What’s It Take to Make a Hallmark Movie in Europe? Alison, Ashley Tell All
After decades of being in the rom-com game, Hallmark has their movie format down to a science — but what happens when the stories take them overseas?
In Alison Sweeney and Ashley Williams’ 2025 “Passport to Love” movies To Barcelona, With Love and To Barcelona, Forever, that’s exactly what happened. The actresses, who appear in both films, traveled to Barcelona to shoot the movies and faced a few hurdles along the way.
“There is a real look [and] genre to Hallmark movies,” Williams exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting the back-to-back June releases. “It was really important that we, even though we were shooting in a different country, and the concept was a little bit outside the box, it was still really important that it had all of the feels and that it looked and walked and talked like a Hallmark movie just in a different location.”
She teased, “We brought Hallmark to Spain, and we were like, ‘Hi Spain, here’s how it goes.’”
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In To Barcelona, With Love, Sweeney plays Erica, an American translator living in Barcelona, who is responsible for translating Anna’s (Williams) romance novel. However, when Anna arrives in town to promote the book, Erica confesses that she rewrote most of the plot leading to shenanigans and an unlikely friendship between the women.
To Barcelona, Forever is the next step in the story, following more of Anna’s journey following her writing debacle. “Anna has such a great arc in the first movie. And then I think that springboards her into the arc for the second movie,” Sweeney told Us.
While both films follow the Hallmark protocol of finding love through mishaps and missed connections, how they were made was a little different than most of the projects produced in Canada or the United States.
Scroll down to see what it takes to make a Hallmark movie in Europe — and what is fake vs. what is real:
Does the Filming Window Get Stretched?
Hallmark projects have a tight three-week filming window, whether they are shooting in the U.S. or Canada, where much of the production is done. According to Sweeney, that timeline is exactly the same when filming in Europe.
“The thing about what we were trying to do that’s so, like, intense, is that it’s not like you get any more time or any extra anything,” Sweeney explained. “We were basically trying to do the same thing we do at home, but in Spain. So it was a lot of extra sort of moving parts for us.”
To make things more complicated, Sweeney said they shot the two movies at the same time using “block shooting.” She recalled, “There were days where you were shooting three scenes from the first movie and the two scenes from the second movie.”
Local Crews Are a Must
Instead of bringing over a crew they know, Hallmark employs locals for their overseas productions. Director Ron Oliver had to “teach the crew, who were a Spanish crew and had never done a Hallmark movie before, what Hallmark coverage looks like,” Williams remembered. “You know what the pace is. Like, it’s very different.”
Sweeney noted that everything from the style of shooting to the call sheets have a “different style” that took time to adjust to as an actor. Even with the “growing pains,” Sweeney said there was “excitement” and “enthusiasm” from the crew that positively affected the rest of the team.
Are There Any Road Closures for Special Scenes?
Throughout the two Spain-based movies — and nearly every other European Hallmark feature — the local monuments are shown in all their glory. While the landmarks such as Sagrada Familia are often highlighted without a ton of crowds, the actresses said they didn’t get any special treatment while shooting.
“Normally when you shoot a movie like this, yeah, you’ll have like an area that you sort of [block off]. They call it like, ‘owning it,’” Williams told Us, revealing that in Spain they didn’t have anything quarantined off for just their cast and crew.
Alison explained, “We can’t afford to like, shut down Los Ramblas and then hire 300 people to, like, be the extras.” Because of that, the director hired 10 people to “stay close” to the actors in case they were needed for “retakes they would match” and be edited without issues.
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The Extras Are Locals … For the Most Part
Like the crew, Hallmark hires from surrounding areas to cut down on costs. “We did have some background actors, but we most of the time had what Ali and I started to refer to as ‘real live human people,’ which were just Spanish people,” Williams said.
She laughed, remembering shooting in a market where “Spanish people [were] coming to get their food for dinner that night, and they’re just suddenly in the middle of our scene.” Williams noted, “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 agreed, saying, “You are seeing real people who are really going to the market and really ordering fish for dinner and picking up their olives and a smoothie. That was genuinely happening all around us.”
Where Do the Hair and Makeup Teams Come From?
When Hallmark films in Canada, they often use the same outside crews, including hair and makeup. When in Europe, most of the team is from the same country, but Sweeney told Us that for this project, they were able to “arrange for some departments that were really special to us [to fly out].”
Sweeney’s makeup artist, who she said she’s worked with since Days of Our Lives, was one of the select few who made the trip. “She did our makeup. She sort of oversaw our looks,” she recalled. “Then the rest of the team was local, so we had this amazing hairstylist from Barcelona. She was incredible and everyone did a beautiful job.”
Wardrobe Is Always a Gamble
Since Williams and Sweeney are Hallmark pros, they know the “majority” of the stylists and costume designers who are part of the network. But Williams told Us when you don’t know the costumer, it can be a gamble.
“The first thing you do is go for your wardrobe fitting and you never really know if you’re gonna be on the same page with them,” Williams said, revealing, “I always bring like an entire suitcase that has like jeans that I like and some extra boots just, just as backup. And often they don’t ever get used.”
Sweeney teased that she is “still scarred from the ‘90s” so she is always “afraid things aren’t going to fit.” As a result, she likes to have a “look board” that she creates with the costume team beforehand.
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Luckily for both of them, Williams’ longtime wardrobe stylist was able to come to Spain and run that part of the show. “I asked her if she would do us a favor and dress us both for this movie, and she did and it just changed the entire experience for both of us,” Williams shared.
Unlike most projects, the actresses had their wardrobe picked out before they flew to the location. “As I was sitting on the plane, learning my lines, going through it, I sort of already knew what I was wearing, which is not for me, not normally how that goes. So that was great,” Sweeney gushed.
There’s No Such Thing as a Taste Test for Food Scenes
Throughout the first To Barcelona movie, Williams’ character, Anna, frequents food stalls and tries as much local cuisine as possible. The places she ate at, however, were not really pre-planned.
“They did say, like, ‘Hey, do you have any allergies?’ And it’s a good thing that I don’t,” Williams said of the on-the-move experience. “We went up to the stalls and said, ‘Can you be in this movie and do you wanna be like a background actor and hand Ashley something from your stall?’ Like I was actually eating food from their stalls. Luckily, I eat everything, and I’m obsessed with food, so it was kind of perfect.”
The Budgets are Small, But Mighty
To Barcelona, With Love centers around Sant Jordi Day a.k.a. Saint George’s Day, a holiday in Spain that celebrates love with red roses and book exchanges. To stay within budget, Hallmark sent their actors and director to shoot the month prior to the real holiday.
“We designed [it to match]. We had to be very careful with our budget, so we would find, like, little alleys that we could fill up with these banners and with the signs,” Sweeney told Us of how they make their money go further. “And so that was all very much Ron Oliver’s just a genius to make it feel like the whole place [was on holiday].”
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She joked that the locals were “a little confused” because they knew the holiday was in April, not March, but they went along with the decorations. “It was really cute. Like they just were super into it and they love that holiday,” Sweeney continued. “That was really fun for them to get to celebrate it twice that year.”
To Barcelona, With Love premieres on Hallmark Channel Saturday, June 7, at 8 p.m. ET with part 2, To Barcelona, Forever premiering on Saturday, June 14 at 8 p.m. ET.
