Hallmark’s Rachel Boston on Playing a Perpetual Bridesmaid

In The Last Bridesmaid, Boston stars opposite Paul Campbell as Becca Foster, a nine-time bridesmaid tasked with being the maid of honor at her cousin Lucie's wedding (marking Becca's tenth time in the role).  Lucie hopes Becca might finally rid herself of the “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” tag and hit off with the best man, but it's videographer Kyle Taylor (Campbell), employed to capture the nuptials, who catches her eye. Becca is happy working for her parents’ insurance business but her secret desire is to create jewelry, while Kyle dreams of being a filmmaker. As the two become better acquainted, they begin to encourage one another to dream big -- and soon it’s apparent there's more to this mutual admiration society than career advancement.

For Boston, The Last Bridesmaid proved a special project. It's the fourth movie on which she has served as associate producer or executive producer for the network since 2014's A Ring by Spring. "I so love to be involved in the production and development of ideas," she said. "I did an independent film while on hiatus from a series I was doing a few years ago and I just loved that part of the process; just being so hands-on with all of the departments. I found it enhanced my acting.

"This story was sparked at my brother's wedding where I was the maid of honor," she continued. "Everyone kept asking, 'How are you not married?' I make all these wedding movies, so it was, 'When are you getting married in real life?' I was sitting on a plane flying back to shoot a Christmas movie for Hallmark and I kept thinking this is so relatable! This is my next wedding movie if we can bring it to life!"

After brainstorming with her dear friend and screenwriter Nina Weinman, a script was born. She secured the producers from the Christmas film she'd done and the wheels were in motion. "It was like getting this beautiful team together again and I'm just so thankful we got to make it," she smiled.

"I [do] feel I got to redeem myself as a maid of honor because Becca is super on the ball," Boston shared. "At my brother's wedding in Korea, where I was the maid of honor, there were a few things I wasn't so spot on about with the itinerary. I [vowed] in this movie, ‘I will redeem myself!’  Being calm and cool in the face of adversity [to play Becca] is something I learned at that wedding. My sister-in-law had so much going on I couldn't ask her anything on the day. It was her day, so I just had to have everything handled. That became an important element of this movie.”

In fact, there were a few elements to the film that sparked Boston's enthusiasm, one being her co-star. "Paul Campbell is one of my favorite human beings to walk the earth," she gushed. "We'd met 10 years ago at a screen test and I thought him the funniest, sweetest guy. Now, 10 years later here we are. This is a relationship piece about communication, so having a partner I could laugh with all day and go on this journey with ... oh, we also started a band! It’s a cover band that does covers of cover bands. We even did a music video between scenes; you can find bits of it on Instagram.”

The other element of the story that appealed to Boston is that Becca is a strong, independent, single woman. "I'm single, and one thing I thought really important, and really enjoyed, about this film is that Becca has such a full life," she explained. "She has a career, is fulfilled in so many ways, and is actually really happy on her own. Society seems to put pressure on you and that's something Becca doesn't actually feel.

"I thought it was a really interesting way to explore a modern woman," she continued in closing. "One that has so much to celebrate, but there's that one question everyone asks, which I find so relatable. My grandmother is 101 and she'll talk about it all the time. She's like, 'Why would you want to get married? You have such a great life.' I find it a really interesting conversation we get to have, as she was a career woman, but the times [then] were very different. I think now is an amazing time to be a woman."

The Last Bridesmaid will be telecast Saturday, June 22 at 9 p.m. on Hallmark Channel.

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