Corbin Bleu is ready to live the Bachelor life in Hallmark Channel original movie, Love, For Real.
In the film, Bleu plays Marco, the bachelor of a reality show, hoping to find love. Both he and the show’s producer want two unsuspecting contestants–fashion designer Hayley (Chloe Bridges) and Hayley’s best friend Bree (Taiana Tully) to stay until the show’s season finale. Shadow and Act’s Trey Mangum talked with Bleu about the upcoming film and why it was, as Bleu called it, “such a perfect first Hallmark movie for me.”
Bleu said he was offered the role thanks to his prior friendship with director Maclain Nelson. The two worked on an improv musical theater show for the Mormon Church’s television network called Show-Offs.
“It ended up being so awesome [but] really scary,” he said. “We basically had an entire musical that is improv. Costumes and musicians…the entire thing is improv, top to bottom.”
But despite the fear of having to make up everything on the spot, the project was so much fun that Nelson promised Bleu he would work with him again in the future as soon as he found the right project for them. Enter Love, For Real, with Nelson offering Bleu the part of Marco.
“He sent the script and I loved the backdrop of a bachelor-style reality show, getting a chance to play the bachelor,” he said. “Shooting in Hawaii–that was a no-brainer, and this being my first Hallmark movie, I think there’s a sort of right of passage to do your first Hallmark movie.”
He also mentioned that his mom, an avid watcher of Hallmark movies, told him he had to do the part once he revealed he was cast.
“She’s a huge, huge Hallmark fan. It didn’t matter what it was I had to do this one,” he said. But luckily I loved the script and the cast that was assembled was really, really wonderful.” He also mentioned that his wife, also an actress, was able to secure a cameo in the film, allowing them to spend several days together in Hawaii while shooting.
Watch the entire conversation between Mangum and Bleu, as well as read the full synopsis for Love, For Real, below. The film debuts on The Hallmark Channel July 31.
Hayley (Chloe Bridges), an ambitious fashion designer, goes on a reality dating show with a strategy: gain just enough publicity to get her fashion line financed, then get eliminated. Hayley’s best friend Bree (Taiana Tully) is also a contestant and the two try and come up with a plan that could help both their careers. But they didn’t account for ambitious producer Luke (Scott Michael Foster) and star bachelor Marco (Bleu), who have their own goals to make sure both women stay on the show until the dramatic finale. Meanwhile, Hayley and Luke quarrel over the surprisingly scripted storyline but must learn to work together to dodge elimination and turn Hayley into a fan favorite. When they start falling for each other in front of the viewing audience, Hayley must choose between the man the world wants for her, or the man she wants for herself.
