Actor in Hallmark movie shot in St. Pete finds parallels between personal life and starring role

Hallmark movie premiering this weekend was made in Tampa Bay

Mariah Harrison reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg will be the backdrop of a new Hallmark movie, "South Beach Love," starring Taylor Cole and William Levy.

Levy told FOX 13 that he didn't get to do much exploring while on location.

"I didn’t really have that time actually," he recalled. "I was trying to go to Tampa Bay baseball game, but I couldn’t."

Levy and Cole play caterers, and exes, in Hallmark's newest romance. The characters are hired to cater two quinceañeras on the same weekend. The story has it all: family, business, and romance, of course.

"When I heard about Hallmark offering me this movie, I got really excited because it was a channel that I used to watch a lot when I came from Cuba to learn English," Levy explained. "I haven’t done anything like this in my career. This is very close to being who I am in real life...Cuban, and I own two restaurants here in Miami. I love food. I love eating."

There may not have been much time to explore the area during shooting, but Levy says the crew kept them well-fed on set.

"Every day they would bring this Cuban food and I was like, ‘Where did you get this Cuban food? Like croquetas? Like real Cuban food!’" he recalled. "They told me there was this Cuban restaurant next door and the lady was making all the food for us, and it was a really nice thing because I was able to eat real Cuban food the whole time I was there in St Petersburg."