‘A Summer Romance’s Ryan Paevey Talks the Biggest Challenge of the Hallmark Movie

Hallmark fans’ favorite Mr. Darcy, Ryan Paevey, trades in his suit for a Stetson in A Summer Romance, a sweet “Summer Nights” flick costarring When Calls the Heart‘s Erin Krakow.

Paevey plays city slicker Richard, a real estate developer from New York with plans to build a resort on the Montana ranch owned by Krakow’s capable Sam, who’s determined not to sell. When he gets stranded in town while trying to close the deal, she puts him to work, and sparks fly.

Vancouver may double for Bighorn, Montana, in the movie, but Paevey’s performance is authentic: He did his own horseback riding, milked his first cow, and split wood — something he’d practiced on enough California camping trips over the years to know the first ax he was handed was “overkill.”

The biggest challenge, he insists, came when he and Krakow had to shoot a simple conversation outside the ranch house one evening.

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“She and I are sitting next to each other, having a flirty scene, and the frogs that night were so loud, I couldn’t hear her speak,” he says. “So we did the whole scene basically by lip-reading each other, and then we dubbed the dialogue in [later].” The ambient noise didn’t hinder the first-time pairing’s chemistry, though.

And should Hallmark green-light a sequel, Paevey says he’s ready: “They let me keep the hat.”

A Summer Romance,Movie Premiere, Saturday, August 17, 9/8c, Hallmark Channel