Home and Away star Tammin Sursok: 'I didn't know I was part of a cult'

 Tammin Sursok didn't know she was part of a Hollywood cult until it was too late. 

The former Home and Away star, who lives in Nashville with her TV producer husband Sean McEwen and their two daughters, Phoenix, 11, and Lennon, six, tells Stellar this week she's joined the Hallmark Christmas movie 'cult'. 

'I’ve probably done some 1,500 episodes of television in some way, either with Pretty Little Liars or Home And Away or The Young And The Restless,' she said. 

'I was on a few different shows, like Hannah Montana, out here. But Hallmark movies are what people live and die by here. It’s like a cult. I didn’t know I was part of the cult until I became part of it.' 

The Hallmark movie is a genre of made-for-TV romantic comedy now so ubiquitous that the term “Hallmark movie” is now slapped upon any TV movie of a similar tone and aesthetic, even if it wasn't made by the Hallmark Channel. 

There are variations on the basic theme of Christmas and Valentine's Day - but the plot is pretty much always this: career-driven big-city girl reluctantly returns to her small-town roots, discovers the magic of the season, and — spoiler alert — finds love with a ruggedly handsome guy, who owns a lot of plaid. 

Australian actress Tammin Sursok opens up about joining the Hallmark movie 'cult' in America

Australian actress Tammin Sursok opens up about joining the Hallmark movie 'cult' in America..

Tammin, 41, starred in her first Hallmark movie in November. 

The Logie-winning actress filmed Trivia At St. Nick's during the American summer. 

In it, she stars as a 'type A' astronomy professor locked down with her colleagues at an annual Christmas Bar Trivia Tournament. 

'Honestly, it was so hot. I had Fanta and Sprite cans down my butt because I was dripping in sweat and I had on a beanie and jacket and scarf,' she said. 

'It is not glamorous. The whole time I’m like: "Just move your feet so you don’t pass out."'

Thanks to the predictability of the Hallmark movie narrative arc, the films have become rich meme fodder and even the subject of an AI experiment. 

One writer and comedian fed an AI chatbot 1000 hours of Hallmark movies before asking it to write its own screenplay.  The result was a heartwarming tale about a widowed single mother working for a small town snow globe company. 

Tammin Sursok as Dani Sutherland on Home and Away..

Tammin became a global star for her role as Jenna Marshall on the Pretty Little Liars franchise ..

'I think especially the nature of what’s going on in politics – you turn on the news and it’s just so much fear and division and anger,' Tammin continued.

'And sometimes people just really need that lukewarm water bath to get into and just be like, it’s not too hot, it’s not too cold, but it gives me comfort.

'And I think why these movies do so well is because there’s just no drama.' 

The actress said it took her a long time to embrace her Aussie roots in the U.S. 

'It took me a long time to be like: I’m allowed to say I love being an Aussie.

'And there’s so much of America that I love too, and it’s also given me a lot – like my husband!

'So it’s OK to say that I love both and there are different things in both that are just phenomenal, and I’m really blessed and lucky to get to experience both.'