Alison Sweeney’s new film, Actuality Bites: A Hannah Swensen Thriller, will premiere on Thursday, February 6, on Hallmark Thriller. Within the sixth installment of the sequence, Sweeney just isn’t solely the star and government producer, she additionally wrote the script.
“I like true crime,” Sweeney says. “I like homicide mysteries. I grew up watching Perry Mason and Columbo with my mother, so simply attending to develop these concepts myself is enjoyable. I take pleasure in imagining how the viewers goes to understand the thriller and the scenes and the clues and laying all that out. After which, after all, I like these characters. I like the actors and the solid, so it’s simply actually enjoyable to dwell on this world and produce it to life.”
To make that occur, Sweeney says she places herself in her characters’ sneakers. “As I inform Barbara [Niven, Dolores], Gabe [Hogan, Norman], and Juliana [Wimbles, Lisa], I actually do hear them in my head as I’m writing,” she shares of her course of. “I begin by growing the scene and an overview of what must occur in every scene, after which I begin pondering, ‘OK, properly, how would I get into that? How does the scene begin?’ And I’m not kidding, I really feel just like the characters are alive in my mind, in my creativeness, and so they simply begin speaking and arguing or doing loopy issues and it simply involves life.”
Although she’s been hands-on with each movie as an government producer, Sweeney says she feels a deeper tie to the venture when she’s the one penning the dialogue. “I’ve at all times felt actually linked because the producer, extra so than as an actor, since you’re in all of the conferences, you’re a part of casting, and also you’re working with the prop division and taking a look at places,” she explains. “However if you find yourself the one who’s sitting there at first with the germ of an thought after which placing it on the web page and typing and you then ship it on, and see it really occurring in actual life, it’s a loopy expertise to undergo. There are entire conferences about what a pie goes to appear to be, or what sort of apple tart you wish to make, or no matter. It’s simply actually cool.”
David Asorga/Hallmark
In Actuality Bites, a well-known TV baker involves Lake Eden to movie an episode of her sequence, and tragedy strikes when somebody finally ends up useless. Together with the behind-the-scenes features of how a TV present is made was an artwork imitates life second for Sweeney, who started performing as a toddler. “That was essentially the most enjoyable for me,” she relays. “There have been prolonged discussions about making an attempt to be as correct as we could possibly be in regards to the TV course of. It was enjoyable to speak by means of the logistics of which components of the business we’re going to indicate. Are we actually going to peel again the onion? After which additionally, what’s a bit of too ‘inside baseball’? Within the authentic draft, there have been some actually deep minimize, inside jokes about TV making that they have been like, ‘Solely you and a handful of individuals will perceive that joke, Ali.’”
Nonetheless, having the author on set whereas manufacturing was underway made any points simpler to troubleshoot. “Issues occur that you just’re not anticipating,” says Sweeney. “For instance, there might not be a door the place I believed there’d be a door, so now it takes longer to get out of a set, so I’ve so as to add one other line of dialogue to account for that. Or, for instance, with the cooking segments, the director stated to me, ‘Properly, she has to have one thing to say whereas this different stuff is occurring,’ and I used to be like, ‘Oh, you’re proper.’ So I had so as to add a few strains of dialogue on the final minute, and we received the thought to make use of cue playing cards as a result of that’s old fashioned. And so then, the prop division’s working round making an attempt to get poster board and somebody with good handwriting. However that was all very eleventh hour, which is simply basic. You spend weeks getting ready for one thing, after which inevitably, the factor you want most you consider 12 hours earlier than you begin capturing.”
In a single scene, Hannah winds up with blueberry pie in her hair, which prompted prolonged discussions about the right way to movie it most effectively. “There have been conferences and an alarm of, is it going to dye my hair?” relays Sweeney. “There have been a number of components to it that have been tense for folks, and so we set it as much as occur on the finish of the day. We examined it on a wig to see if it stains the hair of the wig, which it did a bit of bit. We have been like, ‘Oh, my gosh, OK, we’ve got to scrub it out straight away.’ We had a washing station to verify as quickly because the take is over, we washed my hair instantly. However we additionally had to verify there was sufficient blueberry in my hair that there’s a payoff. You don’t need it to simply appear to be whipped cream. That felt like a cheat, in order that was fairly enjoyable.”
David Asorga/Hallmark
There’s additionally an intricate sequence and stunt involving a automobile and her costar Victor Webster (Chad Norton). “Victor, fortunately, is excellent at that and has had numerous expertise,” Sweeney shares. “I’ve not had the chance to do numerous stunt work for actual, and so it’s actually enjoyable to get to write down it in. You’ll see that in my writing, as a lot as potential, I’m going so as to add these sorts of scenes that I wish to be in. I actually suppose it turned out nice.”
Although it’s Hallmark and there’s definitely a spark between Hannah and Chad, romance just isn’t the driving pressure of this film. However, Sweeney has added flirtatious undertones to counsel that might occur sooner or later. “I attempt to make the dynamic of the household, the dynamic of the romance, and the relationships simply as satisfying to look at because the thriller as a result of that’s what I like within the films I watch time and again and once more,” she provides. “I not too long ago watched Satisfaction and Prejudice with my daughter for, like, the 700th time, as a result of there are particular moments, sure scenes, sure appears to be like that you just simply can’t get sufficient of. So hopefully I’m giving the viewers these emotions that they take pleasure in catching once more when the film is on once more.”
Actuality Bites: A Hannah Swensen Thriller, Thursday, February 6, 8/7c, Hallmark Thriller