A love letter to Saint John: Toronto actress finds comfort in filming location

Hannah Rudderham · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 12, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: July 12

A Toronto histrion has fallen successful emotion with Saint John aft spending 3 months successful the Port City filming a caller TV show. 

The archetypal occurrence of Revival premiered successful June, and portion it takes spot successful agrarian Wisconsin, those with a keen oculus mightiness admit immoderate of the images from the snowy New Brunswick landscape.

"New Brunswick conscionable had beautiful, beauteous locations that really lucifer the small-town consciousness precise well," said histrion Romy Weltman.

"Everything is historical, and nothing's truly been rebuilt oregon touched there, truthful it does person an aged consciousness and a historical consciousness to it, which is ace important successful the satellite of Revival.

"I deliberation that it was conscionable a no-brainer. If we weren't filming successful Wisconsin, it had to beryllium successful Saint John."

Weltman, a 25-year-old Toronto-based actress, moved to Saint John from September to December past twelvemonth to instrumentality connected the relation of Martha (Em) Cypress successful the fearfulness drama. 

The communicative revolves astir "revival day" wherever everyone who died implicit the preceding 2 weeks comes backmost to life, said Weltman. And Weltman's character, Em, soon finds retired that she is simply a "reviver" and indispensable past navigate her beingness arsenic a caller quality successful a satellite wherever revivers are treated differently. 

WATCH | 'I was determination alone, but I didn't consciousness unsocial astatine all,' says Romy Weltman:

This sprout was Weltman's archetypal clip connected the East Coast. Ironically, she had booked a idiosyncratic travel to Halifax, but it fell during the archetypal week of filming, truthful she ended up conscionable going to Saint John instead.

Weltman said she loved the walkability of Saint John and its tiny markets and shops.

"I didn't consciousness precise blameworthy erstwhile buying successful Saint John, due to the fact that I was ever like, 'I'm supporting section truthful it's fine,'" she said.

While the main office was successful the uptown, Weltman said a batch of the filming besides took spot successful smaller towns extracurricular of the metropolis and astatine immoderate beauteous farms with tons of land.

One of Weltman's favourite parts of the uptown was Catapult Coffee, which she proclaims is her "favourite java store successful the full world."

Weltman said she feels similar she ate her mode done Saint John.

"I've ne'er had a lobster rotation similar that," she said.

One weekend, she drove to Fredericton to explore, and different time, she went with immoderate of the film's unit to Saint Andrews wherever she saw whales, porpoises and seals.

Although Weltman doesn't cognize yet if the amusement volition person a 2nd season, if she gets to travel backmost to movie again, she hopes to travel a spot earlier to effort and research much of the East Coast. 

During filming past October, Weltman posted to her Instagram with the caption, "a emotion missive to Saint John, N.B."

And for her, portion of that affinity comes from the welcoming quality of the city. 

"I'd conscionable locomotion extracurricular and I met truthful galore of my neighbours … and I conscionable consciousness similar wrong a day, I was already a portion of it all, and it felt truly lucky," she said.

"Where I was surviving could person impacted the acquisition successful specified a affirmative oregon antagonistic way, I think, and I was fortunate that it was positive."