Busy schedules periodically prevent me from interviewing some of the most remarkable people in the business, and in the case of Nina Weinman Swift, this couldn’t be more accurate. At some point last year, we attempted to connect before the premiere of one of her films (probably Christmas), and with the upcoming debut of Love At First Dance, I unquestionably knew I needed to chat with her. Interestingly enough, this also marks the first time we actually chatted, since last time our schedules only permitted an email exchange. And with two new, compelling films arriving on the Hallmark Channel this summer (as well as her past successes), we had an infinite amount of material to discuss (be glad I condensed it!).

RH: Nina, it is so good to finally get the chance to chat with you.

NWS: Thanks, Ruth, it’s good to chat with you too.

I was trying to think of the last time we did an interview, and it was quite a while ago.

I remember exactly when it was. It was December of 2016. I had broken my wrist. I was at a birthday party when I leaned down and lost my balance and fell onto my wrist and broke it. It was right before Christmas, and I remember one of the first things I did was answer those questions you had sent me. I remember having my arm in a cast two Christmases ago, and so our last interview is quite vivid in my mind.

Oh, wow, that is exactly right. The last thing we had talked about was Operation Christmas. However, I do feel like I interviewed you for Destination Wedding because we discussed that movie a lot. But we didn’t actually do an interview for that one.

I feel that same way. I’m like, “Of course, I know Ruth.” I mean I don’t really, but I do!

Destination Wedding

Wasn’t Destination Wedding based on a real-life experience? Or at least inspired by something that happened in your life?

Yes, it was loosely based on a family member’s wedding. We were all supposed to go to this wedding, and the real story isn’t all that interesting. They were supposed to get married at a wonderful destination in the Carribean, but due to circumstances beyond their control, they could not attend the wedding. And so their wedding was postponed, but they did eventually end up getting married. Yet we had already supposed to go to this beautiful destination, and even though the wedding didn’t happen, we went there anyway. It wasn’t anything like the couple in the story. But while I was there, I thought, “This is a movie.” The thing with me is that I’m always thinking in stories, and everything is a potential movie for me. I was at a wedding just this past weekend, and the bride and groom did this thing that I thought was so neat. During the ceremony. they had each written a letter to each other, and they put the letters and a bottle of wine into a box and sealed it. They said, “If things start to get really tricky between the two of you and times get really tough, I want you to open the bottle of wine, and each of you to pour a glass of wine, take each other’s letter, and go into separate rooms and read the letters you wrote to each other for your wedding day.” And I was like, “That’s gotta be a jumping off point for something.” It’s such a great idea, and everything can be a potential movie with me.

I remember with Destination Wedding that a lot of people complained about the ending. There was a big uproar about that because people were all confused.

I don’t know what happened with that. In the script, it clearly stated: “One year later.” It’s probably just one of those things that fell off in post-production or something. I now know what I probably should have done was…I always like to show you and not just tell you in a script for a movie. I should have had Mandy pregnant and holding hands with her now-husband and standing up for her sister and boyfriend who are now getting married. I shouldn’t have counted on there being superimposed script that said, “One year later.” That’s what I would do if I could go back and do it again.

Oh, well, I know that even in big-budget movies, there are always mistakes that aren’t caught by anyone until they are released. So it happens.

True. But I definitely would not rely on text showing the passage of time again. That is something I learned from the experience. I would surely find a better way to show the passage of time.

I will say that even in spite of that, it was still a really cute movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Destination Wedding

Thank you, Ruth. I know you can’t please all the people all the time. I got a lot of really positive feedback as well as a lot of negative feedback. I always look at the feedback to see if there is anything constructive in there. You can’t let it break you down. You can’t let it hurt your feelings. I don’t know these people’s taste. I don’t know if we would agree on anything. So why am I gonna get upset about somebody I don’t know saying they don’t like it? But I did look at the constructive criticism like I always do, and I would definitely fix the time issue for the next time so that it would be more clear. I always look for the lesson.

Sometimes people just want to criticize, and that’s their prerogative, and I’m not going to let it define me or my work. I think that in this day and age with the internet, there’s a lot of unnecessary cruelty out there, and I refuse to give it any power. I will say that generally, Hallmark audiences are a very kind and loving audience. You get the occasional cruel person, but I refuse to let that have any power over me because it says a whole lot more about the person saying it than it does about my work. We should never take a stranger’s cruelty to heart. And that’s what I try to teach my children, and it’s so hard because people can be so mean. But we have to remember that it says more about the person and the way they are feeling about themselves than your writing. If someone feels so terribly that they try to break somebody else so it will make them feel better about themselves…it’s really tough. It is one of those conversations that I have with my children to try to make them understand why people do things they do. As a mom yourself, I know you understand that too.

