While spending six weeks filming their two new Hallmark Channel movies in Spain, Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams picked up some great new wardrobe pieces — straight from the costume department.
But they didn’t just take a couple of things. During an interview with EntertainmentNow about filming “To Barcelona, With Love,” which debuted on June 7, and “To Barcelona, Forever,” premiering on June 14, the stars and longtime friends laughed as they admitted to taking their characters’ entire wardrobes home with them.
“I literally kept everything,” Williams said, laughing and covering her face. “Guilty!”
When Sweeney heard Williams’ admission, she chimed in, “Same! I had a whole other suitcase I had to bring home!”
Ashley Williams & Alison Sweeney Say Their Wardrobes Were Critical for Character Development
While Williams and Sweeney clearly loved the wardrobe pieces enough to wear them all in real life, they both said that the clothes created and selected for them were critical for getting to know their characters.
In “To Barcelona, With Love,” Williams plays Anna, an author whose latest book is a flop in America but a big hit in Spain. She’s unaware that the writer who translated her book into Spanish — Sweeney’s character, American expat Erica — secretly revised the love story set in her adopted city, Barcelona. Through lots of highs and lows, the two eventually develop a kinship (and one winds up in a blossoming romance), leading to the second movie, which takes place six months later.
As executive producers of the movies, Williams and Sweeney had got to help choose the creative team, including who dressed their characters.
During their chat with EntertainmentNow, Sweeney told Williams, “You brought in such a brilliant costume designer for us, because she really encapsulated our characters and gave us the physicality of like, what they wear and how they dress and how they look — before we even set foot on stage. And that helped me a lot to define who Erica is. And then, you know, just developing that along as we went was really so much fun for me.”
Williams replied, “Shout out to Julia Schklair — she is a costume designer I actually worked with like 15 or 20 years ago on a TV show and we’ve kept in touch. I remember, Ali, after you had your fitting with her, you called me and said, ‘Okay, now I’m really excited!'”
“You know, Ali and I’ve done a lot of these movies,” Williams continued, “and there’s a couple of designers out of Vancouver that just make the movie for us. You just are able to find the character. It’s a
completely different experience doing a movie where you feel like you’re embodying the character because of the clothes that you’re wearing. When the clothes fit, everything else, so many other things go into place and shout out to her, because she just did an unbelievable job. She made me feel very at home in the character.”
Alison Sweeney Says Creating Second ‘To Barcelona’ Movie Was a ‘Fun Challenge For Us as Storytellers’
When Hallmark fans rejoin the dynamic duo in “To Barcelona, Forever,” they’ll see Anna return to Barcelona to celebrate Erica and Nico’s engagement.
Sweeney told EntertainmentNow that she and Williams hope it’s evident to viewers how their characters have grown since their paths first crossed at the start of “To Barcelona, With Love,” as they apply their newfound wisdom to new challenges.
“You know, they have learned the lessons from the first movie,” she said, “so how do they apply it to the next set of circumstances? So that was, you know, a fun challenge for us at storytellers.”
“But I think it’s really fun, because Ashley’s character kind of goes into a whole new adventure in a new in a different part of Spain,” Sweeney added. “So we got to shoot in totally different locations, come across totally different characters.”
Williams then teased, “There’s a family theme in the second movie that’s not there at all in the first movie and it provides a lot of comedy.”
Hallmark Channel’s “To Barcelona, Forever” premieres on June 14 at 8 p.m. Eastern time and will be available to stream on Hallmark+ the following day.
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What Alison Sweeney & Ashley Williams Took From Their New Hallmark Movies is Awesome (EXCLUSIVE)