The stars of Hallmark’s new holiday movie Christmas Island are sharing a glimpse of their on-set shenanigans.
On Saturday, in celebration of the movie’s Nov. 11 premiere on the network, actress Rachel Skarsten shared an Instagram reel of her and her costars hilariously recreating a Backstreet Boys music video.
“We spent about as much time making this Backstreet Boys tribute video as we did the movie Christmas Island. So they both premiere today ❤️,” Skarsten, 38, jokingly explained in the caption.
“Can you guess which BB we all were? Thought was put in to it,” she added, throwing out a little challenge to fans.
In the clip, Kate Drummond and Jefferson Brown can be seen walking down the stairs of a plane as the opening notes of “I Want It That Way” play, while Andrew Walker and Skarsten — dressed in a pilot uniform — stand under the plane’s wing.
Mimicking the original video for the 1999 hit, Brown, 47, steps into the role of Brian Litrell, pointing and gesturing to the camera as he sings the iconic lines, “You are my fire. The one desire.” Skarsten, Drummond and other cast members dance in the background behind him.
The video then cuts to Walker, 44, inside an airport hangar, picking up the tune as Nick Carter. He appears to really be enjoying his moment in the spotlight as he smiles and makes exaggerated facial expressions to communicate the emotion of the song.
The cast also gets in a few group dance moments in the clip, showing off their signature moves including plenty of enthusiastic chest bumping. In one fun moment, Brown pops into the frame and makes a series of flirtatious winks at the camera as his embraces his boy-band heartthrob status.
Fans flooded the comments section with praise for the cast and the comical video. “The amount this is spectacular can not even be comprehended,” one person raved, while another wrote simply, “This. Is. Everything.”
Others commented on the apparent chemistry between the stars. “I can’t stop smiling while watching this! You all have great chemistry and you can really tell that you had fun while filming,” a fan said.
Christmas Island is among the 40 new original movies that Hallmark is rolling out this holiday season. After Kate’s (Skarsten) first private flight en route to Switzerland to Christmas Island is diverted due to a snowstorm, she joins forces with an air traffic controller (Walker) to secure her dream job as the family’s pilot.
In an Instagram post on Friday, Walker — a regular on the Hallmark network — gave the movie high praise, saying it “may be one of my personal top 3 favs.”
“Hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it!” he wrote, alongside a photo of himself and several costars wearing Santa hats. “Thank you @hallmarkchannel and @vortex_prods for giving me the opportunity to work on #ChristmasIsland with some familiar faces and couple new ones, too. @rachieskarsten you’re a 💎😉.”
