Andrea Brooks and Marcus Rosner star in Hallmark Channel‘s latest original movie Romance to the Rescue. Premiering Saturday, May 21, the movie tells the sweet love story of two emotionally closed-off people who, through the help of an adorable rescue dog named Sam, learn to open up.
Ahead of the premiere, Brooks (When Calls the Heart) and Rosner (Christmas with a Crown) chatted with TV Insider about their latest foray into Hallmark love stories, sharing how the rescue dog aspect set it apart from their other Hallmark projects. Brooks’ Kyra is a “Pretty bold, type-A personality. She’s very career-oriented.” She makes all of her choices based on a strict life plan that includes being hired as a shopper for a grocery store and finding the perfect partner. But with so much rigidity in her life — put in place because of difficult family experiences — Kyra’s romantic plan doesn’t truly involve much romance.
She pinpoints her manager at the grocery store as someone who checks all of the boxes from her list of things that make a perfect partner. To impress him, she gets caught in an elaborate lie about having a dog that competes in agility competitions. She adopts Sam (played by actual SuperDog Nova, who Brooks accurately calls the “the most photogenic dog of all time”) from Kevin’s (Rosner) animal shelter. Kyra sets off on a mission to train Sam in time for an upcoming SuperDog competition and recruits Kevin to help her.
Rosner’s Kevin is “an introvert hiding from interpersonal relationships through the love of all the dogs that he takes care of.” His own past struggles make him resistant to let people in. And Brooks says Kyra is “absolutely” afraid of falling in love as well.
“I think any character like this is always overcompensating,” Brooks says. “Once she finds the dog, that kind of opens her up to new possibilities in life.”
“Kevin’s the kind of person that might have a lot more faith in the unrelenting love of the animals around him than the people he’s encountered,” Rosner adds.
Having been in numerous Hallmark projects, Sam/Nova made for a new experience for both the actors.
“This is a traditional Hallmark story: two characters falling for one another, they have a spark, but then there’s this third party there at every given moment,” Brooks say. “So it was just a really fun character to play off of.”
“The real star of the movie is the dog,” Rosner teases.
Check out the full TV Insider Romance to the Rescue interview, above.
Romance to the Rescue, Saturday, May 21, 8/7c, The Hallmark Channel