Definitely. My daughter is older than your kids, but we have had that conversation from time to time as well. I’m not gonna say that criticism doesn’t affect my daughter, but for the most part, it doesn’t affect her like it used to. If anything, she is very hard on herself, and I can relate. I do that too. Now, Coming Home For Christmas was amazing this past Christmas! It was a favorite with our family, and I’m not just saying that.

Yes, I loved that one. It was based on a book by Jenny Hale. In fact, she’s got a bunch of stuff out there now, and I have another one of her books–a summer book–that we’re trying to get into development. And then she has another Christmas book that might be made into a movie with another network. I’m not sure of the status of that one.

While I haven’t read any of Jenny’s books, I interviewed her, and I loved that Christmas movie last year. I felt that movie was very well written and very well cast.

Coming Home For Christmas

Oh, thank you. We’re trying to figure out how we can do a sequel. Probably not Christmas, but some other time of year. I’ve been working on some notes and ideas for that for Danica {McKellar} while she’s been up in Winnipeg filming Love In Design.

I’ve adapted a lot of books, and sometimes the idea is good, but there’s not a whole lot else in the book that I can use to fill the movie, and I have to take a lot of creative license. But with Coming Home For Christmas, when I read it, I thought this was perfect. And while I had to make some changes cinematically speaking and because of Hallmark standards, for the most part, the plot was all there. I read the book, and I went to Jonathan Axelrod, who has done a lot of executive producing for Hallmark, and I said, “This is Sabrina. It’s just so perfect, and we have to do it.” His dad worked with Billy Wilder, who wrote the original Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart. And Jonathan said he had all sorts of conversations with his dad about that movie because, of course, Jonathan is totally old Hollywood because of his dad.

So he was in, but we had to get Hallmark to say “yes.” And it’s not always easy to get Hallmark to say “yes,” even when you’ve done a bunch of stuff with them. They know what they want, and they do not say “yes” to everything. You have to bring them something really good. Thankfully, they did say “yes” to Coming Home For Christmas. It was a really fun one, and we had a blast making it. I love Andrew Francis. Neal {Bledsoe} was a delight; it was his first Hallmark. He is a fantastic, solid actor.

I was going to ask you about a potential sequel because it would be great to get that cast back together. And it wouldn’t have to be Christmas.

With Danica McKellar

As I mentioned, I’ve been working on it. I have this tiny window in between projects, and Danica will be looking at my ideas once she gets back. We really want to get the band back together. It’s a great team. Mel Damski, our director. And Paula Shaw, who every time I write a movie, I always put her in as the grandmother. Paula played the grandmother in Destination Wedding. And I said she needed to play Pippa in Coming Home For Christmas. And everybody agreed. In fact, I saw her recently, and she’s definitely in for a sequel. Everybody wants to do it.

So you have two things coming up this summer.

Yes, as well as a couple of Christmas things I won’t mention at the moment. I’m actually working on one now, and before too long, I’m sure they’ll announce the Christmas ones.

Oh good, something to look forward to. But this weekend we have Love At First Dance with Niall Matter, which I’m so happy about! Hearties miss him on When Calls the Heart, but it has been good to see him in all the Hallmark movies. I’m glad to see that the network is using Niall as much as they are.

Me too. And now they have him not only in this movie this weekend, but you’re going to see him in Aurora Teagarden next month. And I think they are going to like his character in that. I won’t spoil it for anyone.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing his part in that series. But back to Love At First Dance…

Love At First Dance

Yes, so Niall…jumping on the “Niall train,” he has never been dreamier. I’m going to go on the record and say he has never been dreamier. It is so adorable. He and Becca {Tobin} have such great chemistry. I watched it, and…I’ve never been disappointed in one of my movies. I always like my movies. But this one is like my favorite that I’ve ever written. And a lot of it is when all the elements come together, and it comes together beautifully. You’ve got the director and the chemistry between the leads. The acting is so good, and the director and producer and everybody are just on the same page, and it comes together like it’s magic. This movie was like that. I’ve had the good fortune that most of my movies are like that. I haven’t had any that were like, “Ugh, that was horrible.” The network was fantastic because everything about it was an incredible experience from start to finish. Also, Rachel Boston produced this one.

With Rachel Boston

So Rachel and Joel Rice, the producer, and I picked a couple of wedding movies together. Rachel and I met on a wedding movie and became really close friends. She and Joel had done A Rose For Christmas together. And we all decided we wanted to a do a wedding movie together. I came up with a couple of ideas. We went and pitched two, hoping they would buy one. Hallmark bought both of them. Rachel will probably be in the other one as long as her schedule allows her to. Rachel is not a dancer, and she was feeling like we needed a dancer for this one. The other one should air next year with Rachel as the lead as long as she doesn’t get a series or something like that.

