Love Again 's Sam Heughan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas never filmed in person with Celine Dion
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The story at the center of new rom-com Love Again has a lot to do with technology. Grieving the death of her fiancé, Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) continues to send texts to his old cell number, not realizing the phone company eventually reassigned the number to journalist Rob (Sam Heughan) for his new work line. Rob is fascinated by Mira's beautiful and romantic texts and begins to fall in love with her from afar. When he's assigned to profile superstar Celine Dion (played by the icon herself), she convinces him to figure out a way to meet Mira in person and win her heart.
While technology plays a big part in bringing Mira and Rob together onscreen, it turns out that it's also the reason why the movie exists at all — because Heughan and Chopra Jonas reveal they never actually filmed with Dion in person, despite sharing many scenes with her. "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 tells EW. "That was one of the challenges of working during the pandemic."
Sony Sam Heughan and Celine Dion in 'Love Again'
Thanks to some great editing and visual effects work, it's hard to notice in the final product that the stars were in separate locations (as pictured in the photo above). "We were in our own bubble in the U.K., and Celine was in Canada," he explains. "It was difficult, but I think they did some great magic in the movie, and I think those scenes really worked out. 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."
Chopra Jonas says they filmed Love Again in 2020, when the industry 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."
"We weren't even allowed to be in the same room together during prep for more than 25 minutes," Heughan says as he gestures to Chopra Jonas.
Giles Keyte/Sony Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan in 'Love Again'
He's not joking. "Yeah, while we were filming, after being in quarantine, in a bubble, and we couldn't be around each other for more than 20 minutes," she adds. "It was nuts at that time. It was tough, but it was a scary time in the world. As actors, we're the ones that have to take off our masks on set. I was terrified, honestly, in the beginning. It was a very scary, daunting atmosphere, and we were doing a romantic comedy — we had to bring lightness and fun to set in this daunting atmosphere. We really leaned on each other to create a fun environment on set with each other. We would laugh and crack jokes and tried to find the joy so that we could inspire and infuse ourselves as well. But it wasn't easy."
That's actually the reason why Outlander star Heughan wanted to join Love Again as the romantic lead — it was the kind of project he needed to work on at that time.
"I think we were all ready for it," he says. "After the lockdowns and being in isolation, everyone was ready to feel joy again. That's why this was such a well-timed movie to make. I certainly love the old rom-coms from the '90s, but there was something really interesting about Mira who's gone through this grief, and Rob who's given up on love — these two people are very much not looking for love, and through the mentorship or guidance of Celine Dion and her music, they both learn to love again and they find their hearts are healed. I think we all, certainly after the pandemic and everything else that's going on in the world, needed this kind of movie and this kind of message."
Sony Celine Dion in 'Love Again'
And despite the challenges of not being in the same room (or even the same continent) as one of his costars, Heughan is thrilled that Dion is making her feature film acting debut in Love Again. "We were so lucky that she chose this project, and she's such a perfect fit, literally," he says. "Her music is about romance, it's about love, and she believes in it 100 percent. The message behind her music is so important. And then she even imparts some of her own personal experience [about her late husband René Angélil] during the movie, and tells her own love story, and it's certainly very moving."
Chopra Jonas loves how Dion had fun with portraying a fictionalized version of herself in the movie. "She's so amazing. She's funny, she's self-aware, it's really cheeky," she says of the singer, who recently revealed a health condition that affects her entire body, including her ability to sing. "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."
Love Again hits theaters May 5.
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