‘The Wedding Contract’: Jake Epstein Explains Why This Love Story Is ‘More Human’ Than Most on Hallmark

What happens after the leads fall in love? That’s what Hallmark’s newest movie, The Wedding Contract (premiering June 17) asks.

In the film, starring Becca Tobin and Jake Epstein, Rebecca and Adam are a recently engaged Jewish couple who must contend with their different values and beliefs. She’s all about home and family, while he’s focused on his work and not as connected to or familiar with Jewish tradition as she is. And his work becomes a problem when it interferes with their wedding planning — and might be the reason for a possible move to LA.

Epstein introduces the new love story.

What drew you to the script and to the character of Adam?

Jake Epstein: Most Hallmark movies are about a courtship, right? Very few movies answer the question, what happens afterwards? And I think what initially drew me to this movie is that the point that this movie starts, they’ve already fallen in love. What happens next? What’s the next step? In their case, it’s planning a Jewish wedding. All of the life challenges and loving but sometimes complicated families and sort of negotiating values and all the things that go into a real wedding, this movie explores with humor and love and joy.

I like how the movie handles that. There’s the meet cute, then a very quick look at the courtship…

It’s unique. Every other Hallmark movie I’ve ever seen is sort of about the love story. In this case it is the love story, but in a way, it’s more human. Yes, romances can happen, but what happens next? What’s the reality of families meeting? Will they get along? Job stuff, does that get in the way of the relationship? It’s kind of a really loving portrayal of a real love story.

Also that way you don’t have to deal with the misunderstanding that keeps them apart initially.

[Laughs] Exactly. And I’ll be honest, the fact that this is a Jewish story is important to me as a Jewish person. I come from a family of Holocaust survivors on my mom’s side. That culture is so important to me. And I feel like the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve been interested in being able to tell stories that are connected to who I am. I think the Jewish element to this just felt really personal for me and pretty special to be part of.

And you can tell how important that is to each of the characters, but in different ways.

Yeah, completely. The religion — it’s a cultural thing. I always think the more specific a story is, the more universal it is to people. In this case, it’s a Jewish story, but it’s pretty realistic in that not everyone is religious. Some people don’t even know anything about it. Some people are really into it. It means something to some characters, it doesn’t to others. I feel like other cultures, other people can relate to that, especially how family gets involved in that kind of way in a culture. I had a wedding and certainly a lot of the stuff in this movie, I thought, was accurate in some ways in terms of how the family gets involved and even negotiating — in my case, my wife isn’t Jewish, and where we negotiated the Jewishness of the wedding and that kind of negotiation is so critical to a marriage.

Shane Harvey/Hallmark Media

What will Adam and Rebecca learn about each other during the wedding planning?

The story puts them to the test. In this movie, Adam gets this really exciting promotion where on the one hand, it would allow them to buy their dream house and start this family immediately. On the other hand, it would mean moving to a different city away from Rebecca’s family. That really tests their relationship. And then to be honest, their families meeting, and in particular, their two moms, very strong, awesome female characters. You’re kind of thrust into this intimate relationship to strangers when you’re having a wedding. Before you get that natural time to really get to know each other, to spend time with each other, it’s kind of like you guys are now family and you have to collaborate and figure out what works. And so I feel like all of that is dealt with in this movie in a way that feels really, really fun and really funny.

Speaking of the mothers who has an easier time dealing with them and their differing opinions, Adam or Rebecca?

I want to say maybe Adam has an easier time, only because he’s away. He’s so stressed out with his job, so even though he’s trying his best to be part of the planning of the wedding, I feel like Rebecca is really taking on most of [it]. She’s the one who’s really kind of refereeing these two really strong moms who are helping to plan their first child’s wedding. So she probably has a tougher time, for sure.

Speaking of his career, I like how much him having a treadmill in his office says about him. It makes complete sense with everything that we see.

Oh my God, the treadmill. [Laughs] Yeah.

How is getting married changing how he’s looking at his career as a whole?

I’ll speak from personal experience. When you’re single your whole life, you’re thinking about yourself, you’re thinking about your own interests, you’re thinking about what you want. When you are in a relationship, even if it’s not a marriage, even if it’s just a really serious relationship, whether you like it or not, you are sharing those values and that time. Adam’s dream is to become this ad executive and run an agency, and for the first time, he can’t just say yes, he has this other person [whose life] it would really affect as well. That’s one of the things that he’s learning how to deal with.

I think both characters are, because Rebecca’s a teacher and she loves her students and runs this amazing after-school program, and so for her to leave that would mean getting in the way of her dreams. I always tell my wife, Vanessa, it feels like there’s two parts to marriage: Of course the romance has to be there, but also you’re building a life together. So I feel like for [Adam and Rebecca], we see immediately there’s the romance from the beginning, and then it’s kind of like, how can they build a life together?

Shane Harvey/Hallmark Media

My favorite part of the movie is the marriage contract. What does that mean to each of them?

I feel like because of what I’ve been talking about, because it’s this negotiation of values, of life, of romance, of all of it, it’s a great way to look at it, this Jewish tradition, which is a wedding contract called the ketubah, where you’re literally signing this document that’s essentially saying, I want to put the other person’s happiness first. It’s a real tradition that happens before a Jewish wedding, but it’s also a great metaphor for what everyone is trying to figure out in this movie to get to the place of being able to sign this contract genuinely.

You’ve now done a Christmas movie, a Hanukkah movie, and a wedding movie for Hallmark. What’s still on your Hallmark bucket list?

What should be next? Throw in some other holidays. A baby? Throw in the next generation. Being a young parent and navigating everything. I haven’t gone out to look for these opportunities to do a Hallmark movie. They’ve come to me and I think they’re really sweet. The world can be super stressful, and these movies are nice, right? They’re calming and fun and kind of an escape. And so it’s fun to do it. But yeah, if you have any tips on what should be the next step… Maybe the baby movie. I think I nailed it. I think that’s probably next on the list.

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Are you thinking as a sequel to this one or just a whole new story?

Oh my God, 100 percent a sequel to this one. I’m trying to think of a clever name of what it should be called. I’m not going to come up with it on the spot right now. … In the same way that this movie is kind of showing what happens next after the typical Hallmark romance story, I feel like it would make total sense to show, OK, well, they got married, what would happen next?

The Wedding Contract, Movie Premiere, Saturday, June 17, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel