Rhiannon Fish & Christopher Russell's Terrifying Experience On Hallmark's A Costa Rican Wedding

In 2024, the Hallmark Channel continued its tradition of movies themed around travel with "A Costa Rican Wedding." Rhiannon Fish and Christopher Russell play Emily and Christopher, a maid of honor and best man at a wedding, who must track down missing wedding rings while not letting on what they're doing. In an Us Weekly interview from August 2024, Fish and Russell discussed the movie and the action scenes. Fish told the outlet, "A lot of it was really high stakes, stressful situations that we were put in." She felt that bonded them in real life and helped with their performance as love interests.

The actors also discussed their wild co-stars — the animals they shared the screen with for the movie's jungle scenes. At one point, Fish had to have a spider on her, to which she said, "I was so scared. It was just truly the bravest thing I have ever done in my life." Russell and Fish also discussed how it seemed like the animals they filmed with were not professionally trained. Fish acknowledged that she knew they were safe filming, but "They were all real, and they were all scary."

Russell mentioned filming with a local alligator, monkeys, and a tamed snake. "They brought in a theoretically trained snake," Russell explained, unsure if he believed it even with snake handlers around. Russell also doubted the tarantula's professionalism, telling the outlet, "I don't know how well you can train a spider, but sure."

In addition to a menagerie of animals, the actors also told Us Weekly how hot and humid it was filming in Costa Rica, with Christopher Russell even comparing it to a sauna times one thousand. Despite that, Rhiannon Fish — who has also starred in a Hallmark movie with the network's heartthrob Tyler Hynes — did a solo interview with "Survived the Shows" and explained how working in Costa Rica was one of her big pulls for playing the part of Emily. Fish said it was neat filming movies in exciting places, telling the outlet, "And then because parts of the movie, it's so often our characters are exploring, so it's like we get to for our job go and explore these incredible places, and by far Costa Rica was my favorite. It is the most magical place I have ever been."

Fish felt the setting was one of the most special parts of the movie, explaining how the movie might not even show just how gorgeous of a place Costa Rica is. Later in the interview when asked about her character Emily's journey, Fish mentioned her run-in with the animal co-stars and confirmed that they were all real. She laughed and added, "And honestly, a lot of my reactions were very real as well! So I'm excited for the audience to see them."

In the "A Costa Rican Wedding" livestream interview for the Hallmark Channel, Rhiannon Fish and Christopher Russell talked more about their time in Costa Rica. Russell didn't mince words, saying, "Filming in Costa Rica was one of the hottest, sweatiest, rashiest, most grueling experiences I've ever had. And also the best." He also said that the Punta Leone area was his favorite to work in, explaining that many of the beach and jungle scenes were filmed there.

Fish, who worked in Australian television before Hallmark, said she preferred filming the jungle scenes, which were filmed first. She compared that to less untamed filming locations and added, "I mean, that was where you were at your sweatiest, but it was also easily my favorite location." Russell took a second to gather his thoughts. "Yeah. It was definitely a location that could..." he said. He and Fish laughed, and Russell continued, "...make it easy not to act. Yeah. You just had to just show up because the jungle did the rest."

For more Hallmark movies that will take you to the tropics from the comfort of home, check out Hallmark's movie "Aloha Heart."