Three Exes, One City of Love: Lacey Chabert Searches for the One in Hallmark+’s Paris Is Always a Good Idea

Paris may be called the City of Love, but for Lacey Chabert and Scott Michael Foster, being transported to the romance capital of the world for Hallmark+’s new six-part limited series, Paris Is Always a Good Idea, meant diving headfirst into the emotional crux of the story with only a few rehearsal days under their belts. 

“The first scene we filmed was one of the most complicated scenes of the entire show, which was kind of hard,” Chabert, aka the “Queen of Hallmark,” tells TV Guide of her latest Hallmark project, describing the scene as “a real turning point” in the series. “That was our jumping-off point, but it really caused us to have to earn each other’s trust really quickly and to collaborate.”

“We really hit the ground running,” Foster tells TV Guide. “The locations made it so that we had to start on this intense scene on day one, scene one — a scene halfway through the show at this big cliffhanger moment.”

Adapted from the 2020 novel by Jenn McKinlay, the series stars Chabert as Chelsea Martin, a buttoned-up executive at a cancer nonprofit who reluctantly travels to Paris to secure a major donor. She’s thrown for a loop when her workplace rival, Jason Knightly (Foster), tags along on the trip. A surprise message from her late mother, who died from cancer years earlier, drives Chelsea to reconnect with three ex-boyfriends as she searches for meaning and decides what she ultimately wants in her life.

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“I love a ‘what if’ story, whether that be time travel or simply looking back through your memories. Those stories are so interesting to me, like Sliding Doors,” Chabert says of what initially drew her to the story. “What if I made this one decision differently? What is the domino effect of that? Chelsea has a chance to look at her past three relationships and try to determine if she’s left the love of her life behind or is he standing right in front of her?”

The Hallmark veteran notes that “what she discovers along the way is that she’s got to have the courage to open her heart and sometimes looking back is the best way to move forward.”

Revisiting the trio of past loves Chelsea left behind is both eye-opening and transformative. Against idyllic European backdrops, it’s difficult not to get swept up in the romance, Chabert says. First, Chelsea retraces her steps in Ireland, where she reunites with Colin (Stephen Hagan); then Spain, where Marcos (Alejandro Albarracín) comes back into the picture; and then lastly France, where Sebastian (Julien Marlon Samani) makes his final plea. Over a three-month span, they filmed all over Paris — from landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe to the Seine and Trocadéro — and Spain (which also doubled for Ireland), notably Bilbao and San Sebastian.

“There’s actually a line in the show where it says, one of them is fire, one of them is romance, and one of them is connection,” Chabert says. “They really were different types of relationships for her, but she was different versions of herself in those relationships, even though it all takes place over the course of a year. I love that she not only revisits the romantic relationships, but also who she was and how she’s changed and how she hasn’t.”

Part of that journey is acknowledging and grieving her mother’s death with the help of her father (Henry Czerny) and sister (Rebecca Hanssen). As much as Paris Is Always a Good Idea is a romantic story, it’s also one that revolves around familial love.

“It’s so real and sometimes that is messy and it doesn’t look perfect,” Chabert says. “It’s complicated. She finds her sister has dealt with the grief in better, healthier ways than Chelsea’s been able to, but they want to help each other. And her dad has opened his heart and found love again, so that’s hard for her to accept because it feels like a betrayal to her late mother. There’s a lot of pain there; it’s a poignant throughline.”

On the periphery is Foster’s Knightly, whom Chelsea tolerates before the iciness between the two coworkers begins to thaw and eventually turns romantic.

“On paper it would be really easy to say, ‘This guy is a tough character who butts heads with our lead girl,’ and you could play him very cynical and mean-spirited. But I didn’t want to do that,” Foster says. “I wanted to make him real and bring levity to him. Maybe there’s a real part of me that’s like that because I’ve done that with a few characters in the past.”

“Chelsea is looking for something. She’s trying to find it in these three guys that she’s come across before. And in doing that, she realizes she has this opportunity that’s closer than she might think — somebody who actually sees her, somebody who actually gets her,” he adds. “That dynamic between [Chelsea and Knightly] shifts slowly through the first part of the series. You see they have more in common than they realize.”

Chabert adds: “She learns to actually let go and [appreciate] the freedom [that comes with] letting go, and that spontaneity isn’t such a bad thing. She finds her truest, most honest version of herself with this person [she ends up with].”

But would Chabert and Foster take the leap of faith — as Chelsea does in the series — and revisit parts of their own lives and reinvestigate their past choices, if they were presented with the opportunity?

“I don’t know if I actually would want to revisit [parts of the past],” Foster admits. “I’m such an advocate of learning the lessons that your choices have given you. Like, all the things that I’ve done in my life that have led me to this point have made me who I am. It’s a fascinating theme for a show, to be like, what if you can go back and say, ‘What if?’ But as far as changing my past, I wouldn’t want to change anything.”

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Chabert, though, welcomes the idea. “I think a lot about my childhood and being in Mississippi, where I grew up until I was about 7 or 8. We have very little video of that time of our lives and I would love to go back and see my siblings and my parents at those ages,” Chabert reflects. “My grandmother has passed, so any time with her I’d love to go back to. And then obviously my sister.” Chabert’s older sister, Wendy, died unexpectedly in 2021. Her grandmother died in 2019.

“I’m also a big believer in shifting those memories, but also not looking back in a way that makes you feel regretful because if anything changed, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” the actress continues. “I wouldn’t change anything, even the missteps. You have to have grace with all of it. It all leads where you’re meant to be if you can look at it with the right perspective.”

Foster has a few dozen more Hallmark movies to add to his filmography if he wants to catch up to Chabert’s impressive tally. It’s a relationship he hopes will continue for years to come. “Sometimes they have a very clear genre they like to do and if I have something that fits them,” Foster says. “I would for sure pitch it.”

Chabert, meanwhile, has several projects in development with Hallmark that she’s excited about. Her next movie is Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True, set at the iconic Disney theme park’s Magic Kingdom for Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas.” “There are different genres I would [like to] tackle,” she says. “Whether it be a comedy or a rom-com or a family story, the highest priority for me is that it always be about love and community and leaving our audience feeling uplifted.”

The first two episodes of Paris Is Always a Good Idea premiere Thursday, July 30 on Hallmark+ with one new episode dropping every Thursday through Aug. 27.