Andrew Walker’s Close Encounter with ‘Feisty Bees’ While Filming New Hallmark Movie
Hallmark Channel’s latest movie, For Love and Honey, has a whole lot of buzz — literally — and some of it even landed on star Andrew Walker’s face!
In the movie, which was filmed on location in Malta, Walker plays an American archeology professor who follows a lead to the Mediterranean island, where he meets Eva, a local beekeeper played by Margaret Clunie. They soon discover that the spot where a beehive is hiding may hold the clues to a local archaeological mystery.
“It’s unlike any Hallmark movie I’ve done,” says Walker, 44, who has starred in more than 25 movies for the network. “It’s the closest thing to Indiana Jones meets a Hallmark movie. It’s adventure all the way, fast-paced, we’re on the road constantly, it’s a treasure hunt. Also, then you add in the landscapes and the history.”
Still, if you mess with bees, you might get the stinger (that is the phrase, right?) — and the bees in Malta, according to Walker, “are known to be feisty bees. They transplant these bees into different countries, especially Canada, because they can withstand the cold. They’re very, very frisky, very fiery little bees.”
He learned that the hard way on his first day on the film when he, his wife Cassandra, Clunie and some of the producers went to an apiary to meet with the woman who was to be the beekeeper on set and to see the hives.
“We all have our bee suits on, and they’re showing us the honey and the bees and everything, and I decided I’m going to take my phone out of my suit and record this,” Walker recalls. “I back up and turn my back, open up the zipper to my suit and of course, a bee flies into my suit.
“I’m not too worried—I’ve been stung in the past—but I was like okay, it’s just one bee, I’ll try to blow it out. So I opened my suit a little bit wider and I start blowing to try to get the bee out and two more bees fly into my suit. So I got three bees in my suit at this point.”
It gets worse: “Now they’re flying all over my head,” he continues. “They go into my hoodie and at this point I tell the beekeeper like, ‘Hey, I got three bees in my suit.’ We go down to the car where there’s no bees and I take my suit off, and one bee is stuck in my hood and it stings me in the chin.”
Luckily, Walker sports a beard for the movie, so fans won’t see a welt (or makeup attempting to hide one).
“From what I hear, people pay top dollar for these things these days,” jokes Walker, who has launched a skincare company called SkinMason. “I really got my money’s worth that day.”
For Love and Honey premieres on Saturday, June 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.