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Spring into love! Tyler Hynes may star as the romantic lead in Hallmark’s upcoming film A Picture of Her — but he credits his chemistry with Rhiannon Fish for bringing the story to life.
“There’s something very present about [Rhiannon]. There was never a moment where I was looking at her and doing things in the scene where she wasn’t right there with me,” Hynes, 36, exclusively told Us Weekly about filming alongside his A Picture of Her costar, 32. “I could do things and she would be right there with me. It wouldn’t be thrown wouldn’t get discombobulated, she would just be present with me. Once I taste a bit of that with another actor, I go, ‘OK, now we can really have some fun because we can really start to play around here and try to find the magic and the in-between moments, which I think is where all the juicy stuff is.’”
The film — which premieres Saturday, March 25, on Hallmark and serves as part of the network’s Spring Into Love rollout — follows Hynes as a celebrity photographer named Jake. Unenthused by the lack of creativity in his current job, he snaps a photo of a stranger named Beth (Fish) without her knowledge. After the two meet and form an instant connection, the picture finds its way to the cover of a magazine and Beth makes it her mission to find the man behind the lens. Jake, meanwhile, has to decide if he should come clean to the girl he’s falling for.
“This film could have been a different movie had it not been [Rhiannon] in that role,” Hynes told Us of what the Home and Away star brought to the part of Beth. “Seeing it up close and looking at what she’s doing in this movie, she is really doing us a service. And I can’t say enough about her. She’s a really talented human being and just as lovely as you would think she is.”
Beyond the opportunity to work alongside Fish, the Letterkenny alum explained that the light-hearted “warm” undertones of A Picture of Her felt fulfilling after his experience working on Hallmark’s zany Christmas comedy Three Wiseman and a Baby, and the network’s heartfelt holiday drama, Time to Come Home for Christmas. Both festive films aired in December 2022.
“What was interesting about this [film] was that essentially it felt like a good time to do something that was scratching a certain itch that I don’t think I had scratched in a while as far as making one of these movies,” he shared.
Hynes was also drawn to the modern-day framing of the story, which sees Beth become an overnight sensation based off a single photograph.
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“[I loved] the idea that [the] art and simplicity of authentic beauty and the finer details [are things] the world still cares about. That the world is still moved by that,” he shared, noting that playing a character who rediscovers his artistry was “a real nice thing” and felt “true to life.”
While Hynes’ time as Jake may have “scratched a romantic itch” for the actor, that doesn’t mean he isn’t up for reuniting with his Three Wisemen and a Baby costars — and good friends — Paul Campbell and Andrew Walker.
The holiday comedy was written by Campbell, 43, and fellow Hallmark star Kimberly Sustad. Following its premiere, the seasonal comedy became the most-watched movie on the network of 2022 — including both Christmas and non-Christmas movies — and broke records reaching back to 2019.
Hynes told Us that the BFFs are “just scratching the surface” when it comes to what they could create together, adding that he’d like to see them “put behind different characters” and just “watch that stew come together in different ways.”
For now, the Unexpected Christmas star is ready for the world to experience a modern-day meet-cute with A Picture of Her, and remains grateful for his experiences at Hallmark — and the people who continue to support him along the way.
“Everybody is absolutely lovely. I think it’s as close as you can come to feeling like a family that is supportive,” he gushed of the network. “And that just sort of bookends what is an absolutely enormous pleasure, which is the people who watch these movies. I can’t tell you enough about the human beings who watch these movies and how kind, lovely, wholesome and earnest and authentic they are.”
