Hallmark’s A Costa Rican Wedding Stars Joke About Their ‘Trauma Bond’

Hallmark’s Costa Rican wedding sounds fancy, but shooting in the jungle was wild, full of critters and – sometimes – muddy because of the stars Rhiannon Fish again Christopher Russell.

“At the same time, Chris and I get along really well,” Fish, 33, said to himself. Us Weekly while promoting his new rom-com. “We joked that maybe part of it was to blame for the trauma.”

The actress explained that the Costa Rica film showed the beauty of the country and some of the treacherous parts of its jungle. “A lot of it was really high stakes, stressful situations that we were put in,” Fish said. But we formed this very close friendship, very quickly. And I think that translated a lot to the characters and their relationships. “

Costa Rican wedding follows clever maid Emily (Fish) as she ventures into the woods with best man Ryan (Russell), who may be her nemesis, to find the bride’s missing wedding rings. These two must find things in the wild while keeping their job under wraps from the bride and groom.

During their trip, the two meet many wild animals, including monkeys, alligators and a tarantula that lives on Emily. “I was so scared,” Fish said Us of the spider scene. “It was the bravest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

The actress joked that working with the creature helped her become more compassionate about “getting spiders out of my house,” and that she even got a “spider vacuum” to handle them safely. “Now I pick them up and release them because nothing will ever be as bad as that tarantula in my body,” revealed Fish.

As far as Fish knows, none of the animals seen in the film have been trained. “It was traumatic, but … you have to trust that you’re in safe hands and they’re not going to put you in a dangerous situation,” he recalls. “They were all real and they were all scary.”

Russell, 41, was equally nervous about coming face-to-face with animals on set, he said Us The crocodile fans see in the movie is one that “just lives in that river.” He recalled that the reptile was “very close,” but not close enough to worry about his safety.

Elsewhere in the film, the characters stumble upon a snake, which is once again real and terrifying. “They brought in a mentally trained snake,” Russell recalled, adding that the animal “looked untamed” despite the presence of snake handlers.

He asked how the tarantula fish he was working with was tamed. “I don’t know how well you can train a spider, but sure,” laughs Russell, noting that the monkeys in the film were local and lived in trees.

In addition to the animal work, Fish and Russell had to overcome several aspects of the Costa Rican landscape.

“I was sweating dripping from the time I woke up until I went to bed, maybe even while I was sleeping. It wasn’t easy,” Russell recalled, recounting Us that a local told him it was “the hottest it’s ever been” in history when they were in town. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a steam room, but take that and multiply it by a thousand. It was crazy.”

The actor compared the experience to “Jurassic Park” after spotting a grasshopper that was “bigger than a shoe” on the craft table during the night shoot.

Fish, on the other hand, was impressed with how “functional” the whole adventure was, including the team’s choice to make “real mud” in one scene. While filming had its ups and downs, Russell and Fish grew really close and quickly embraced their brother-sister relationship.

“It turns out we have similar ways of working in terms of looking at a script and how you prepare it,” Russell recalls of meeting Fish after their long flight to Costa Rica. He teased, “I think when you just meet someone, they are really rude.” But in the best way.”

Russell jokes that he and Fish bond over “sarcastic little ideas” and have the same “natural” on-camera sarcasm as their characters.

“I think it was just the fact that we were both thrown into this job in the forest and we had a good rapport from the beginning. [that made it work],” he added. “They were lucky to be able to pretend that these people are characters.”

Fish agreed, noting that he and Russell didn’t have to “turn it on” to see the cameras. “You made it so easy,” she said.

Costa Rican wedding premieres on Hallmark Channel on Saturday, August 17, at 8 pm ET. Also available to stream on Hallmark Movies Now.