When I saw a clip of Love At First Dance during the June Weddings Preview show, I thought it looked absolutely darling. It was where they were dancing in the water.

I’m really proud of it. And it looks amazing. Our director, Marc Jean, did a spectacular job. And Joel Rice–I don’t know how he made this happen–but we shot a couple of days in New York City. So our New York scenes are legitimately New York City, instead of Vancouver for New York. We also shot in Victoria, so some of our exteriors are New York and some are Victoria, but I’m not gonna tell you which ones. Most of them are actually New York. I don’t know how he made that happen on this budget, but sometimes they just work a little bit of magic. I mean we shot on the Brooklyn Bridge! How spectacular is that?

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it.

Love At First Dance

I’m definitely nervous about it. Only because…at the time we were shooting it, ours was the only non-sequel. But now they’ve added a fifth one which is not a sequel either. It’s a Jen Lilley movie. But people are so invested in Jack {Wagner} and Josie {Bissett} and in Mr. Darcy. And they are so invested in Kavan {Smith} and Pascale {Hutton} in The Perfect Bride. I just hope people aren’t going to be like, “Well, I hate them,” when it comes to our movie. So I am a little bit nervous, and I hope they get invested in us and want a sequel.

On the flip side, there are those who can’t stand sequels or at least are very much against the network doing sequels. So those people are probably looking forward to Love At First Dance since it isn’t a sequel.

Well, regardless, this movie is so sweet and beautiful. Becca is an absolute delight. She’s got this light in her that is so charming and adorable and beautiful. They’re so funny together, and from top to bottom, I just love it.

Love At First Dance

Well, it’s got Niall in it, so that should count for something!

That’s what I’m thinking.

And you also have Love At Sea coming up later this summer.

Yes, that’s true. It’s premiering on August 4th.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but that has been in the works for quite some time, right?

Yes, for years. It’s been a long process. It’s a tricky deal to make it with a big company like Royal Carribean and a big partnership like that. It took a long time, and everybody was kind of like, “I can’t believe we’re here.” There have been other deals here and there that haven’t come through, and we’ve all seen deals fall apart, so you just never know. But everyone was really committed to making this happen, and they did it. A lot of it is Alexa {PenaVega} and Carlos {PenaVega} and their relationship with Royal Carribean. That didn’t hurt any in trying to make this deal happen.

The book was brought to me by Lisa Demberg, who’s a producer I worked with on Stop the Wedding. And Lisa brought on another producer, Beth Grossbard, who I’d never worked with before.

Oh, that’s great news! Beth had mentioned this film to me some time ago, and I know she wanted to do it. So I’m glad that worked out for her. I know her from many Hallmark movies, most notably Love On the Sidelines and All Of My Heart: Inn Love.

Well, the shooting of this film was a little bit tricky. They were shooting on a cruise ship with six thousand passengers. Literally, the entire ship was filled with people, and you had to maneuver around that to shoot the movie. They sell out every cruise, and this ship was called the Harmony of the Seas. It’s a floating continent. It’s gigantic and gorgeous. And this one is another movie that…first of all, you have Carlos and Alexa. That’s as delightful as it gets. They are adorable and sweet and have such great chemistry with each other. I mean, you would hope, right? So thank God they have good chemistry! They are so delightful and so warm, and I just cannot say enough good things about them. This is my second film with Alexa, but I feel like it’s my second with Carlos and Alexa because I feel like I’ve worked with Carlos just because we were in Mexico together. We hung out and talked by the pool with the baby. So I feel like I’ve worked with Carlos before. Carlos sings in it, and everybody’s hearts are just gonna go, “Ka-thunk, ka-thunk.” When I wrote the script, I picked the song, and they were like, “I don’t know if we can get the song.” But I was like, “No, it has to be this song!” And we got the song. I did come up with a list of alternate songs, but I’m so glad we got it because as far as I’m concerned, it is the perfect crooner/cruise ship song!

With Alexa & Carlos PenaVega

Alexa plays an event planner who’s planning an event cruise, and Carlos plays an assistant cruise director who’s getting his first shot at being the number one cruise director. He doesn’t want to mess it up because if he does it right, he will become the main cruise director. He’s this guy who’s always sailing but never arriving anywhere. So he meets this girl who changes everything, and she is someone who is looking to find her place. She comes from a prominent family, and people have always cared more about what they can get from her. Her last boyfriend used her to get ahead in his father’s hotel chain and then fired her, so she’s got some trust issues. She’s trying to prove her worth as she’s out on her own now as an event planner. I watched the cut the other day, and it was delightful.

