‘The Baker and the Beauty’: Lisa Vidal Recounts How Extreme Conditions While Filming Connected the Cast (Exclusive)

The Baker and the Beauty is ready to inject a much-needed dose of positivity into your life when it premieres on ABC Monday at 10 p.m. ET. The series follows Daniel Garcia (Victor Rasuk), who works in a bakery run by his parents, Rafael (Carlos Gomez) and Mari Garcia (Lisa Vidal), as he meets and develops a relationship with superstar Noa Hamilton (Nathalie Kelley). While much of the story surrounds Daniel and Noa’s burgeoning relationship, the show also focuses on the personal lives of the entire Garcia family. In advance of the series premiere, Vidal, who portrays the ever-vibrant Garcia matriarch, spoke with PopCulture.com about the bonds that the cast members on The Baker and the Beauty were able to form, despite some extreme circumstances.

The Baker and the Beauty viewers will quickly realize that the Garcia family is an incredibly tight-knit unit. Apparently, their real-life counterparts had just as easy of a time getting close to one another during the course of filming. According to Vidal, the cast’s close dynamic was “pretty instantaneous and natural.” The actor went on to share that she knew two stars, Rasuk and Gomez, prior to the start of filming. As she described, it was fantastic to be able to link up with them on The Baker and the Beauty.

“I mean, I’ve known Victor for a while, so it was hilarious. And I just immediately kind of gelled with everyone, and it was just incredible. We just had instant chemistry,” Vidal told PopCulture.com. “We were shooting the pilot in Atlanta, and we really just kind of were like, we kind of came together like glue. And then when we shot the show in Puerto Rico, we really became a family. I mean, we went through earthquakes there, we went through illness, we went through several things that were kind of shattering. And we just kind of glued onto each other, and got even closer, and protected one another, looked out for one another. It just became a real family.”

Vidal went on to describe that the cast actually became especially close during a scary incident during the course of filming. When they were Puerto Rico filming the series, an earthquake occurred which caused production to shut down. But, that didn’t get in the way of the Baker and the Beauty cast being there for one another. In fact, it really highlighted how close they had become.

“Well I’ll tell you, one of the first big earthquakes that we felt, that was pretty scary, we had to shut down production. And we were all pretty freaked out,” Vidal explained.
“And Carlos Gomez and I really became mom and dad to everyone. And basically, we all hunkered together, we all immediately texted one another. And Carlos FaceTimed all of us, we were all on FaceTime, we all spoke, and we all decided we’re getting together because we were not working today. And we went and we hung out outside, and we ate together, and we just stayed together until we knew what the plan was.”

“And we just kind of hunkered together, it was an amazing thing,” she continued to recount. “We brought water, we made sure we had, everybody had some food, and whoever didn’t have electricity, they came to my apartment for a little while. And we just took care of one another. We really did. We’d go out dancing together all the time, dinner, movies, shopping. All the time, we were always together.”

Clearly, the cast became very close whilst filming the ABC series, and it’s especially evident based on their interactions onscreen. Given that information, fans can expect to see so many fun and touching moments between Vidal’s Mari and the rest of the Garcia family. As for how Mari’s journey is going to play out specifically, Vidal promises that fans are going to get to know exactly who the matriarch is.

“Mari is a very multidimensional woman. She’s not just a mother, she’s not just a housewife, she’s not just a person who works at the bakery,” the actor shared. “She’s really multilayered, and she’s smart, and she’s got talents, and you’re going to discover those things about her as the show goes on.” In terms of how Mari’s journey, and that of the rest of the Garcia family, will play out, fans will simply have to stay tuned to the series to see.

“You’re going to be on the ride with this family, and the highs and the lows, the happy’s and the not’s, and the intrusiveness of it all. And you’re going to be cracking up and laughing in one moment, and crying in the next, and just falling in love too. It’s really that multidimensional,” Vidal previewed about The Baker and the Beauty.”It just has so many flavors, and that’s why it’s going to be so much fun for audiences to watch, and they’re going to become so invested. And the heart of the show truly is the family, because you just fall in love with these people, and how they navigate through this craziness.”