Hallmark’s latest movie, “Love on the Amazon,” premieres on Saturday, January 17 at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central. The movie stars Jaicy Elliot and Rafael de la Fuente. Read on to learn all about where the movie was filmed and some behind-the-scenes cast stories.
‘Love on the Amazon’ Was Filmed on Location in Peru
“Love on the Amazon” was filmed on location in Iquitos, Peru, according to IMDb. In an interview with Digital Journal, Elliot said that filming the movie felt like being on “Survivor.”
“We were really dropped into the middle of the Amazon River,” she said. “…I feel like it was as much an adventure for us as it was for our characters.”
Iquitos is a remote city that you can only access by boat or plane. The location was chosen because it truly feels like a real, Amazon jungle with wide rivers and dense greenery.
According to De la Fuente’s Instagram posts, filming began on August 11. He shared photos from Day 1 and tagged the post as being in Iquitos, Peru.
Some river sequences were filmed along the Amazon River near Iquitos, 4Filming reported, along with surrounding Amazon rainforest regions.
Elliot told Digital Journal that the river basically became its own character in the movie.
“The Amazon truly was a character in in terms of the look, but also the background sound that is omnipresent… you always have it there. As actors, the Amazon brought out this raw honesty out of us,” she said.
De La Fuentes shared a video from filming and wrote “we really out here.”
In an interview with Digital Journal, De La Fuente said being on the boat wasn’t the hardest part about filming.
“The boat was the easy part because on the boat we had bathrooms and everything, but then, we had to go in the jungle,” he said. “The production did a great job at keeping us as comfortable as possible, especially considering the fact that we were in the Amazon with all the heat, humidity, and the mosquitoes.”
He added that one of the main reasons he wanted to be in the film was because it was shot in the Amaozn.
“I am a fan of the jungle,” he said. “…I’m Venezuelan. So, it had more meaning to me than just any random location.”
However, he added, he’s never actually been to the Amazon before filming this movie.
Meet the Cast
Hallmark’s synopsis reads: “Claire travels to Brazil and hires Danny, a riverboat captain, to help her deliver an important message for her sister Amelia, a marine biologist studying pink dolphins on the Amazon River.”
Jaicy Elliot is Claire. She’s rapidly becoming a new Hallmark fan favorite with her heartwarming movies, like “My Southern Family Christmas,” “Joyeux Noel,” and “Romance in Style.” She’s also known for starring on “Grey’s Anatomy” for 98 episodes so far as Dr. Taryn Helm.
Rafael de la Fuente is Danny. He’s a Venezuelan-born actor and singer, according to his Hallmark bio, who has numerous credits including the “Dynasty” reboot on CW. His other productions include “Empire” on Fox, “When We Rise” on ABC, and more.
Also starring in the movie, according to IMDb, are:
- Raissa Xavier (Milly)
- Omar Pelaez (Bruno)
- Persephone Brada-Redman (Amelia)
- Franco Silva (Paulo)
- Daniel Jeanpool Curico Ricopa (Mateus)
- Ramsay Ross (Mr. Hall)
- Juliana Wimbles (Tourist)
- Connie Joana Villacorta Aguilar (Teacher)
The movie is directed by Colin Theys and written by Juliana Wimbles (who also has a cameo in the film as a tourist.)
I have sweet friends leaving to be missionaries in the Amazon River Basin this week with their 3 kids under 5. This movie taught me how to pray for them.