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I Always Wondered How Hallmark Movies Are Cast, And Ashley Williams Told Me The Wild Story About How Alison Sweeney Landed To Barcelona, With Love
Those who check out this month’s Hallmark movies are in for quite a treat — a double dose of Ashley Williams and Alison Sweeney that will allow fans to experience Barcelona from the comfort of their own homes. The actresses sat down with CinemaBlend to talk about To Barcelona, With Love (premiering June 7 on the 2025 TV schedule) and its sequel, and Williams shared an incredible story about how she came up with the movie and how Sweeney landed a role in it.
I’ve always wondered how Hallmark decides which of its stars to cast in specific movies, particularly the ones where the actors get to travel to picturesque locations for filming. (That doesn’t just pertain to the snowy backdrops featured in the network’s Christmas movies, of course) As it turns out, there’s a wild story behind Alison Sweeney getting the part of Erica in the To Barcelona flicks. It all started with an identity crisis of sorts, Ashley Williams told me:
Basically, I was in a bookstore and I was having a low moment in my life where I was just like, ‘I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I’ll never be a writer because I’m just not good enough.’ And then I was like, ‘The only way that I would ever be a successful writer is if I wrote a book and someone translated it into a different language and actually rewrote it into a good book.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that could actually be a funny idea.’
Thus the plot for To Barcelona, With Love was born, as Ashley Williams said she met with screenwriter Julie Sherman Wolfe that very night, pitching her “silly idea” in a bar around 1 a.m. It was a hit, though Wolfe had one pretty big question. Williams continued:
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She said, ‘Well, we would need another Hallmark actress to play the translator. Do you know of any other Hallmark actresses that speak a different language?’ And right then Alison Sweeney, who I’ve been wanting to work with for years, walked by, and I said, ‘Hey, Ali, do you speak another language?’ And she said, ‘Spanish.’ And I said, ‘So, it takes place in Barcelona,’ and that is how Alison Sweeney won the role.
Talk about fate! Alison Sweeney was literally in the right place at the right time to win the role of Erica, an American living in Barcelona who finds herself in a complicated position after taking more than a few liberties while translating one of Anna’s (Ashley Williams) books in Spanish.
The three of them apparently hashed the rest of the movie out sitting right there in that bar, and they got the official green light after pitching it to the network.
I love the serendipity of how Alison Sweeney got the part, and it was made even better by the fact that the How I Met Your Mother actress had been wanting to work with Sweeney for years. Not only did the two finally get their wish, they got to travel to Spain to do it, and they got two movies out of the experience.
To Barcelona, With Love premieres at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, June 7, on Hallmark, which will be followed by To Barcelona, Forever, at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, June 14.
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