Ashley Williams Calls Hallmark Movies With Pal Alison Sweeney Her Latest ‘Dream Come True’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Over the last 18 months, beloved Hallmark star Ashley Williams has been busy living her best life, manifesting one “dream come true” after another with the network. On January 30, 2025, she and fellow Hallmark queen Alison Sweeney got to unveil the latest dream project — a pair of movies they’re about to film together in Spain.

Williams has been on a roll lately, spearheading multiple meaningful projects with Hallmark over the last year and a half. In May 2023, the “Jingle Bell Run” star officially launched Make Her Mark — a program she developed with Hallmark execs that aims to hire and mentor more female directors.

A year later, Williams produced and starred in the fall 2024 movie “Falling Together,” created in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, an organization dear to her heart given her mom’s difficult journey with dementia. And in early January, she realized her decades-long dream of being a TV host with the debut of her unscripted dating show, “Small Town Setup,” on Hallmark+.

Next up, Williams and longtime friend Sweeney get to head overseas after years of “dying to find something for us to work on together,” she told EntertainmentNOW.

Ashley Williams Jokes That Alison Sweeney Has Become Her ‘Work Wife’

Williams and Sweeney will head to Spain in February and March to film a pair of friendship movies they’ve been working on for several years, Sweeney told TV Insider. The movies were written by Julie Sherman Wolfe, the mastermind behind some of Hallmark’s most elaborate movies, from 2022’s “A Holiday Spectacular” to 2024’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.”

“We were at a Hallmark event three years ago, maybe longer, and talking about wanting to work together,” Sweeney told TV Insider of her partnership with Williams. “Ashley has a great origin story of how she came up with this idea, but she said to me, ‘Ali, do you speak another language?’ And I said, ‘Well, I speak Spanish.’ And then she immediately launched into her idea.”

Williams told EntertainmentNOW that she “pitched this idea to Julie Sherman Wolfe late at night in a bar. Right then Ali walked by and I roped her into playing opposite me in the movie. It’s a dream come true.”

Though both actresses got their starts on soap operas in the 90s — Sweeney on “Days of Our Lives” and Williams on “As The World Turns” — Williams said they didn’t get to know each other until they both wound up at Hallmark.

“I had always followed her career, but it wasn’t until we were on a Hallmark trip years ago that we truly became friends,” Williams told EntertainmentNOW. “The fact that we now get to play best friends … and in Spain, no less? It’s so cool.”

Laughing ‘All Day Long’ is Part of What Makes Ashley Williams’ & Alison Sweeney’s Partnership Work

Williams hinted that the friendship between her and Sweeney’s characters may unravel onscreen, but said that working together in real life has been nothing short of wonderful.

“Producing with Ali is super fun,” Williams said. “She’s just as hands on as I am, which is refreshing. We are talking half a dozen times a day — brainstorming, troubleshooting, running things by each other.  She already feels like my work wife.”  

Another key ingredient in their partnership is laughter, Williams said, explaining, “I texted her the other day, ‘Let me just get a coffee and I’ll call you,’ and then by accident, I texted her (again), thinking it was my husband, and said, ‘Can you make me a coffee babe?’ And she wrote back, ‘Sure, honey.’ We laugh all day long. I’m so happy. I can’t wait to do all of this with a table full of Tapas in front of us!”

In September 2024, fans got a peek at the duo together when Williams made a surprise (and hilarious) cameo in Sweeney’s latest “Hannah Swensen” mystery, playing an over-the-top actress with serious drama. In an Instagram post about the role, seen above, Williams called it the “most fun, over-the-top time I’ve ever had.”

The stars’ pair of movies are expected to premiere later in 2025, though exact dates haven’t been announced. Meanwhile, Williams’ “Small Town Setup” is available to stream on Hallmark+ and Sweeney’s “Reality Bites: A Hannah Swensen Mystery” premieres on February 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Hallmark Mystery.