Lacey Chabert and The Cast Of Paris Is Always A Good Idea Talk Fate, Family, and Favorite European Filming Locations
Paris Is Always A Good Idea puts Lacey Chabert in the middle of a romance that spans Paris, Ireland, and Spain. After a massive heartbreak, Chelsea Martin spends years pushing love aside to focus on her work. But when she’s thrust into a deal that requires her to go back to Paris, it gives her a peek into what her life could’ve been like if she made other choices. In a conversation with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado, Lacey Chabert, Scott Michael Foster, Rebecca Hanssen, and Henry Czerny talk exploring multiple timelines, building instant chemistry, filming across Europe, and how life’s biggest decisions shape who we are.
“That was what really drew me to the show,” Chabert told me. “It was so exciting for me to have the chance to do a limited series with Hallmark and have those six episodes to really delve into these characters and dig deeper into the story. I love that we are navigating three different timelines. We get to flash back 10 years prior to who she was in these three different relationships. Then we have the present, which she's trying to navigate, and then we have these flash forwards to the future, which get explained really well as they're beautifully written throughout the episodes. I love the journey. It's a beautiful sweeping love story visiting Paris and Spain and Ireland. It's also a family story, so I just think it has a lot to offer.”
Chabert and Foster play rival co-workers who see the other as major competition. “You say, ‘Hi, nice to meet you. Let's go shoot a scene,’ and you jump into it. He's so wonderful and perfect and brought so much to the character,” Chabert said about her co-star. “[It] makes it easy for me to do my part and we also just had fun. I think it shows up on camera too when you're all having fun together. The entire cast was just wonderful and we were on what felt like this ultimate field trip.”
Foster shared what it was like meeting Chabert for the first time. “I met you on the plane going there. I remember I was like, ‘I don't know if I should bother her. We're on a plane.’ [And then] as soon as I locked eyes with you, you were like, ‘Hey!’ and gave me a hug and I was like, ‘All right, we're off to a good start. This is a good start,’” he explained. “Then we literally dove right in as soon as we got there. We had a day of rehearsal and then we started with one of our most intense scenes.”
The first scene they shot was the most difficult of the entire process. “That was the hardest part. Oftentimes for different reasons they have to film whatever that scene is that they have to film for that location and it happened to be one of the hardest scenes of the show right out the gate. You build trust really quickly,” said Chabert, with Foster adding: “I watched that scene the other day in ADR and it was great. I think it all worked out for the best.”
Hanssen called it “so easy” to build the family bond between the Martins. “Henry is just the warmest, fuzziest, funniest person. And Lacey is one of the the loveliest people that I have ever met. She immediately makes you feel so welcome and at home,” she said. “She wants to hang out and go for dinner. She makes everybody already feel like a family while we're filming and so forming that smaller family unit was just so easy. It was lovely. It was a joy.”
Ireland, Paris, Spain. It was a dream to film in some of the most beautiful locations in the world. “Listen, the first two weeks of production, we were in Paris and we were doing all exteriors,” said Foster. “It was such a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to do that on the streets of Paris and shooting in front of the Arc de Triomphe or on the Eiffel Tower, under the Eiffel Tower, in front of the Eiffel Tower. That just felt super magical.”
“Paris is just stunning. We were also only there for a finite amount of time so that makes something even more special because you're like, I have to go and see as much as I possibly can,” said Hanssen. “For me, Paris was just breathtaking. It was a dream.”
“To be in Paris was spectacular. And then we were in Spain in San Sebastián and surrounding areas for almost two months and it was amazing,” Chabert chimed in. “I felt like I got to really live there and it's a place I had never been before.”
“I'd never been to the Basque region and that was hilly and beautiful and lush and verdant in the sea. We were in San Sebastián. There's a beautiful boardwalk with all kinds of fantastic people from around the world. I like to take photographs of architecture and people in front of architecture. I was a pig in…” laughed Czerny. “I loved it. It was gorgeous. Very different from Paris, but beautiful, European, lush, and the people were fantastic.”
While Chelsea is given a chance to see where her path could’ve diverted when she reunites with former love interests, the cast agrees that your mistakes and missteps make you who you are. “The more life I live, I realize I don't want to change anything. Even the missteps, even the mistakes — thank goodness for grace — I wouldn't be exactly where I am right now,” said Chabert. “I'm happily married and my beautiful daughter. I'm so thankful I have the work opportunities that I do. I'm kind of learning to look at it where things that I maybe previously viewed as mistakes with less regret because I think it all works out exactly how it's meant to.”
“It makes you who you are, right? Like you are who you are because of your mistakes. I think a lot of people are afraid to make them, but the thing I've learned in my life is sometimes the mistakes you've made forces you to correct or redirect,” explained Foster. “I'm trying to look back on my life and look at all the the decisions I've made and know that who I am now is because of those decisions.”
Chabert continued: “I think that's what a lot of people will relate to in the series. It's a real ‘what if’ story. Often times we have those questions, but we don't have the chance to actually visit those chapters of our life. As Chelsea revisits these relationships, she also gets to revisit the person that she was in that time and see how she's changed and what she's learned. Maybe love is right there in front of her.”
Up next for Chabert is the highly anticipated Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True. “Oh my gosh, how much time do you have?” she laughed when asked to tease the film. “It was the most fun movie ever. We got to shoot at Disney World, need I say more? We rode rides. It's magical. It's a family story. It's a beautiful love story. It was an absolute dream come true. I love Disney World so much and it was such a special thing to be there.”
“The first time I walked out to shoot the promo, it's shut down. It was in the middle of the night and I see the castle all lit up and there's no one else there. I mean, when else do you have a chance to see that?” Chabert revealed. “I may or may not have cried a little bit. I probably shouldn't confess that, but it was just one of those real pinch me special moments. As was every moment of shooting this show and I hope you all love it.”
The first two episodes of Paris Is Always A Good Idea premiere July 30 on Hallmark+, while Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True kicks off Hallmark Channel’s 16th Countdown to Christmas season.
