Why Alexa, Carlos PenaVega’s ‘Love At Sea’ Kissing Scene Was Difficult

Alexa and Carlos PenaVega have combined their two loves — cruises and working together — to create Hallmark Channel’s newest Summer Nights movie, “Love at Sea,” which premieres Saturday. The film follows event planner Olivia (Alexa) as she must work together with rookie cruise director Tony (Carlos) to organize a successful onboard event.

Before you watch the real-life couple fall in love all over again on-screen, let the PenaVegas explain how the movie was made, which scene was the most difficult to film, what it was like to have their son make his acting debut in the movie and more.

International Business Times: How did this movie come about and what was your favorite part?

Alexa PenaVega: For us, it was a long movie in the making. Hallmark asked us a couple years ago if we had an idea that we kind of wanted to pitch them and Carlos immediately was like, ‘Yes, listen, we have to shoot a movie on a cruise ship.’ So, it was really kind of exciting to see that finally come to life because it had a lot of moving parts, right? You have 9,000 people on a ship and out of those 9,000 people, 100 of them are trying to film a movie. So, there were a lot of moving parts and it was just such a special thing to watch happen.

IBT: It was filmed on a real cruise with customers aboard?

Alexa: It was a real cruise ship. And we would have to stop scenes sometimes because they were doing Zumba in the middle of our [scene], so we’d have to wait for Zumba to be over to finish the scene.

IBT: Were you bombarded by fans at all?

Carlos PenaVega: The guests onboard were pretty cool. They were respectful. The second cruise, there was definitely this massive quinceañera going on and there were just a ton of young girls. I think they were from like Argentina. But they hung out by set, and they ended up getting in the movie. It was pretty cool.

IBT: Which scene was the hardest to film?

Alexa: Actually, it was the kissing scene.

Carlos: Kissing scene.

Alexa: But not because of the kissing, but because it was so windy where we were that every time he tried to kiss me, there was just so much hair in my face. So, we had to try to keep finding a really sweet, romantic way to keep the hair out of my face the entire time we’re filming this scene. It was a little crazy.

IBT: Did you ever accidentally use each other’s real names while filming instead of character names?

Carlos: There’s this one scene, the very last scene of the movie, I come up and I’m like, “Hey everyone, my name is…”

Alexa: “Ladies and gentlemen.”

Carlos: Oh yeah. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your cruise director Tony Rieves, blah blah blah.” But I came on, it was late, and we were tired...and I was like, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your cruise director, Carlos PenaVega.” And everyone starts dying and I didn’t understand why. I just totally said my name. I was so embarrassed.

Alexa: He practiced saying that for so long. He loves cruise directors. He thinks it’s the coolest job ever.

IBT: Why did you guys decide that this movie was the one for Ocean to make his acting debut in, and how did it go?

Carlos: Ocean actually did a great job. Surprising to both of us. He got to eat french fries on camera, and he played around in his stroller.

Alexa: Ocean is always with us, so, honestly, anytime we can put him into a project, we are all in.

“Love at Sea” premieres on Hallmark Channel on Saturday at 9 p.m. EDT.