I’m very excited for this movie, Nina, and I’m sure the writing is awesome, but I love seeing Alexa and Carlos on screen. I know some people criticized their Christmas movie, but for me, I was less about the story and more about watching these two. So I’m already predisposed to like the film. I love seeing the two of them together. Now, this was based on a book, right?

Yes, it is called Love On the Lido Deck. We had to change some things on this one just because you’re dealing with Royal Carribean, and we had to be careful of a few things just like we would be with Hallmark. Hallmark is all about protecting the integrity of the Hallmark brand, and we had to be careful to protect the integrity of the Royal Carribean brand as well. We were careful about how people perceived going on a cruise, and we made it a point to stay away from any negativity concerning cruise ships. But it’s still the general idea of the story. I think people are going to be really happy with the outcome. There’s kisses with the sun setting in the background at sea. It’s everything that you watch and you go, “I want that.” It’s the wish fulfillment of a Hallmark movie. Not only do I want to fall in love, but I wanna go on a cruise! In fact, I was talking to Rachel and Amber over at the Hallmarkies Podcast, and we were like, “There’s got to be a Hallmark event cruise!” Wouldn’t that be amazing? I would definitely be in for that!

Oh me too! I’ve never been on a cruise, but that is one I wouldn’t want to miss. I would love to see Hallmark make that happen.

There are many wonderful movies coming out this summer with some extraordinary locations, but this one is a special one not to be missed.

Rachel Boston & Daniel Lissing

Say, while I’m thinking about it, any word on the movie with Rachel Boston and Daniel Lissing that was announced at the Hearties convention last year? I think it was supposed to have been a Valentine’s Day movie.

Well, it was supposed to happen then, but it all comes down to scheduling. Development is always tricky when you develop something with talent because then you have to work around their schedule. You’ve got two really busy actors, and if you want to shoot it on “X” date to air on “Y” date, that might not always work. So I don’t know what’s happening with it. I really haven’t heard. I also have so many other things going, and they have so many other things going.

One thing I can say that I love about Hallmark is that they are honestly the most accessible network I’ve ever worked with, and they really listen to their fans. I may not agree with every decision they make, but there is something special about them. They really engage with their audience.

I agree with you. And the fans are just wonderful. With the Hearties, I feel like I know them all. I see a lot of the names over and over again, and I feel like I know them. I mean everybody knows Ruth Hill!

{laughs} Yeah, I hear that a lot of times. And I’m glad. Nina, thank you so much for taking some time to chat with me today. I am excited for both of your movies coming up!

My pleasure, Ruth. I hope that all the fans tune in tonight and on August 4th! I think the fans are in for a real treat!

I have interviewed several writers over the past few years, but for me, Nina has always been an extraordinarily memorable one. Of course, we both have a perpetual passion for writing, so in that sense, she is a kindred spirit. However, Nina is so much more than a writer. She is a wife, a mother, a confidante, a friend, a co-worker, a creative, a dreamer, and above all, a dynamically strong woman. She takes a genuine interest in everyone with whom she has the opportunity to connect, and she is willing to offer advice or render aid whenever she can. She only ever responds to negativity and venom with grace, dignity, and a healthy splash of kindness, but she never permits others to define who she is a person, a woman, or a professional. She continues to find inspiration in her everyday life, which in my humble opinion has contributed to her success as a screenwriter. Her tales continue to be saturated with relatable (and sometimes hopelessly flawed) characters, but in the end, they always find their satisfaction in doing what they were always meant to do. While the endings may be censured for being too rooted in “fairy tale” or “happily ever after” tradition, she consistently inserts a touch of conflict and humor along the way, thus provoking us to fall in love with the storyline and perhaps even learn a mini-lesson along the way in a most entertaining fashion. She is committed to self-improvement, and in continuing to develop and learn, she ensures that her stories are suitable, relevant, entertaining and undeniably charming!
So please tune into the Hallmark Channel tonight (June 16th) for the new Hallmark movie Love At First Dance penned by one of the most exceptional of the Hallmark screenwriters, and then be sure to come back on August 4th for another one of her sweet and engaging creations. Additionally, be sure that you follow her at the links below and never hesitate to tell her exactly what you think of her films (of course, constructive criticism is much more appealing than brutishness). Hallmark has made a shrewd business decision in their sustained partnership with Nina, and I hope and pray that this is an alliance that will not expire for many, many years to come!
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