Ashley Williams Says Costar Niall Matter Was ‘Critical’ for Shakespeare-Inspired Movie: ‘He’s Got This Bite’ (Exclusive)

Williams and Matter star in Hallmark Channel’s ‘Much About Love,’ premiering Saturday, Aug. 29

NEED TO KNOW

• Ashley Williams says Niall Matter’s energy and wit perfectly matched their Shakespeare-inspired rom-com, Much About Love
• The film, co-written by Williams and her husband, reimagines Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing for a Hallmark audience
• Williams incorporated personal touches, including her son’s artwork and nods to her directing work on The Rookie

When Ashley Williams and her husband, producer Neal Dodson, conceived of Hallmark Channel’s Much About Love, a rom-com inspired by William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, they shared countless a-ha moments. But once they were on set, few landed quite like the arrival of Williams’ costar, Niall Matter.

Given that Shakespeare described their characters, Bea and Benny (based on Beatrice and Benedick), as having “a skirmish of wit between them,” that tracks.

“The introduction of Niall Matter is critical for the success of any movie,” Williams tells PEOPLE. “I had been imagining Niall saying all of the lines for literally years. and once the words started coming out of his mouth at rapid-fire pace, it was like, ‘Here we go. Now we’re in the pocket.’”

Williams, who is a writer and executive producer on Much About Love (along with Dodson), and Matter previously costarred in 2020’s Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater. And, according to Williams, they matched wits — and pace — on that film as well.

“When we did Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater, Nina Weinman, the writer, had to write extra scenes for the movie because we were running so short because Niall and I were speaking so fast,” Williams, 47, recalls. “It’s hard for me to find a co-star who talks as fast as I do, but Niall Matter does.”

But Matter, 45, also brought more to the table than just speed and diction.

“Niall’s got this playfulness about him that ignites a playfulness in me,” Williams says. “He’s got this energy, this bite to him where it’s almost a tiny bit scary how engaged he is. And I think I have that too. It’s just this side of potentially crazy. And he meets me. He throws the ball back just as hard as I threw it. And that’s Benedick. That’s … the story of Much Ado About Nothing. And so getting to put that into a delicious little rom-com, it was actually really fun.”

Below, Williams breaks down how her date nights with Dodson led to Much About Love and some of the Easter eggs scattered throughout it, including winks to her own directing gig on The Rookie.

PEOPLE: The 1993 Kenneth Branagh adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing is so good. Did that make doing this film a little intimidating?
ASHLEY WILLIAMS: The bar was high, and trying to achieve greatness in a situation like this is way too intimidating. So we just had to make something that felt delightful.

Where did this idea to bring Shakespeare to Hallmark begin?
Jessica Callahan [VP of programming at Hallmark] called me and said, “I’ve always thought of you as a Beatrice.” And I was like, “I’ve never been so flattered in my entire life. I don’t know how I could do that and possibly live up to the standard.” But she just said, “I’m just going to put that in your head. Think about it.” So I was chatting with my husband about it, and we thought, “What if we set a Hallmark movie at a Shakespeare festival and what if they’re putting on Taming of the Shrew?” Obviously, Taming of the Shrew is incredibly problematic by today’s standards, but we’d always talked about this concept of if Taming of the Shrew could possibly be the story of female empowerment. This is the kind of stuff we talk about on date nights.

Right after college, Neal went to the Utah Shakespeare Festival and did an adaptation of Taming of the Shrew. The woman who directed it, Peggy Shannon, was able to make it an empowering female story … so we got back in touch with her. Now, my husband had not been in touch with her since 1999, but she wrote back right away. We ended up getting on Zoom with her for a couple of hours, just talking about that interpretation of Taming of the Shrew. And it became the sort of cornerstone of telling the story of these two people trying to put that play on for Much About Love.

How did you work Peggy into the movie?
She became Bea. The character I play was Peggy Shannon. She now runs the Kansas City Art Institute. Now what’s amazing is Peggy ended up being able to come to the set with her husband and son. And I ended up being able to shout them out in the tablecloth scene.

There’s also a little bit of you in Bea. You’ve directed a few episodes of The Rookie, and she’s a director on a show called The Newbie.
Can you believe it? I didn’t think we would get away with that. It’s one of those things where I put it in the script and was crossing my fingers. My life is just becoming this weird performance art where I get to have strange messages in all my work.

And your 11-year-old son Gus did some of the artwork in Much About Love as well, right?
Yes! He had to do mock-ups for the production designer, so that she could approve them. And then he had to make them. We really liked the idea that Bea is trying to keep Shakespeare relevant. People hear Shakespeare, and they feel intimidated, but this movie is very accessible to anybody. So we wanted Bea’s thing to be like, “I’m going to teach kids Shakespeare and make it feel relevant to them so that they’re not intimidated because ultimately these stories are just stories about humans.” And so I really wanted childhood art to be around the festival.

Have you thought about doing another Shakespeare adaptation for Hallmark?
Yeah. I think the canon is full of perfect structural Hallmark movies. One of the things that was so much fun was setting it at a Shakespeare festival, so the Shakespeare nerds among us are going to love this movie, but the non-nerds are going to not really need to know. Getting to be overt as I subvert was kind of a gift.

I know you’re mid-production on your Christmas movie with Alison Sweeney, directed by Crystal Lowe. How’s it going?
Oh my gosh. We’re having such a good time making this movie. When you do a movie with Alison Sweeney, you get the best people in the business. … So we’re really having a blast.

Do you have more directing gigs lined up?
I’m directing another episode of The Rookie this fall. Basically, I wrap The Rookie, and I’m going to be doing my edit from the Hallmark Christmas Cruise. When I say my life is performance art, it simply delights me, the shenanigans that I’m able to pull off.

Speaking of shenanigans, you also have your big Alzheimer’s Association fundraiser, Dance Party to End ALZ, coming up. How’s that coming together?
I’m so excited about the dance party this year. It’s sleep–themed, so it’s a pajama party. And we’re doing all these auctions on the side. Paul Campbell has his elf costume from Three Wise Men and a Baby, and he’s auctioning that off. And right now the bid is up to $4,000! … This money doesn’t just go to the Alzheimer’s Association. This goes to science. This is about specific studies. The amyloid study that we were the very last investors in two years ago is now actively being used to treat people with active Alzheimer’s and mitigate symptoms. We can see our work in real time making an impact on people. I’m so proud of it. And honestly, it makes me excited. In a year, what study will people be using that we funded in the next three months because of this party that we throw where you just basically sweat and laugh?

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Much About Love premieres Saturday, Aug. 29 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel and will be available the next day on Hallmark+. Click here for more details on the Dance Party to End ALZ.

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