Interview: Steve Lund talks Hallmark Channel’s Baby, It’s Cold Inside

Baby, It’s Cold Inside is an all-new Hallmark Channel original movie about two people who find love at the famed Ice Hotel in Quebec. We talked with star Steve Lund about what it was like filming on location at the Hotel de Glace (yes, it was very cold), working with his costars and whether he’s ready to ditch the snow for a warm weather Hallmark movie in the future.

Hallmark Channel’s Steve Lund talks Baby, It’s Cold Inside

(Culturess): I watched the movie over the weekend. It’s such an adorable movie. And ironically, we were in the middle of a heat wave here in San Diego. So I was like, “Man, I wish it was colder.”

(Steve Lund): Yeah. It was a breath of fresh air for you, was it? That’s cool.

And then I saw a commercial about the prices going up in Big Bear ski resort and I was like, I can’t believe they still have snow and it’s May and it’s so weird. So I feel like I’m of out of sorts, schedule-wise. Like what season are we in?

Yeah. It’s a very strange time for us all. I mean, thinking about travel, geez. I mean, trying to just get to different places… [The Ice Hotel] would be a unique spot to get to, that’s for sure. It’s not a place that I’ve known anyone else to go to before. I mean, I didn’t even know that it existed either, but I highly recommend you go, if you ever get the chance. It’s incredible. The movie doesn’t do it justice in quite the same way. You kind of have to be there to behold all the beauty of it.

It’s so funny you mentioned that, because I wanted to start with the experience of filming on location. It’s such an incredible location and it’s always one of those things when you watch movies that are set in winter, you don’t always see breaths coming out because it’s not actually winter when they’re being filmed. But for Baby, It’s Cold Inside it looked pretty darn cold the whole time.

Yeah. Yeah. It was legitimately cold. Yeah. We were worried about that actually, the exhalation condensation and all that stuff. Because [costar] Jocelyn [Hudon] was saying she had done a movie before where they made them suck on ice cubes before they did takes so that their mouths were cold… The air that was coming out was cold, so it wouldn’t freeze in the air. But, yeah, you can definitely tell that it’s a truly cold place. And underneath those stylish costumes, we’ve got on our multiple layers of Long Johns, including electric socks and electric mitts. The whole deal, electric vests, and it was all very necessary. The whole crew had all of this gear to begin with because they knew what they were getting themselves into, whereas, it was our first frosty foray.

What did you do to warm up between takes?

They had little tents with propane heaters set up for us nearby. And luckily directly next to the ice hotel is a much larger resort style hotel with little alcoves that we could run to in between takes, which was very necessary to warm our faces up to prevent us from tripping over our words. So thankfully that refuge was there. Otherwise we would have had Leo DiCaprio hypothermia for sure.

Do you know, what were the temperatures like while you were there?

I was constantly checking the weather because I was amazed at the numbers that we were seeing. So it was like negative 20 pretty consistently for about a week there; negative 20 Celsius, which I can’t remember what the conversion is, but I think it’s in the negatives.

That’s crazy!

It was just wild. And it’s like we’re outdoors in negative 20, and then we’re like, okay, we’re going to move inside the ice hotel. And it’s like not much warmer in there at all. There’s really not a whole lot of scenes where you’re looking forward to anything. You just know you’re going to be cold the entire time. So it’s something you just resign yourself to, and luckily we were laughing, joking and carrying on the entire time on set, so it kept our bodies a little bit warm. Certainly made it enjoyable at a time when it could have been miserable.

What time of year were you filming?

Mid-January to, I think the very end of January.

Wow.

That’s as cold as it gets, girl!

I’m a native San Diegan. I’ve only been in snow once and it was a complete disaster. So I listen to this and I just think, “Oh my gosh, I can’t even fathom temperatures like that.”

Yeah, it’s unfathomable until you’ve been there. And I’m from Canada and grew up having winter all the time and spending time outdoors, playing hockey, but this was something else. You don’t usually tend to go outdoors when it reaches those days. You know what I mean?

You try your best to stay warm, but there was no escaping it this time. It felt like a very… It was like a rite of passage in a way. I felt extra Canadian when I was faking it.

One memorable scene from the movie involves snowshoeing. Is that something you’ve done before?

I had done snowshoeing, actually. My parents gave me snowshoes one year for Christmas and then I used them two or three times, and then, coincidentally enough, forgot who gave them to me and ended up re-gifting them to my father on Christmas about two years ago. And he laughed directly in my face saying, “I’m pretty sure I got these for you.” So that was a humiliating snowshoeing moment. Yeah, I’ve had a little bit of experience with them. It’s been fun trudging around. It’s a good workout if you get the pace up for sure. And we did that. We did the scenes a number of times. By the end of it, we were definitely not feeling the cold as much.

Baby, It’s Cold Inside is a winter movie, but it’s not a Christmas movie, and you’re known for doing some of the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. What was it like stepping out of a Christmas movie, but staying in the snow? Thematically, it’s very similar, but it’s definitely not a Christmas movie. What was that like?

It sort of messed with my head at different times. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t Christmas when I was showing up to set, but it was kind of welcome, I won’t lie, because if I do a Christmas movie in a year, that means I’m living through two Christmases. And as much as I love Christmas, I’m sort of over it by the time it’s done, so I don’t want to relive it again. So, I did a Christmas movie in November and then I had Christmas in December with my family. And then, if I would have had to go back into the Christmas mode immediately afterward in January, I think I would have gone a little bit crazy. So, it was a nice palate cleanser to just be doing a nice romantic comedy and not have Christmas carols and garland everywhere. So, that was nice.

