Mix Up in the Mediterranean Interview: Jessica Lowndes and Jeremy Jordan
“I feel incredibly fortunate and humbled by it…but I also felt that much more responsibility to do it justice and do it with care. Honouring that experience in the world, I love that we’re showing that on Hallmark.”
Hallmark movies have exploded over the past few years, gaining larger budgets, bigger stars, and a dedicated community of fans, but it also brought up valid questions around the lack of diversity in the films.
The critiques about the lack of LGBTQ+ characters in their films came to a head in 2019 when Hallmark pulled an ad featuring a same-sex kiss, only to reverse the decision.
When asked about this fallout Wonya Lucas, the president and CEO of Crown Media Family Networks said:
“All I can speak to is where we are today. And really just coming in six months ago and seeing the work that the team had already done and begun, it really did make me proud. What I see, moving forward — and I can speak for myself — is that we’re gonna continue to lean into that and you’re gonna see more of that.”
Enter MIX UP IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, Hallmark’s first film with a gay lead character. The film follows twins, Josh and Julian (Jeremy Jordan) as they head to an elite culinary competition in Malta with Julian’s husband Henri (Callum Blue).
The ‘mix up’ occurs when Julian gets hurt and Josh has to compete in his place. All is well until Josh develops feelings for the ambitious organizer of the event Meg (Jessica Lowndes).
MIX UP IN THE MEDITERRANEAN is a fun new film filled with all the hijinks you expect from a Hallmark movie and is the perfect light-hearted romance we all need right now.
I spoke with actors Jessica Lowndes and Jeremy Jordan about their time on set, pandemic protocols, and what it’s like to be in the Hallmark family.
MIX UP IN THE MEDITERRANEAN premieres on W Network on February 20th at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Viewers can also watch the film on demand via STACKTV. For more information, CLICK HERE.
Hallmark films have gone on this interesting journey where when they first came out they were seen as silly and frivolous, probably because their main audience is women, but in the past few years have been reclaimed by their community. As you’ve both now been in a few Hallmark films, how do you feel about their perception and the audiences that gravitate towards them?
Jeremy Jordan: I did my first film over the summer and I did my second a few months later and I am completely converted. I think I had a conception of what these kinds of films were beforehand because of what they might be thought of, but when you start diving into them, specifically how they’re making them now, I think Hallmark is making some big leaps. They’re telling more bold, interesting, and broad-minded stories and I think it’s opening them up to a whole new world of viewers.
Especially in the times we’re in right now, the one caveat of a Hallmark movie is it’s gotta have a happy ending and when you know that the movie that you’re watching is going to end up in a place, that’s going to leave you satisfied in that way. I think that is a huge thing, and that’s something that anybody can get on board with. I found so many different kinds of people who love these movies and its been really eye-opening for me.
Jessica Lowndes: I feel really fortunate to be part of the Hallmark family and make these films because you can’t not smile while watching them. I feel so fortunate to be able to provide people with escapism, especially right now with everything going on in the world. I think people just want to turn on the TV and not deal with so many other issues. You can watch it and escape and fall in love with these love stories. And the scripts lately are so funny, they make me laugh out loud while reading it, so that’s a whole other element.
They’re broadening the storylines, having a B storyline in this movie of Julian and his husband is, I think, going to draw even more of an audience across the board. I think everyone just loves love and this is about finding love, and family, and it has this really great message at the end of it. [Mix Up in the Mediterranean] is all about harnessing your ambition, following your heart and dreams, and falling in love in the process. I just feel really lucky to be a part of these.
Mix Up in the Mediterranean is Hallmark’s first film with a gay lead. How do you feel about being part of this kind of landmark movie for Hallmark?
JJ: I feel incredibly fortunate and humbled by it. Josh and Julien are twin brothers, one of them is straight and one of them is gay—and to be honest with you I may have been hesitant to take the role because I have so many wonderful friends who are in the LGBTQ community who don’t have a lot of representation on television, but because they are twins and I had to play both I felt comfortable doing it—but I also felt that much more responsibility to do it justice and do it with care. Honouring that experience in the world, I love that we’re showing that on Hallmark.
I love that the relationship that Julian has with his husband Henri is such a healthy and loving, honest and sensitive relationship. It normalises different experiences that people have in the world. The fact that it’s interlaced with comedy, this other romance, and all these other elements people are going to be drawn to was just really exciting and I just couldn’t say no to it.
JL: I think there’s an element that’s funny. I meet him and I think he’s his gay brother, I don’t know he’s him, and I let down my guard. I treat him like my bestie and it’s great and then I start getting feelings and I know that’s crazy, I can’t go there but as a viewer, you know the truth and you know that I can go there, and you also know that he has this huge secret that I’m essentially going to find out at the end. I think it keeps you on your toes. I think it takes the audience on a journey and it’s really funny. I think people are going to love it.
Speaking of the comedy in the film, I was scrolling through your Instagram and saw the Bachelor parody, just wondering how that came about and also, it showed how much fun you guys had onset, can you talk about what that was like?
JL: It was so much fun! I have a whole highlight reel on my Instagram that says Malta if anyone wants to see all the pandemonium.
JJ: We love each other so much.
JL: We love each other! It reminded me of when I was a teenager and making silly videos in the backyard. We improvised all of it, Jeremy and I are huge Bachelor fans—the spoof was made before all the recent situations going on with that whole thing, which we don’t stand by—but we had a lot of fun. Callum [Blue] does look a lot like Chris Harrison and that’s how it came to be. Callum had never seen the show before, we showed him one clip and we had five minutes to shoot it. People thought we took hours and did edits, it was one take and I just added some music., but that’s what made it even more funny, we got the whole cast involved and we were taking props from all the sets. The producers didn’t even know where we were.
JJ: They kept trying to call us down and we were like ‘we’re setting up the shot.
JL: It was so funny, our other costar Nadia was following us with the camera, she did a great job. It was a lot of fun.
JJ: It was the kind of environment where if someone suggested we do something, instantly everybody was all in. It was a friendship we all had with each other that was implicitly trusting. Anytime we went on an adventure, anytime we did some silly video, anytime we went out to eat it was just ‘let’s do it!’ It was just following gut instincts and following that feeling of trust and friendship. It was a really lovely time.
JL: It was really playful, it was great.
What was it like filming this movie during a pandemic, specifically what are the COVID protocols for kissing scenes?
JL: The protocols were really strict actually. The days of the kissing scenes, we had two COVID tests, we had the rapid test, and the—well they both go all the way up into your brain, but by the end, I don’t even know how many we had. 40, right?
JJ: Yeah, I think we had 30–40 throughout the whole thing. Towards the end, we were getting one every day. But any time we had kissing scenes, we had to get double tested and they didn’t have the light one that they have now.
JL: No. They were the ones that go behind your eyeball.
JJ: Jessica documented them on her stories.
JL: I kind of took it like a champ. -laughs-
JJ: Oh she was really good, we were complete wimps. But yeah we got tested and we never had any issues. We were self quarantined in our own little bubble.
JL: They did a really great job, they even tested people who worked at the hotel, I felt very, very safe. I hadn’t been on a long haul flight like that during a pandemic and that was scary and the fact that everyone took it so seriously made our job that much easier.
JJ: Everybody was masked, double-masked.
JL: Our director flew there with three masks and a visor, literally.
JJ: Jonathan [Wright] was not messing around. His hands were raw by the end.
Keep up to date with Jessica Lowndes: Twitter | Instagram.
Keep up to date with Jeremy Jordan: Twitter | Instagram.
*This post was originally featured on The MUFF Society.*
