Those that try this month’s Hallmark motion pictures are in for fairly a deal with — a double dose of Ashley Williams and Alison Sweeney that can permit followers to expertise Barcelona from the consolation of their very own properties. The actresses sat down with CinemaBlend to speak about To Barcelona, With Love (premiering June 7 on the 2025 TV schedule) and its sequel, and Williams shared an unbelievable story about how she got here up with the film and the way Sweeney landed a task in it.
I’ve at all times questioned how Hallmark decides which of its stars to solid in particular motion pictures, significantly those the place the actors get to journey to picturesque places for filming. (That does not simply pertain to the snowy backdrops featured within the community’s Christmas motion pictures, in fact) Because it seems, there’s a wild story behind Alison Sweeney getting the a part of Erica within the To Barcelona flicks. It began with an id disaster of kinds, Ashley Williams advised me:
Mainly, I used to be in a bookstore and I used to be having a low second in my life the place I used to be similar to, ‘I’ve at all times wished to be a author. I will by no means be a author as a result of I am simply not adequate.’ After which I used to be like, ‘The one manner that I might ever be a profitable author is that if I wrote a e-book and somebody translated it into a special language and truly rewrote it into a superb e-book.’ And I used to be like, ‘Oh, that might really be a humorous thought.’
Thus the plot for To Barcelona, With Love was born, as Ashley Williams mentioned she met with screenwriter Julie Sherman Wolfe that very night time, pitching her “foolish thought” in a bar round 1 a.m. It was successful, although Wolfe had one fairly massive query. Williams continued:
She mentioned, ‘Effectively, we would wish one other Hallmark actress to play the translator. Are you aware of every other Hallmark actresses that talk a special language?’ And proper then Alison Sweeney, who I have been desirous to work with for years, walked by, and I mentioned, ‘Hey, Ali, do you converse one other language?’ And he or she mentioned, ‘Spanish.’ And I mentioned, ‘So, it takes place in Barcelona,’ and that’s how Alison Sweeney gained the function.
Discuss destiny! Alison Sweeney was actually in the precise place on the proper time to win the function of Erica, an American residing in Barcelona who finds herself in an advanced place after taking various liberties whereas translating one in all Anna’s (Ashley Williams) books in Spanish.
The three of them apparently hashed the remainder of the film out sitting proper there in that bar, and so they obtained the official inexperienced gentle after pitching it to the community.
I like the serendipity of how Alison Sweeney obtained the half, and it was made even higher by the truth that the How I Met Your Mom actress had been desirous to work with Sweeney for years. Not solely did the 2 lastly get their want, they obtained to journey to Spain to do it, and so they obtained two motion pictures out of the expertise.
To Barcelona, With Love premieres at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, June 7, on Hallmark, which might be adopted by To Barcelona, Endlessly, at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, June 14.