‘Love Unleashed’ Star Jen Lilley Talks Filming While Pregnant, Working With Puppies

Before Hallmark Channel’s 2019 Christmas in July Keepsake Week starts up on Friday, the network’s giving viewers another sun-filled romance to enjoy with the premiere of “Love Unleashed,” starring Jen Lilley (“Winter Love Story”) and Christopher Russell (“Merry Matrimony,” “Center Stage: Turn It Up”), on Saturday.

The Hallmark movie, which was written and directed by Christie Will Wolf (“Yes, I Do”), features fun, sun, love and puppies! And, while chatting with International Business Times recently, Lilley shared what else viewers can expect from the flick, as well as some behind-the-scenes details.

Though she said her baby bump didn’t really pop until she filmed “Paris, Wine And Romance” a little while later, the Hallmark actress opened up about what it was like shooting “Love Unleashed” while pregnant, working with adorable puppies and the classic, enemies-to-lovers trope of the film.

International Business Times: Were there any challenges to filming “For the Love of Dogs” (now called “Love Unleashed”) while pregnant?

Jen Lilley: That one was only challenging because it was cold, but that was the easiest one, I think, far as being pregnant goes, because I was working with Christie Will Wolf, and she’s an amazing female director. And as far as female directors, only like four percent of directors are female, and she’s awesome. We’ve worked together a lot. So, that was great because I’ve worked with that crew and Christie on five different movies. So, it was like being with family, and they all knew I was pregnant and they were all excited.

IBT: Can you share a little about the film?

Lilley: My character, Hailey, in that movie is an accountant. She works for her dad’s accounting firm, but her real passion is fostering dogs and finding forever homes for [them].

So, she hosts these birthday parties, and instead of kids getting princesses, they can hire her company, which is called Puppy Party Playdates, to bring all of these strays and then they do an adoption there, but they also bring these puppies to all the children’s parties, and it’s just super cute. Super adorable and a really good idea. I mean, if this idea doesn’t exist, and there aren’t puppies that you can just rent for your birthday parties for kids to play with, somebody’s gonna make bank off that idea because I was like, “This is genius.” It was real cute.

And then Chris’ character, [Ryan], works for city hall, and my character, Hailey, wants to use an empty lot in their town as a dog park, and he wants to turn that lot into a strip mall. And, so, her big thing is, “Why do we need another strip mall? There’s no off-leash dog parks, and this is what the dogs need.” So, obviously, they butt heads at first, and then the formula takes over.

IBT: Did you get to play with a lot of puppies while filming this movie?

Lilley: We did, it was so amazing, and they grew so much in the three weeks. We were laughing because the first week they were so little, and the third week, we had to sub out some of them. We couldn’t use them in the shot anymore because it looked like a full-grown dog. I had no idea puppies grew that fast.

“Love Unleashed” airs on Hallmark Channel on Saturday at 9 p.m. EDT.