The Hallmark Channel’s newest “Passport to Love” movie, “To Barcelona, With Love,” premieres on Saturday June 7, at 7 p.m. Eastern/8 p.m. Central. It’s the first of a two-part series. The movie stars Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams. Read on to learn all about where it was filmed and behind the scenes cast stories.
Williams & Sweeney Loved Filming in Barcelona So Much, They Started a Podcast About It
Sweeney and Williams traveled to Europe to film both “To Barcelona, With Love” and “To Barcelona, Forever.” According to the Barcelona Film Commission, IMDb, and Parade, the movie was filmed on location in the heart of Barcelona. Filming locations included stunning views of La Sagrada Familia in Catalonia, Spain, and a detour to the city of Bilbao, Spain.
Williams shared that they loved filming so much, they started a podcast about the experience.
In an interview with Us Weekly, Sweeney revealed that they filmed the two movies at the same time in Spain, which sometimes got complicated. Director Ron Oliver worked with a local crew in Spain, which meant some methods of filming were different from what they were used to. They also used local residents as extras, or just filmed during a normal busy time.
Williams told Us Weekly that when they were filming a market scene, “Spanish people [were] coming to get their food for dinner that night, and they’re just suddenly in the middle of our scene. It was partly, you know, the budget constraint, but that meant that we were able to bring the liveliness of the city into the movie. So you could feel the energy.”
Sweeney took to Instagram to share some behind-the-scenes of the movie, packed with beautiful scenery! She wrote: “As you all know from listening to our podcast, Mi Amor (Like&subscribe😚) @ashleywilliamsandcompany & I have had so much fun working together on To Barcelona, With Love – and it premieres this SATURDAY on @hallmarkchannel !! We were so lucky to have access to so many spectacular locations to film. 🎥 🌹📚”
In a different post, she wrote about how happy she was to film in “gorgeous Barcelona.”
And she shared some “outtakes.”
She wrote in another post, “It’s been such an incredible experience living and working in Spain. The opportunity to get to see such history and visit several different important cultural keystones is one of the many reasons I will treasure the memory of this forever.”
She also took time to explore while she was there.
Sweeney even shared how much she loved cooking while in Spain. She wrote: “After a long day on set sometimes I am just craving a big homemade salad. 🥗 There are so many incredible fresh ingredients here in Spain, it’s hard to narrow the choices. The vegetables are amazing but really it’s the delicious ripe fruit that are 🤯. 🍅 🍓 🍊 #yum #setlife 🎥”
Sweeney and Williams have even started a podcast based on the Barcelona movies. Williams wrote: “It’s pretty unfiltered behind the scenes convos about the shooting of these movies in Barcelona, complete with insider mostly embarrassing stories such as when I barfed on Las Ramblas in between takes.”
Williams also wrote: “Imagine being a fan of an actress since you were a teenager and now you’re a grownup and you make her play your best friend in a movie and take her to Spain with you for months and now you’re real life best friends and this is your life now. You do normal things like text her by accident or take vet recommendations from her. You make fun of her and your life is made every time you make her laugh. This is my life now. This is midlife me and teenage me can’t stop squealing.”
Alejandro Tous also posted about the movie (via a translation): “Today my great colleague @miguelbrocca has quoted me a phrase from #anthonyhopkins that comes to say something like: ‘I get paid to live in hotels, to be away from my family, to eat out… but acting I do it for free.’ Well that! 😊Enjoying shooting at the orders of @ashleywilliamsandcompany with unxs deluxe companions @ronoliver @alexsorianbrown @alisweeney @hallmarkchannel @hallmarkplus @antonio_abeledo.”
Here’s another photo he shared:
Meet the Cast
Hallmark’s synopsis reads: “Erica, an American translator, secretly revises a novel set in Barcelona. Everything is fine until bookstore owner Nico invites the credited author, Anna, to the city for a book-signing.”
Alison Sweeney is Erica in the film. She’s well known among Hallmark fans, with numerous credits include “Hannah Swensen Mysteries,” “Chronicle Mysteries,” “The Wedding Veil” series, and much more. She’s also well known among daytime soap fans for her long-running role on “Days of Our Lives.”
Ashley Williams is Anna. According to her Hallmark bio, she’s a writer, producer, director and actor. She recently directed an episode of “The Rookie” on ABC, and she’s well known for her roles at Hallmark. Some of her credits include “Love on a Limb,” the “Sister Swap” series, “October Kiss,” “Christmas in Evergreen,” “Northern Lights of Christmas,” “Falling Together,” and the reality series “Small Town Setup.”
Also starring, according to IMDb, are:
- Alejandro Tous
- Miguel Brocca (Javier)
- Carolina Garrido (Nina)
- Raul Yuste (Vendor)
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Where Was ‘To Barcelona, With Love’ Filmed? See Cast Stories & Locations