Alison Sweeney is a self-proclaimed “huge” Jane Austen fan, but it wasn’t until she watched Keri Russell’s Austenland that her fandom sparked a Hallmark Channel movie about the author.
“Keri Russell did this cute movie called Austenland, and I was just in my hotel filming a Christmas movie called Open by Christmas,” Sweeney, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly, recalling how the idea for Hallmark’s Love & Jane came about. “I just watched this movie one night [as] TV candy, eye candy, just to relax at the end of the night.”
Sweeney remembered waking up the next morning and telling her Open by Christmas director, David Weaver, about the 2013 Austen-themed film. Austenland follows Austen-obsessed fan Jane Hayes (Russell) as she goes to a theme park about the author in hopes of finding her perfect gentleman suitor.
“I was like, ‘There’s this cute movie. I can’t believe I never saw it,’” she said. “And he’s like, ‘Oh, do you like Jane Austen?’ And I, of course, immediately launched into everything I love about Jane Austen.”
That chat led to Weaver telling Sweeney that he had a “pitch” about an Austen-inspired Hallmark rom-com. “That’s how it started. It started from the most sincere possible Jane Austen fan conversation,” Sweeney revealed.
Sweeney, who plays Lilly in Love & Jane, noted that once she heard the pitch, she was all-in. “I jumped and grabbed on with both hands, like, ‘We’ve got to do this,’” she told Us, adding that working as an executive producer on the project made it that much more “fun.”
“Working with [David] as the writer and just developing this idea for Hallmark and bringing it all the way to fruition, it’s just really rewarding,” Sweeney explained. “And as a true Jane Austen-ophile, I felt the role from day one. From the first moment, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is so me. It’s just how I feel.’”
In the movie, which premieres on Saturday, February 10, Sweeney’s Lilly comes face-to-face with Austen, her favorite author, during her time of romantic need. With Austen’s help, Lilly realizes what she wants in life and love while running the Jane Austen Society in Boston.
In addition to liking the film’s nod to Clueless and Austen’s novels Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Sweeney told Us she enjoyed bantering with longtime friend Benjamin Ayres during their “dual” scene. Ayres, 47, plays Lilly’s love interest, Trevor, in the movie.
“[When] they battle their wits with the quotes from the book, I worked really hard,” Sweeney recalled. “You cannot wing it with quotes from your favorite authors. So, we worked really hard on that, and that was all scripted, very meticulously.”
Love & Jane premieres on Hallmark Channel Saturday, February 10, at 8 p.m. ET.
