How Ashley Williams Honors Her Mother’s Memory In New Hallmark Movie, ‘Falling Together’

For years Ashley Williams has been making us smile, laugh, and fall in love in over a dozen Hallmark movies, but the storyline of her latest project for the network is deeply personal. 

In Falling Together, Williams plays abundantly friendly Natalie opposite fellow Hallmark stalwart, Paul Campbell as Mark, a bit of a curmudgeon. Natalie moves from Miami to Pittsburgh for a new job and as she arrives at her new apartment building, let’s just say her cheerfulness is firing on all cylinders and her new neighbors do not know how to react. Her first idea, much like one we Southerners would come up with, is the way to people’s hearts is through their stomachs. 

She plans a party with a hearty home-cooked meal for the entire building but only cranky Mark knocks on the door. Only he’s not even there for the party. He’s the building’s super and is only there to check on a water leak. 

Williams, who also serves as executive producer alongside her husband Neal Dodson, shared with Southern Living that this was, in fact, based on a real life experience.

“It really is a true story because that’s really what I was trying to do when I first moved to New York. L.A. is such a big, wide open farm of kindness and when I got to New York I could sense very real boundaries and that was very foreign to me. So yeah I decided, you know what, everyone is going to love me. I’m just going to throw this big chili party. It’s fall, it will be so fun. Everyone will get to know me and my husband and our new baby. I put up flyers all over the building and no one came,” she shared with a laugh.

Williams also divulged that when this happened in real life, the friend she called crying from the bathroom floor was Adam Kulbersh and she hired him to help write the script for this very movie. But the parallels to her own experiences don’t end there with the uneaten chili. 

In the movie, as Natalie becomes acclimated with her new city and continues her quest to win over her neighbors, she meets Linda Payne (played by Linda Cash) who heads up the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. Natalie throws herself all in helping plan the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s alongside Linda. In reality, advocacy for Alzheimer’s awareness, and fundraising to find a cure are things about which Williams is incredibly passionate. 

“The disease greatly impacted my family and my mom lost her battle with the disease 7 years ago now,” she told us. 

As it turns out, the Hallmark star created the character of Linda as a tribute to her own late mother. “Linda Cash whose character is Linda Payne which is my mother’s maiden name. My mom was Linda Payne.”

Williams explained how, although tapping into your emotions is part of the process for most actors, this time was different. “All of the sudden I was there on the set doing this scene with a woman playing the part of my mother who’s having an episode connected to her memory. It doesn’t happen to me often but I was really overcome with emotion.” 

“Accessing that, I try to stay with my techniques so it’s not so personal but that was one of those moments where it was so personal it was absolutely undeniable and in some weird way it felt like this little moment where I felt a lot closer to my mom than I had in years. It really ended up really meaning something to me. It was really special.”

The loss of a parent as a result of Alzheimer’s or dementia is sadly something she shares with several in her Hallmark community and that was also something she wanted to honor in this movie. In an emotional scene, Natalie is looking at a wall of photographs of people who have been impacted by this disease. “My mom’s picture was up on the wall. Andrew Walker’s mother, Nikki DeLoach’s dad, and my mom’s were all up on the wall at the Alzheimer’s Association’s office.”

This shared bond also connects these colleagues and friends off camera. Williams’ sister, Kimberly Williams-Paisley founded The Dance To End Alz, a joyful dance party event that raises funds for the Alzheimer’s Alliance. “I put a lot of energy and put a lot of my heart into that outreach to really get the word out. And really encourage people to talk about the disease and what the Alzheimer’s Association does in helping to build community with people dealing with the disease. That brought about a whole new sort of texture to my life. And a lot of it revolved around my relationship with Nikki DeLoach.”

A few years ago, Williams-Paisley asked her sister to take over the reins of the big dance party. Williams knew she couldn’t do it without her friend, Nikki DeLoach. “She and I connected on such a deep level when her dad was first diagnosed with a form of dementia that’s very aggressive but similar to Alzheimer’s. And then when Andrew Walker’s mother was also diagnosed with it. It has greatly impacted my Hallmark community and so many people have been touched by the disease.” 

Now, the whole calvary of Hallmark stars, along with many other famous faces come out in droves every year to show their support. Southern Living had the chance to attend last year when it was held in Nashville and while the cause is a serious one, these folks know how to find joy and keep dancing anyway. 

“It’s such a uniting, bonding experience to join together with the Hallmark community in the name of this disease that also I think is greatly affecting our viewership. So it is sort of a thread sewn thematically through all aspects of my work with Hallmark. It’s social, it’s creative, it’s also by the way, you know the dance party, it’s just like a big, huge, firecracker of party that we all really need. Especially when having so many conversations year round about the disease.” 

Just like she leans on her friends in her fight to ultimately help find a cure for this disease, she knew she’d need the perfect partner when telling such an emotional and personal story in Falling Together. She called on another regular on the feel-good network, and someone she considers a very close friend. 

“When we first realized that we were actually going to make this movie… it was so imperative considering the subject matter, that we find somebody incredibly adept at comedy for me to play opposite. So there was just no other choice than Paul Campbell.” 

This movie is powerful and emotional and does deal with Alzheimer’s directly, but we promise you will also laugh a lot in this movie thanks to the dynamic combination of both Williams and Campbell and their impressive comedy chops. Williams credits first the writers but then said, “Paul is incredibly authentic at every moment. Every single take is different and a little bit new. We really, truly play a lot and I feel so lucky that he was available for this.”

Falling Together premieres on Hallmark Channel on Saturday, September 21 at 8 p.m. EST.

This year’s Dance to End Alz is October 27 in Los Angeles. Find ticket information or ways to donate here.