Cast portray royal family in 'William & Catherine'

LOS ANGELES – Movies based on real stories offer a particular challenge for actors – especially when the people they are portraying are well known. For the cast of the new Hallmark Channel movie "William & Catherine: A Royal Romance," you don't get much better known than Britain's royal family.

"William & Catherine: A Royal Romance" chronicles the love story of Prince William (Dan Amboyer) and Kate Middleton (Alice St. Clair) that culminates in the most-watched wedding in history. The pressure was on for each actor to find the best way to portray members of the royal family.

Alice St. Clair faced an acting baptism of fire. This is her first professional acting job and she gets to play one of the most recognized and photographed women in the world.

While the media has embraced Kate, there's still not a lot of material St. Clair could use to play the role. The actress had to improvise using her own life growing up in the United Kingdom to fill in the pieces. She couldn't even get help from her father, who is part of Queen Elizabeth's security detail.

"He's a very discreet man and doesn't really talk about his job because it's obviously top secret. So I was trying to nudge info, but sadly, you know, he's very quiet," she says.

At least she had her roots to help frame the role. Dan Amboyer, who plays William, grew up in Detroit.

"I think the challenge was to find who these people are and really respect them. " Amboyer says. "The benefit of doing it after the wedding was that we got to see so much of the programming that was out prior to the wedding. So there's so many documentaries and so many things to watch and interviews to see him. I had an opportunity to really learn a bit about him before taking it on.

"I worked on the accent a bit and prepared as best I could as I would for any other part."

That preparation didn't include learning to play polo. Amboyer promises he will learn the sport should there be a sequel.

Jean Smart found herself in the same predicament as St. Clair when she tried to research Camilla Parker Bowles. She found very little material of Bowles speaking on camera.

"You feel a certain responsibility – certainly especially when it's someone still alive – to just try to capture just a quality. Hopefully it's something that's done respectfully. And I liked that she was portrayed sympathetically in the script. I felt that she deserves that," Smart says.

Victor Garber, who plays Prince Charles, mixed the material based on public records with the parts that had to be fictionalized to play the role with "enormous responsibility."

Executive producer Linda Yellen has a good track record with the royal family. Thirty years ago she made the movie "The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana," that was well received by Princess Diana.

"I have every reason to believe the same thing will happen," Yellen says. "In our extensive research, what I tried to do when I grasped all that, is to show the audience a different side, behind closed doors, to reveal certain things about the royals that you haven't seen before but with an eye to not just be telling the story about specific people, but a story that we all can relate to with our own families. I think these actors bring it to life."