‘Wedding March 5’: Josie Bissett & Jack Wagner on Olivia and Mick Being ‘Two Feet In’
Q&A
Mick and Olivia are back, and their relationship is better than ever in My Boyfriend’s Back: Wedding March 5 on the Hallmark Channel.
Jack Wagner and Josie Bissett reprise the roles they played in four previous installments, and their characters are ready to celebrate an important milestone: the 25th anniversary of their first date. But those plans aren’t without hijinks, and it’s far from a drama-free time at the inn.
Wedding planner Annalise (Cindy Busby) wants to use a wedding at the inn to woo investors for her own company, but the best man of the ceremony turns out to be her ex-boyfriend, Brad (Tyler Hynes). Can Mick and Olivia help those two find their way back to each other?
TV Insider spoke with Wagner and Bissett to find out what to expect from one of Hallmark’s June Weddings movies.
Going back to when you two signed on for the first Wedding March movie, what drew you to your characters and the love story between them?
Jack Wagner: I’m an executive producer, so I developed the story, so I just thought it was a very cool, little idea. I took a little from my past, my own personal life of being a pop star in the ’80s and then thought it was cute to have these college sweethearts that actually were musical together and wrote songs. And then he took off ’cause he had an opportunity for a record deal and a band and a tour and then that relationship lost itself.
(Ryan Plummer/Crown Media)
Then they find one another again at the wedding lodge, and it just set up for this, “Oh my gosh, they have all of these unresolved feelings, they’re all still there, and let’s see where this goes.” I thought it was really fun and charming how they tried to suppress their feelings and then by the end of the movie, they really couldn’t. They had to come out. She broke off the engagement and then eventually moved up to the lodge and that opened up for this journey of these two characters.
That was the goal, to create a story that would be charming and engaging enough that the audience would want to join along and see where their journey goes.
Josie Bissett: The very first Wedding March was our absolute favorite one out of all of them, except I have to say number five was a close second, right, Jack?
Wagner: Yeah, for sure.
Bissett: I just really was excited to, number one, do a movie with Jack, and number two, my character was just something different that I’d never really gotten to play a lot, just a romantic comedy, more light-hearted, so I just really enjoyed that aspect of it.
Now that you’ve done five movies, what do you still love about these characters and their story and what has surprised you about them after playing them multiple times?
Wagner: I love that he is persistent. I love that when he’s passionate about something, he really goes after it, right? He sometimes is like a bull in a china shop, which I think is part of his charm, his flaws.
(Alan Zenuk/Crown Media)
By Wedding March 5 now, we really see more of the development of the love between the two characters of Olivia and Mick, something I believe that has evolved. I think they’ve grown. That’s what I really had hoped for the whole franchise, that the audience looks forward to that and we were able to play it out long enough where we really get that payoff in Wedding March 5 by the end of it. Where these characters had grown and how they’ve evolved together, with a very deep love and understanding of one another.
With a lot of comedy, too. It’s a really cute movie. It’s really charming and funny how we set it all up.
Bissett: I would have to say it’s my favorite character I’ve played in my career. It’s where I’m at in my life and playing just a character that has a daughter and has been married and in relationships that I resonate with. I would just say she’s grown like every other human grows and we get to watch all the characters in the five Wedding Marches grow and evolve and watch their relationships grow and evolve, and what I love about playing Olivia is the real aspect of it.
It seems that going into this fifth movie that Mick and Olivia’s relationship is settled, they’re settled into their professional lives. Last we saw, he gave her a promise ring. The inn seems to be doing well. Do you think everything is very stable for them at the moment?
Wagner: Yes, I do. What I love about these movies is that the obstacles that they face are really very real to the audience. Every couple faces these things, right? That’s what I believe gives the characters their charm and it gives the movies their charm, especially the other leads, the wedding couples and what happens with the storyline outside of just Mick and Olivia.
(Alan Zenuk/Crown Media)
It’s really about the obstacles and how those obstacles, how clumsily they’re addressed, the problems that you face with it, the mistakes everybody makes. But ultimately, how you overcome the problems, and hopefully by the end of it, you have a real loving, kind of charming solution.
What can you say about the new couple, Annalise and Brad? What do Mick and Olivia see of themselves and their relationship in them?
Wagner: I think they see a lot of what they faced. I have scenes with Brad, Olivia has scenes with Annalise, just giving advice. And what we also see is that with the advice they give, Mick and Olivia are coming to an understanding themselves. The more they talk about it, the more they help the other characters, the more they realize, “Wow, we’re really lucky. We’ve got something really special here together,” and that’s what really gives us our payoff at the end of Wedding March 5.
We know Mick and Olivia are going to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their first date. Even though they were apart for some time, what does it mean for them to have that milestone?
Wagner: They had to basically re-introduce, relearn, not only who they were as a couple but individually. I think it was a real growth. Every movie is primarily about obstacles and the growth of overcoming those obstacles. That’s what I think has really been the core to both characters and how to deal with those obstacles and by the end of the movie, there’s some sort of loving solution, hopefully.
(Alan Zenuk/Crown Media)
Bissett: Hopefully? What do you mean? It’s Hallmark.
Wagner: I’m trying to leave it so there’s some sort of cliffhanger.
Bissett: What’s really adorable about this particular movie is the planning that both of them have going on, not realizing that the other one is doing the same thing and thinking there’s no way that they’d remember. Each of them is planning something very special and put time into it and it’s very heartfelt in the end, which the audience will see. It’s also really cute the way the character Duke is caught in between. It’s really fun. It turned out really good.
Wagner: And what’s different about this movie is that Mick has always been the one pushing everything, planning and doing, and what’s so lovely is that Olivia acknowledges that and says, “Mick’s always been the one. I really want to … ”
So, by the time it all does happen, where they really come together with their little surprises, it’s so charming and loving that we see Olivia has gone two feet in and her trying to do something really, really lovely for Mick. I think both Josie and I just naturally felt the emotion and the love in our performances. It took maybe 10 hours to shoot this scene, a long day, but I don’t think there was one take where we weren’t connected and really feeling this place where the characters were in that they were really two feet in together.
(Alan Zenuk/Crown Media)
Bissett: Throughout these last five movies, Olivia has been the one to want to take it slow and be careful. She was engaged to someone else when she first met Mick in that very first movie, so she wants to just be sure and cautious and take her time. You could tell this movie that she’s really ready to dive into this relationship with Mick and open her heart and isn’t afraid anymore.
My Boyfriend’s Back: Wedding March 5, Movie Premiere, Saturday, June 8, 9/8c, Hallmark Channel
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services