Melissa Joan Hart on the Joys and Trials of Filming Lifetime's "Mistletoe in Montana"

quotThis movie is actually inspired by my cousin39s truelife experience in Wyoming going to a dude ranchquot she explained during a virtual event promoting the film quotShe met a wrangler and fell in love so this is the flip flop of thatquotWe were actually at her wedding in Wyoming last yearquot she added quotThat39s where my mother who produces Hartbreak Films as my partner and I were on horseback and I said 39This would make a great movie39 She replied 39Well do you want to be the wrangler or the guest39 I was like 39I wanna be the wrangler because I really wanna learn how to be a cowgirl39quotHart stars as Merry a cowgirl running the Paradise Ranch in rural Montana where guests are encouraged to quotcheckin and checkoutquot To do so she had to revisit some childhood territory along with some new to create movie magic quotWhen I was a little girl there was probably one summer that I could afford horseback riding lessons and I did itquot she recalled quotI rode a horse named Sprinkles and just went around a ring in an arena learned how to trot and maybe canter a little But I always wanted to get back into it and in my years in LA I would do trail rides So I worked all summer on lessons and lasso lessons I knew there was archery involved and square dancing but I was like 39I39ll have to put that off for right now39 I just wanna get comfortable on a horsequotI learned about different rein techniques and different ways to respond to a horse and how horses respond to youquot she proudly shared quotI mean I had very fast and furious lessons and there were some when I told my husband 39I39ll see you in three hours if you39re lucky I might not make it back39 But I39ve never been so in love as I was with that horse We fell madly in love We had a wonderful relationshipquotThe former Dancing with the Stars contestant also got to brush up on her dance skills As square dancing was never part of her DWTS routines another friend was happy to lend a hand in that department quotKellie Martin and I have a mutual friend in Christine Lakinquot she revealed quotChristine is also a director and a fellow child star and she stepped in A few nights before shooting the square dancing scenes we were like 39What are we gonna do I don39t really know how to do this39 I39d been watching YouTube videos so Christine laid down some stuff for us and we kind of learned a little bit of a dance That was really fun exciting and different It was wonderful to have her help us outquotHart said there were many special things about making this movie and while each of her Lifetime holiday outings is special for different reasons this one in particular will remain close to her heart quotThis was really special for me not only because it came from a reallife experience but also because it was something that I kind of created from scratchquot she said with a smile quotThen we got a wonderful writer in Don Perez who39d written some other movies that we39d produced So we had this wonderful writer write this fun story that was a truelife event for me Then the horses and our stellar castquotStill there were significant challenges for Hart as an executive producer of the film quotThis one was really trickyquot she revealed quotThe location was difficult as was finding an empty dude ranch in July We couldn39t find a place to shoot then once we did no WiFi no cell phone service and with the shortagesamp160this year no one had a rental car Then there were fires and a heatwave that surrounded us Being the executive producer and feeling responsible for my fellow actors and my crew it was really hard to pull this one offquotWe had some breakthrough COVID cases at the beginningquot she continued quotAnd we39re in the middle of the mountains of Montana so everyone was terrified the first few days of grizzly bears Everyone carried bear mace but we stayed tight as a crew Despite it being really difficult to produce in the end we have a movie that hopefully people will enjoy and we had a lot of fun despite the heatamp160 I know my costar Jamey Sheridan can attest to the practical heat stroke we suffered on the set with how we were dressed in a heatwave in MontanaquotBut the fact we made a beautiful movie out of this that will hopefully be seen by millions of people is a wonderful reminder that these things have legs and they can be enjoyed by everybody around the holidays for years to comequot she concludedMistletoe in Montana will be telecast Friday December 17 at 8 pm on LifetimeClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Melissa Joan Hart on the Joys and Trials of Filming Lifetime's "Mistletoe in Montana"

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