In the 26 years since FOX’s “Party of Five” ended, Lacey Chabert — who was just 12 when the beloved show premiered in 1994 — hasn’t starred in another dramatic series. That finally changes with “Paris is Always a Good Idea,” a six-episode, limited series premiering July 30 on Hallmark+.
Granted, Chabert’s unmistakable voice has brought many characters to life in animated series, from Eliza in “The Wild Thornberrys” to Dani Burns in “Transformers: Rescue Bots.” But the “Mean Girls” alum has been so busy becoming the queen of Hallmark, with over 40 rom-coms and cozy mysteries to her name, that there’s been no time to commit to headlining a series onscreen, too.
However, “Paris is Always a Good Idea,” based on Jenn McKinlay’s 2020 novel of the same name, gave Chabert the best of both worlds, combining her ties to Hallmark with the chance to sink her teeth into a character’s emotional search for love and healing, as well as the joys of bonding with her cast and crew across a couple of months in Europe.
Lacey Chabert Tapped Into Her Own Grief for ‘Paris is Always a Good Idea’
HallmarkFilmed entirely in France and Spain, “Paris is Always a Good Idea” follows nonprofit executive Chelsea Martin on a last-minute business trip to Paris, seeking a massive donation from a potential donor. Though she’s been to the City of Lights many times, Chelsea has avoided returning since her last trip 10 years earlier was cut short by learning of her mom’s battle with cancer and subsequent death.
Chelsea’s dad (Henry Czerny) and younger sister (Rebecca Hanssen) tag along on the trip for moral support and to take care of some unfinished business, fulfilling the last wishes of the woman who meant so much to each of them. That includes, they discover, sending Chelsea on a scavenger hunt across Europe to revisit her past loves.
Hallmark doesn’t shy away from the heaviness and trauma of loss in this project. Chabert and Hanssen shed tears in multiple scenes as their characters grapple with how their grief has caused them each to shut down in different ways, while also inspiring their next steps. Chabert, who lost her older sister Wendy suddenly in 2021, told EntertainmentNow that she tapped into her own experiences for those emotional scenes in “Paris is Always a Good Idea.”
“We all have pain in our lives, you know?” Chabert said. “No matter how much joy there also is, I’ve been touched by grief and, you know, things that I carry in my heart. And so I always try to put as much of my real experiences into it as possible, so it’ll be as authentic as possible.”
Chabert continued, “But the thing I love about this story is we see (Chelsea) navigating that grief of losing her mother, but it really is her mother’s guiding voice that propels her to go on this new journey, where she is forced to open her heart again and to find the courage to open her heart to the ‘what if’ and to really find out if the true love of her life is someone from her past or standing right in front of her.”
Lacey Chabert Says There Were Also Many Days She Couldn’t Stop Laughing On Set
Though Chabert and Hanssen both give touching performances in “Paris is Always a Good Idea,” they also had a blast on set, Chabert told EntertainmentNow.
“You’re kind of just thrust into this experience,” she said of the diving into filming. “You get there, and you start filming very quickly, and you just start spending time together. And you’re like, ‘Hey, you want to grab coffee? You want to go to dinner?’ And you start sharing parts of your lives.”
“I always say it’s so funny to be on set,” she continued. “Like Day One, (it’s) ‘Hi, nice to meet you,’ and two weeks later, you’re like (sharing your life stories). We start opening up. And I think that when you’re having fun together, I feel like that always comes across on screen, and it’s hopefully infectious for our audience.”
“There’s a lot of memorable experiences in this one,” Chabert smiled, recalling filming this past spring. “So many things happened, and it’s not even just all the stuff that’s on camera. It’s what happens off camera and how you bond as a crew, and all the times we couldn’t stop laughing.”
Her co-star, Scott Michael Foster, interjected, “And eating cheesecake,” to which Chabert giggled, “Oh my gosh, so much cheesecake! It was delicious.”
The first two episodes of “Paris is Always a Good Idea” will begin streaming exclusively on Hallmark+ on July 30, with additional episodes dropping the following four Thursdays.
Will the show ever be available on the regular Hallmark channel, eventually or only on the Premium one