Exclusive Interview
Inside Hallmark Superstars Alison Sweeney & Ashley Williams’ Journey to Their ‘Barcelona’ Movie Event
Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams are headlining a pair of new movies for Hallmark this month, To Barcelona, With Love on June 7, and To Barcelona, Forever, on June 14.
The longtime friends had been looking for a project to collaborate on for years, when inspiration hit Williams late one night at an airport. “Which is where all good ideas are born,” she quips to Swooon. “But I was having a bit of a low moment. My sister’s [Kimberly Williams-Paisley] an amazing writer, and I love to write maybe more than anything in the world, but haven’t had much success with it. So, I was flying into New York, and I went into a Hudson News [store]. I was walking around, and all I could think was, ‘I’m never going to be a real writer. This is just never going to happen for me.'”
As she browsed through the reading material, Williams found her thoughts drifting in a darker direction. “I’m looking at all these amazing authors, and then I was feeling so negative that I took it that extra step of, ‘If I ever did have a successful book, it would be because the book that I wrote was actually translated by a good writer in a different language, and maybe that book would be successful in some random country, and then I’d get to go there and do a book tour,'” she muses. “And then I was suddenly like, ‘That’s kind of an interesting idea.'”
Hallmark Media / Manu Sevillano
After she arrived in New York for a Hallmark event, Williams pitched the idea to Julie Sherman Wolfe, who penned the network’s popular 2024 film, Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story. “Julie was like, ‘I think this could be a good idea. We’d need another Hallmark actress that speaks a different language,'” Williams recalls. “Ali Sweeney walked by the bar at 1 a.m., and I said, ‘Hey, Ali, do you speak a different language?’ And Ali said, ‘Yeah, I speak Spanish.’ And I turned right back to Julie, and I said, ‘So it takes place in Barcelona…’ And that’s really when it just took off, because a good idea is just a good idea until you have Alison Sweeney, and then it turns into a movie.”
Points out Sweeney, “What’s funny about that is, you were only going down that rabbit hole to torture yourself. There’s something so self-loathing about actors that you’re like, ‘Oh, and the only success I would ever have is if I stole it from someone else.’ And you’re piling on, and then all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘This is a great movie.'”
In the first film, To Barcelona, With Love, Sweeney plays Erica, an American woman living in Barcelona who translates novels into Spanish. Williams plays Anna, the American author of the book, Barcelona, Mi Amor, that became a big hit after Erica’s translation. Due to its local popularity, Anna comes to Barcelona for a book signing event, which threatens to expose Erica’s secret, that she took liberties with her translations of Anna’s work. Meanwhile, local bookstore owner Nico (Alejandro Tous), for whom Erica has long had feelings, is intrigued by Anna and her writing. The second film, To Barcelona, Forever, picks up the story five months after the first one ends.
Sweeney and Williams, who also serve as executive producers along with Craig Baumgarten, admit they’re surprised by how well it all came together. “There were a lot of different iterations of doing it in Mexico, or South America, and thinking about what different parts of Spain are feasible with our budget,” the Days of Our Lives alum explains. “Craig really did the legwork, and finally, we had a meeting with Hallmark, where we told them we thought we could do the whole movie in Spain. They looked at us, like, ‘Well, then great, go for it.’ And I don’t know about Ashley, but until I had that ticket and was going to the airport, I just couldn’t believe it was actually happening.”
Hallmark Media / Manu Sevillano
Adds Williams, “I remember getting to the airport, and they said, ‘To Barcelona?’ And I was like, ‘I mean, I think. That’s what it says.’ [Laughs] And I just kept laughing as I’m heading to the airplane, thinking, ‘This is nuts.’ It was a dream come true.”
The reality surpassed the dream once they reached Europe. “It was so cool when we first arrived there,” continues Williams. “One of our producers, Kevin Leslie, said, ‘You know what’s amazing about shooting in actual Spain? Everywhere you look, it looks like Spain.’ When we shoot in Canada, a lot of time we’re having to cover up mountainsides or trees or snow. Being able to shoot in Spain just meant that we didn’t have to cheat stuff, and we could put our resources where they really needed to be, which was on story, and leaning into what was already there. For example, [Basilica de la] Sagrada Familia didn’t need set dressing, you know? We got to shoot at all the major spots, so people who are watching this movie and can’t travel to Barcelona, you don’t need to, because we’re bringing you there with this movie.”
The pals discovered that they work well together. “It was so fun because we both had the same vision,” says Sweeney. “Every day, every scene, every outfit, all the time, we were making the movie better together and because of each other and because of our dynamic.”
Agrees Williams, “Ali and I have made a lot of these Hallmark movies, and what I have to relearn every time is that a good movie is made incrementally, with teeny, tiny decisions all day long, and that was where Ali and I really thrived. So, we made a really good team that way. It was very fun.”
Now, they’re looking for something else to do together. “If you had spent seven weeks working with Ashley Williams, you would spend the rest of your life figuring out how to make that happen again,” praises Sweeney.
This isn’t the only place to see Sweeney on Hallmark this month. She’ll be back with Victor Webster and Co. for a new film, Pie to Die For: A Hannah Swensen Mystery, on June 22. “I’m so excited,” she enthuses. “I feel like these movies are so fun and so different. Hopefully, the audience will fall in love with these characters in Barcelona, and then maybe need a palate cleanser after we get back to some dead bodies.”
To Barcelona, With Love, Movie Premiere, June 7, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
To Barcelona, Forever, Movie Premiere, June 14, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
