Audiences may see Love Again stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan in several scenes with Celine Dion, but what they see may not be all that it seems.
The duo recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly that they never actually filmed any scenes in person with the Grammy-winning artist in their latest rom-com due to COVID-19. “We shot during the pandemic, and it was obviously very difficult for people to travel at the time, so we did shoot a lot of it on sound stages and on green screen,” Heughan said. “That was one of the challenges of working during the pandemic.”
The Outlander actor explained that he and Chopra Jonas were filming in the U.K. while Dion was in Canada, which made it difficult. The Citadel actress noted that they filmed the movie when Hollywood was figuring out “how to navigate COVID. All of us couldn’t travel, a lot of the times, to be together. It was right at the beginning.”
But thanks to the director, movie extras and Dion, Heughan said it all ended up coming together.
“I think they did some great magic in the movie, and I think those scenes really worked out,” he added. “Jim [Strouse], who directed it, he’s such an amazing person, and it was just working with him very closely. We got extras and people to read [Dion’s] lines. And honestly, Celine is such a professional herself, that’s [why] it really worked out.”
The film follows Mira Ray (Chopra Jonas) as she deals with the death of her fiancé by sending romantic text messages to his old cell phone number. But she doesn’t realize that someone new has the number – journalist Rob Burns (Heughan). As he begins to fall in love with her romantic messages, he enlists the person at the center of his latest profile story, megastar Celine Dion (playing herself), to help win her over.
The Quantico actress told the outlet that she loved watching the “My Heart Will Go On” singer play a fictionalized version of herself for the film. “She’s so amazing. She’s funny, she’s self-aware, it’s really cheeky,” Chopra Jonas said. “Also, she’s given us five [new] songs [for the movie]. She’s really behind the movie, and that feels really, really great to have that support from her as well. You throw in original music from Celine that we have not had for so long, and it was really hard to think of a reason not to do this movie.”
The Suspect actor added that cast and crew “were so lucky that she chose this project, and she’s such a perfect fit, literally,” because of the messages in her music.
Love Again premieres in theaters on May 5.
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