I talked to Cindy Busby a couple of weeks ago about Hearts Down Under, and she was talking about going and filming in Australia and how great it was to film in different places. And now that you’ve been doing these movies, and since you’re kind of a winter guy, would you like to switch gears a bit and maybe travel to a completely different tropical location perhaps? Is that something that’s on your radar to find something that doesn’t involve snow and cold?

Absolutely. Yes. I think Hallmark owes it to me at this point. The last Christmas movie I did for Hallmark, I did with my dear friend Taylor Cole, whom I did it another non-Christmas movie with before. Even in November where we were shooting, it was quite cold. Her fiance is a writer and producer for Hallmark and I was begging her at the time to get him to write her and I a movie that takes place in either Bora Bora, or the Cayman Islands or Hawaii or something like that. And she told me that he was on it, but we’ll see how that materializes. Yeah, I definitely am ready for a different change of settings and a much warmer one.

What drew you to this script and when you signed onto the movie, and what were you looking forward to the most?

Well, obviously, initially I was very drawn to the Ice Hotel itself. As I was saying, I’d never been there before. I didn’t even really know that it was still operational. I remember hearing about it many years ago, but I thought that it was a one-off thing. I wasn’t aware it was something that they did every year and have been doing for, I don’t know, 20 years or something. Could be wrong on that, but somewhere around there anyway. So obviously, anytime you get to travel to a new destination, it changes things up a bit. And I could tell immediately this was going to be a unique experience. Directly next to the ice hotel is a full-blown resort with… It’s basically on a small mountain where they have these tubing trails. Sort of like a ski hill, but for giant, rubber, inner tubes for you to go down, and there’s a skating canal, and there’s all kinds of winter amenities. It’s quite a winter wonderland and quite a local vacation destination for the locals of the area. 

So I knew right away it was going to feel like a winter camp in a way. And that did not fail to deliver. We had a blast. The whole crew got to enjoy the amenities for the time that we were shooting. So, that was really fun. 

I also was really drawn to the prospect of working with Jocelyn. I had heard great things about her in the past, and really thought that she was a very talented actor, and that her and I might have a great time, and sure enough, I was not wrong about that. She was amazing to work with. Loved every second of it. And so, that was really nice. The character didn’t feel like too much of a stretch for me. I thought that aside from the fact that I’m not an ice sculptor or much of an artist to boot at all, he’s a friendly guy who just wanted to make people smile and wanted to sort of show people a good time. He was a humble guy, and I think… Yeah, I sort of identified with the character initially and the rest was, yeah, just surviving the elements. It all kind of fell into place pretty naturally.

What was your favorite scene to film?

My favorite scene to film… I really liked sliding down the ice slide. That was fun. We got pulled in the horse and buggy. A lot of them are fun. The snowshoeing was a lot of fun. It was like a big, fun day out. It was a beautiful day, too. Really special. What was my favorite scene? Geez, I don’t know if there was one. 

Oh, of course. Working with Paul Constable who played the glass blower. He’s a legend in Canada because he’s the spokesperson for Canadian Tire, which is this large outlet store or retail store that has everything. So, I’ve been watching him on TV because his commercials are always on during the hockey games. I’ve been watching him on TV for like, I don’t know, eight years or however long he’s been doing these commercials. And he’s so funny. And so, getting to meet him and work with him, Jocelyn and I both were in stitches the entire time. I wish that he was in the movie more. We only got a few days to hang out with him. He was so fun, so funny. I love this guy. Again, another friend for life, even after only spending two days together. He was just such a blast. Can’t say enough good things about Paul Constable.

One of the things that makes Baby, It’s Cold Inside so special is that as a destination movie it takes viewers away for the journey. It’s a testament to the work that you do and your costars have done because it looks like we’re watching you on vacation doing really fun things and after being cooped up for so long over the past year, we all need it. 

It’s a very good point. And I will say, I would owe a lot of that magic that you’re talking about to our director, because she was the one that continually reigned us in, because we were like animals let out of our cage, as anyone would be during this pandemic, to get the chance to go somewhere and do something and have fun. And it was probably hard at times to not be bouncing off the walls. We were like kids in a candy store, and she would gently just sort of reign us in and remind us of the magic of the place that we were in. And that allowed us to channel all of that, that we were witnessing, and recognizing how much this could mean to people, to audiences, given the fact that a lot of people are isolated or not able to travel at the moment. So, yeah, good point there. And I’m glad that was translated on screen because it was a special opportunity, I’ll say that for sure.

What draws you to roles like this one?

I love to do a wide range of different things, to be honest. It’s not necessarily one genre that I prefer or any genre that I would try to distance myself from. I mean, if anything different comes along… I’d say I try to have a technicolor dreamcoat as my resume for sure. But knowing that some people out there believe me and can see the kindness in my eyes when I’m saying the words that I get to say in these movies, that conviction is a very powerful affirmation for me that this is kind of how I live my life. I do try to lead with kindness and I like to have fun as much as possible. So yeah, I gravitate towards those things quite naturally and I guess enough so that they keep inviting me back and they keep hiring me. So I’m very grateful for that, no doubt.

Last question. What are you working on, and what do you have coming up?

I do have a romantic comedy coming out. It’s not a Hallmark purchase, I don’t think. I have no idea where it’s airing, but it’s called Love Upstream, a cute little movie that we shot in the summertime, me and a dear friend of mine, which is another really fun experience where we shot at this lakeside resort in Northern Ontario. It felt like summer camp. Yeah. I have an independent movie that I did in Nova Scotia that I’m very excited about. I don’t know when that releases, but that one’s called Wildhood. That’s a beautiful coming of age story about this indigenous boy in search of his mother. Amazing film, really hope that people get to see that in the coming months.

We are so grateful to Steve Lund for taking the time to speak with us! You can catch him in the all-new Hallmark Channel original movie Baby, It’s Cold Inside on Saturday, May 8 at 9pm ET.