked out because the stress and the training was so challenging. I'm like, “This is the hardest thing I've ever done,” but it was amazing and I can't wait for everybody to see it.

Related: See Jimmy Fallon and Cara Delevingne spoof Hallmark Christmas movies: 'It's all the same plot, everyone's hot'

How did being on Finding Mr. Christmas help you prepare for the experience of shooing the movie? And were there things that happened while filming the movie that the show didn’t prepare you for?

Finding Mr. Christmas absolutely prepared me to be open and showed me how much that receiving guidance would help me, because in the long run that's what it all came down to. I'm so proud of the outcome of the movie and I would say the show totally helped me just realize what it is to be open and take the instruction and guidance from the people, the director, and your scene partners. But what the show did not prepare me for was just the actual work and hours that you put in day in and day out. I thought I was busy filming the show, but I don't think I've ever been more exhausted in my entire life — physically, emotionally, every way possible. I don't think there's anything that could have prepared me for that other than just doing it.

Of course, these movies do not shoot during the winter — so was there a super-hot day where you had to wear a parka and pretend you were cold?

There is a scene, and it looks so good, so I'm happy with it — but if you zoom in, you might see a little bit of sweat. [Laughs] There’s a scene where we're outside on a dock, and the sun is shining and we're wearing scarves and a couple layers of jackets. That’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie, but for sure that’s a scene where I was pretty warm. It was the first walk-and-talk scene, the first scene that had so many lines I had to memorize, and it's outside? I'm just feeling the heat in every direction. [Laughs]

On Mr. Christmas, you did a photo shoot with some puppies, but you never acted in a scene with animals. In this movie, you play the owner of an animal shelter, and you have some canine co-stars. There’s an old saying in Hollywood: “Never work with children or animals.” What was it like having dogs as some of your co-stars?

What I didn't realize until filming the movie is how much the dog owners and trainers are involved. There will be a scene when the dogs are eating and then they look up — and really, 95 percent of the focus is from the dog trainer and the dog owner, who have to know what the right amount of food is to keep the dogs focused. They’re doing more work than I am. It was an impressive and beautiful thing to get to work with the dogs and their owners and families, who did most of the work that was put in.

Give us a little more scoop about your role as Max in Happy Howlidays.

I can relate in my real-life past to Max. We both have a military background, but in the movie, my character is heartbroken. Last Christmas, my ex left me and took one of my dogs, so I'm heartbroken, and my [other] dog Jules is heartbroken. Max is just shut off. He's working his behind off to keep this animal rescue open and he doesn't have time for love. And here comes Mia, a gorgeous hot mess. She just saved a dog but has an attitude and she thinks she can just walk into my animal rescue and just dump this dog off in the lobby and just go about her happy way.

Max is there to just tell her that's not how this works. It’s such a fun adventure, about us getting to know each other, and the dogs getting to know each other, and kind of falling in love. There’s some conflict there and a lot of adventures — hiking in the mountains and going all over town — and it is a blast.

You were known for your turtlenecks on Finding. Mr. Christmas. Does Max wear a turtleneck in Happy Howlidays?

There is a time where I'm wearing a turtleneck in the movie. And, if it’s not too much of a spoiler alert, there is also a moment in this movie where I'm wearing no shirt at all.

Are you prepared to show up as a mentor in Finding Mr. Christmas next season, should Hallmark+ renew the series?

You know what, I've thought about that. Fingers crossed. Jonathan Bennett, I'm sending you a text message after this! I’m hoping I can show up as a guest judge or something in season 2. Tyler Hines did such an amazing job of being a mentor this season, and a supporter for all of us nervous guys in the middle of a competition. If I were able to, I would really want to embody the energy he had on set and be super supportive. I know what it's like to be thinking of a million things all at once. You just don't want to get sent home. You want to be your best, and you’ve got shot and one take at all the competition. I would love to go and just support the contestants best I could.

Finally, Ezra, this is a little bit of a weird question, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this since I read your official Hallmark+ bio a few months ago. In that bio, you said your favorite food is… oatmeal. What? 

[Laughs] It’s funny, oatmeal being my favorite food is something that’s just followed me through the years. My closest friends, my brothers, my sisters, if anyone were to ask what my favorite meal is, they're instantly going to say oatmeal, because I eat it once a day, at least. When I really think about it, the food that's just the most sustainable and healthy and it's my go-to, and always just hits the spot, as crazy as it sounds, it's oatmeal.

Happy Howlidays premieres Saturday, Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.

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