Alison Sweeney Reveals Why Her Latest 'Hannah Swensen' Movie Was Unlike Any She Worked On Before
Alison Sweeney is back on Hallmark with another installment of her Hannah Swensen mystery series and the actress is more nervous than ever before for fans to see her work.
In One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery, Sweeney is reprising her titular role as the dynamic and vibrant baker-turned-detective and getting back on the case in Eden Lake, Minnesota as she attempts to solve yet another mystery in her life.
Sweeney told SheKnows that working on the ninth installment of the hit Hallmark mystery series brought on a new challenge — stepping into the writer’s room for her first time. Sweeney, who was already acting a producer of the series says that she developed a sense of ownership over the project and soon approached Hallmark about writing One Bad Apple.
“It was amazing the support I got from Hallmark right away,” Sweeney says. “Their enthusiasm for it and their belief in me was just really rewarding.”
But the experience wasn’t without challenges. “I was so nervous when they read it the first time,” she says of her co-stars. “When I had to send the email like, ‘Okay, here’s the script,’ it was the hardest click ever.” Luckily, her co-stars were more than impressed with her work but with fans now getting their chance to weigh in, Sweeney’s nerves are just beginning.
“I’m so stressed out,” Sweeney says of anticipating her fans’ responses. “So every person who says they’ve seen it, and they like it, I’m like, ‘Oh, good, ok one more person likes it!'”
In this chapter in the series, which lifts its inspiration from Joanne Fluke’s book series, Hannah is teaching a baking class at her local college when her equipment is tampered with causing an explosion. When someone ends up dead, Hannah becomes a suspect all while trying to put the pieces together to solve the crime.
“At the same time, [Hannah’s] mother Dolores is adventuring into being a private detective,” Sweeney tells us of another plot line in the story. “I really hope that we catch the audience off guard as to who the who the victim is in this one. Because I feel like you know, it’s a little unexpected.”
Another part of this Hallmark mystery that fans will be excited for, albeit a tad bittersweet, is the introduction of a new character, played by Sweeney’s Days of Our Lives and The Wedding Veil co-star, Victor Webster. Webster plays an attorney, Chad Norton, who joins the cast after the departure of Hannah’s previous love interest Mike, played by Cameron Mathison.
“I went through all the same feelings the fans did about Mike,” Sweeney says about staying true to Fluke’s book series while also recognizing how fans might feel about this next chapter. “I hope that I hit the right notes with that… acknowledging and being respectful of how the fans feel about Mike and how Hannah feels about Mike.”
But every cloud has a silver lining and, for Sweeney, that silver lining was reuniting with Webster. “I was thrilled that he agreed to be a part of our series he’s so much fun to work with,” she tells us. “I really knew having known Victor for so long, that I could really create a slightly different role for him than what had existed in Hannah’s world before.”
Fans can watch Sweeney and Webster unite to solve a mystery in One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery, premiering on April 5 at at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Mystery.
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